New episodes of "Real Time" are over for the year, which means Bill Maher is on vacation. But that hasn't stopped him from blogging a few choice words here and there about the financial crisis.
He recently addressed the fiscal cliff in two posts on his "Real Time" blog, the first of which was more of a speculation on exactly when Obama is going to go completely grey. The second, "The Fiscal Cliff Part II: Electric Boogaloo", was, conversely, a straight explanation of what the fiscal cliff is, why it may not be quite as dire as sounds, and how Obama can use the crisis both to do something about global warming and to settle a score.
Explaining the crisis, he says:
I think most people have "the fiscal cliff" confused with the debt ceiling crisis. Really, they're opposites. Not raising the debt ceiling means not paying our debts. Going off the fiscal cliff means paying off our debt by raising taxes and cutting government spending. Well-advertised is the CBO saying going off the cliff could lead to a recession next year. Less advertised is that it also says it could get us into a more sound fiscal position in the long-term.
Maher went on to offer a suggestion for how Obama could increase revenue:
Since we're looking for new revenue streams that aren't income taxes, Obama should use this budget crisis -- if you can call it that -- to do something about global warming with a carbon tax.... And it would be just desserts for the oil and coal industries that went all in for Mitt Romney, a nice little personal fuck you to the Koch brothers.
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