Paraphrased, the alternatives Pelosi posited in these negotiations were:

On one hand, raise taxes on “the rich” (Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, like every other Democrat I’ve heard on the issue, dishonestly characterized this approach as “asking them to pay a little more” — taxes aren’t something that are “asked” for).

On the other hand, run up more government debt and pass the costs on to the next generation.

The third alternative — cutting government spending — never made it on to the studio table.

The whining from both sides of the partisan aisle in Washington notwithstanding, there’s nothing “draconian” about the cuts required to balance the federal checkbook with no changes in tax policy. Based on 2013 revenue projections, reducing federal spending to 2008 levels would balance that budget. Reducing it to 2006 levels would yield a $300 billion surplus.

In fairness to Pelosi and the Democrats, that studio table isn’t the only table such a proposal is missing from. It isn’t on the real negotiating table either, because neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are willing to put it there.

Politicians are capable of — indeed, given to — sweeping visions and great excesses. It’s hard to imagine a damn-fool scheme that someone in Washington won’t take seriously and make an effort to move through the bowels of the legislature for eventual deposit on the president’s desk.

But there’s one idea that’s deemed inadmissible in political proceedings: The idea that the size, scope and power of government could ever, in any particular or for any reason, be reduced by so much as an iota.

That idea isn’t just dreaded and despised. It’s literally unthinkable to the political class. So much so that politicians attempt to erase the concept from our political vocabulary by using words which would normally denote it for exact opposite purposes.

Thus when we hear of pending “draconian cuts” in this or that program, we can translate that as “slight reductions in the rate of growth” without fear of error. And we can know to a high degree of certainty that any reference to “austerity” applies only to the productive class and never, never, ever to the political class.

As other writers are fond of observing, political power is like a ratchet. You can turn it in either direction, but it only moves the socket one way. The back-turn is just an illusion. It’s really the politicians putting on a show while they work up some more leverage to tighten the nut down on your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Or proximately, in the case of the “fiscal cliff,” on your wallet.

Every state, from its founding, puts its feet on the path toward total statism. The nature of power is to harness itself — and its victims — to the accrual of more power. There may be fits and starts along the way, but never a departure from the path or a real reversal in direction absent popular rebellion and political collapse.

At this point, the United States is much closer to the end of that path than to its beginning. The “fiscal cliff” mugging is sham and theater, of no real import save to the extent that it masks the real question: Do we take this government down, or wait for it to take us down with it? There is no third alternative.

As the Democrats and Republicans in government race toward an alleged “fiscal cliff,” each hoping the other will leap from his vehicle first, their supporters hope that a few facts will get lost in the trash-talk. Let’s go over those facts.

First, this “fiscal cliff” is entirely of the politicians’ own making. There is no “revenue problem.” The “problem” is entirely on the spending side. The US government’s income has increased by 19% since 2009. Has yours? For some reason, the politicians never can find a way to live within their means, no matter how fast those means grow.

Secondly, neither side is proposing real overall spending cuts. The few real cuts are discrete cuts to specific programs, which will be outweighed by projected “baseline budgeting” growth in others. Most of the cuts are just cuts in that projected growth. Under even the most “draconian” proposals, the size and cost of the federal government will continue to grow indefinitely.

Third, all talk of “tax cuts” — for anyone — is smoke and mirrors. If government spending increases, taxes must increase as well. Those tax increases may be hidden through debasement of the regime’s fiat currency, or payment of the increases may be temporarily deferred by adding them to the “national debt,” but There’s No Such Thing As A Free Dollar.

This whole “fiscal cliff” controversy is just another trumped-up passion play. Obama, Boehner et. al want you to be so concerned that one side or the other might get its jacket sleeve caught on the door handle and plunge to a fiery death that you’ll forget it’s YOUR vehicles — with your paychecks in the glove compartments, by the way — that they stole from the curb and took out for their latest display of machismo.

If the politicians were serious about averting the crash, they’d put real spending cuts on the table. They’d rein in their spending addiction, balance their checkbook, and live within the insanely large means already available to them (budgeted US government revenues for 2013 come to $5.5 trillion, or about $18,000 from every man, woman and child in the United States).

But they aren’t serious about anything except blaming the victim. It’s all your fault, see, for being so stingy. You (and every other American) are already handing over more than the equivalent of a full-time, minimum-wage paycheck to them every year, but that’s just not enough. As Jim Stark might say, “you’re tearing [them] apart!”

Like all parasites, the state is evolved toward one and only one means of survival: It is driven to suck your blood, growing itself at your expense, until it has drained you dry. The “fiscal cliff” drama is just the political class equivalent of a tick hiding in your hairy places, or a leech secreting a pain-killing chemical to keep you from noticing its presence and its effect.

After all, if you see the parasite and know it for what it is, you might tear it off, throw it to the ground and stomp, hard. Which, of course, is exactly what you should do.

Let Jim and Buzz drive “their” cars off the cliff. Don’t try to stop them. Don’t try to rescue them. And don’t leave your keys in the ignition again.

Translations for this article:

• Spanish, El “Abismo Fiscal”: Jim y Buzz Redux.