Let's Fix The Deficit?

Headline in today's Los Angeles Times tells you all you need to know about the so-called deficit problem:

Deficit debate driven by the wealthy

The Simpson/Bowles plan bills itself as a road map to deficit reduction, but it's really a guide to cutting services and benefits for the working and middle class while protecting the interests of the wealthy.

I like the opening paragraph of the article by Michael Hiltzik, as well:

"There must be a reason that every time I hear the term "fiscal cliff," the image that comes to mind is of Wile E. Coyote pumping his feet in midair just before plunging into the valley below.
Is it that the debate over when and how to cure the federal deficit has reached new heights of cartoonish inanity? That we are now being treated to finger-wagging about the need to get our fiscal house in order by corporate CEOs like JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon (trading loss $5.8 billion and counting, potential cost to ratepayers from alleged manipulation of the California electricity market $200 million and counting).
Or is it that the remedies for the deficit always seem to involve cutting taxes for the top 1% of U.S. income earners while cutting Social Security retirement benefits (average monthly check: $1,230) for everyone else?"

 As I have said before, the real question in politics is, "who benefits and who pays?"

For the past four decades, the answer has been that the top 1% benefits and the rest of us pay. Time to wake up.