Did We Fall Off The Fiscal Cliff? – Wingin’ It Wednesday

On this first edition of "Wingin' It Wednesday" in 2013, panelist Mike Stagg, Warren Caudle, and Raymond "Lala" Lalonde, fresh from their New Years celebrations discussed gun control, the UN, and of course, the fiscal cliff.

Find out what the panelists had to say on "Mornings with Ken and Bernie" right here:

1. What do you think about Congress' fix for the Fiscal cliff?

Raymond "La la" Lalonde started us off:

Well, yes we avoided the cliff, but I think it's like a truck going off the road, we tactually just curved and there's some more pitfalls up ahead. We didn't do anything to reduce spending the only thing they did was allow some taxes to be raised, but it's not going to be near enough to compensate for the budget that we're going to have. They did what most politicians do, they kicked the can down the road. They just punted really.

I don't think we're going to get any better results out of congress. The big crash is going to come later on. Congress tends to just use soundbites and pacify the public, and unfortunately that's the process.

 

Mike Stagg added:

They did resolve some stuff, they won't have to deal with the tax increases anymore.

We saw the breakdown of the House Republican Caucus.There was an unspoken rule that the speaker would not let a bill come up for a vote unless he had the vast majority of his caucus behind it. Actually the majority of the Republican caucus voted against the bill last night. That is exactly what the problem is, party is ahead of interest of the country. House Republicans voted down John Boehner's own bill. He punted because he couldn't get a deal out of his own caucus.

What happened was the deal that was worked out in the Senate really between Mitch Mconell and Joe Biden is what was voted on New Years Day.

 

Warren Caudle countered:

My real thoughts are that if it wasn't so serious it would be laughable, because both sides up there are putting on a show.

Nobody up there wants to cut anything. You can get around this thing without doing a lot of cutting if we just reform the tax code. If we get rid of the tax code and loosen up this economy we'd have 3 times as much money going into Washington, problem is they'd spend 9 times as much.

The two groups up there are one in the same, they just put on a different mask for Halloween.

 

2. Your thoughts on the executive order for federal employee pay?

Warren commented:

It kind of goes back to my talking earlier. Washington going to do what Washington wants to do. You need to freeze some things, and federal spending is not going to be frozen, because we have this automatic increase on it.

I do think this is the wrong time to come in and do pay raises for anyone in the federal government. Its not just the federal budget, it's government spending all the way down the line.

Mike Stagg added:

I think the increases are not that large in the percentage of things. I think the fundamental problem is that you have people here who believe that government is the enemy of the people, and it's fed by a long, wide streak of American paranoia, and it doesn't serve any purpose. It doesn't contribute to any solution. It doesn't advance the interest of the country or the people.

 

Lala countered:

I don't think the private sector automatically gets raises.

The amount of money is insignificant, but the message it sends out. You aren't going to push the wagon any faster when you have more people getting on the wagon and less people pushing.

The idea of getting raises when we have a budget problem is unacceptable, regardless of the amount.

 

3. There are reports of possible gun control with UN resolution. Your thoughts?

Mike commented:

Actually I don't have a problem with guns. I think what we have a problem with in the united states is these assault weapons and extended clips.

I think connecting these to the United Nations is some kind of NRA plot to raise the paranoia level - that this is some kind of international conspiracy. This is trying to divert us from the fact that we do need to take a serious look at gun laws in this country.

The NRA really represents gun manufacturers rather than gun owners. We need a serious discussion on gun control.

Warren added:

Is anyone really surprised by this? We've run around the world for the last 70 years sticking our noses in every little countries business, dictating our will on the rest of the world. Now is there any shape of the imagination why these little countries with an equal vote in the UN aren't going to come back and tell us how to act?

As far as the gun control issue I'd welcome and open and honest debate.

 

Lala countered:

We do need to look at the idea of some type of gun control, but we need to do it internally in the US, not through the UN.

As far as gun control, we can't ban insanity.

We need to look at this logically, and certainly the clips that have multiple rounds aren't necessarily the best thing to have.

Click on the play button below for the complete audio.

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think about today’s Wingin’ It Wednesday topics. Who got it right, who got it wrong, and who was way off? Let us know in the comment section.