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The Eye of Kilrogg (the name Kilrogg coming from an old Orc commander of the Horde, who only had one eye) is much like the Eyes of the Beast for hunters.
It allows you to summon an eye and control it for a certain amount of time so that you can see over certain areas or where enemies are. Any damage done to the eye will break the effect and it will not aggro any mobs to you.
Just be careful when the eye is attacked. Sometimes you do not realize that you are being attacked until you see that you are back at your body again. Be sure to let go of the controls so you don't accidentally run into lava or the enemies themselves.
The eye can also be used in combination with tracking abilities such as 'Sense Demon' or the undead sensing potion. The mini-map will follow the eye as you move and will track things around the eye.
The Eye of Kilrogg now has free fall and has an agro radius so reduced that you have to literally stand on the mob for 2 seconds before it aggros the eye. (WoW 2.0 change)
Lots of fun to be had with this spell if you're a Warlock, I always send it to Alliance bases before ganking noobs, specially with an Infernal as a demon. ( to make sure there are no level 70s). :)
By the way; this is probably the best spell/ability to use for taking screen shots of mobs and stuff. Better than the Ornate Spyglass in my opinion. :)
is this a quest spell. or is it just learnable by teacher if its a quest i dont know cause my lock is pretty lazy
One thing I've noticed is if a PvP-flagged mob detects your Eye and attacks it, you get flagged. I was a bit surprised the first time it happened, but given I was snooping where I shouldn't have been, it didn't bother me. At first I thought it was a fluke, since I've gotten flagged in the past simply by being attacked by a PvP mob (even without a damage shield or anything like that). But every time I've gotten close to a guard with my Eye and it smacks it down, I flag.
Allthough it doesnt aggro mobs it DOES start events, so such as Onyxia, if you ran Eye of Kilrogg into her it will start the event and get the whole raid into aggro wtih her, so be careful of using this in raids.
One of my friends got ahold of me and told me that he summoned it and it was able to kill a rabbit. Yeah, I know, kill a rabbit, but that would mean that it has the ability to attack!
It's not that great of damage and it is slow, but I had no idea that it could actually do anything other than spy.
Casing Eye of Kilrogg will replace your current pet, causing it to temporarily despawn. How is this useful? When you cancel the effect your pet appears on top of you. This is very helpful in certain instances where you have to jump off of something and don't want your pet to path around and aggro everything nearby - set it on stay, go where you need to be, summon an Eye, and then cancel it. Your pet will teleport to you.
a little fun you can have with this is the killing of oppisite faction members. go to a place near stormwind/ironforge/orgrimmar find a place to hide and summon this. rest doesnt need to be said :)
When you take a boat/zeppelin to travel between continents, once you zone you will lose your pet, and without soul shard refunded. (Shards are refunded when you use flightmaster's taxi)
Keep chanelling the Eye until you zone to the other continet, and your pet will be back at your side.
If you see this eye while you are transporting a magical ring to a volcano, I strongly recommend you find a hiding place ASAP.
It's NOT named after the servers Kilrogg (EU) nor Kilrogg (US) although many players like to think so.
It is possible to attack mobs and have the Eye of Kilrogg survive the mobs damage, Even from most level 70 mobs.
At level 70 the eye has approximatly 3-4K Health and hits for approximatly 100-300. Although this eye can survive about 3 hits from heroic bosses
Also word of warning, This pet WILL aggro raid bosses (if you attack them) onto your raid group, Whether your raid is in aggro range or not
Edit:Hotfixed in 2.4.3, Well, The health has been nerfed a bit but you can kill lower level mobs without the eye dying, No longer viable for pulling Gyrokill in Heroic Mechanaar :)
it's a flying eye so cn u make it go so high up that u nothing cn attack it.also cn u use it to discover high lvl areas without dieing
Very useful for exploring unfamiliar areas, taking a quick peek to see if a Rare is present, or finding a path to a quest giver/ender. It won't aggro a mob unless you activate the auto-attack with the Eye, even if it's normally a Hostile mob.
Just be careful about where you cast the spell. When you're using the Eye, you can't see or hear around yourself (only what is around the Eye), so you don't know whether or not you're getting attacked until you notice that the cast time on the channeling is getting shorter faster than usual.
i find this really usefull when trying to take down an elite mob as i can soften it up a little bit like about a quarter health as long as im in range to aggro it right away so it dont regen
KIlrogg was part of the Bleeding hallow clan,(Fel orcs) not so sure if they are part of the horde being they are Fel orcs and all
also in asociation with the bleeding hallow clan is Gul'dan>which the horde never would be asociated with.
Messing around in a fresh OS raid, I used the eye to engage Sartharion, and after it died, the entire instance including Sartharion, trash mobs, and the 3 drakes came rushing to the entrance to kill me. It was quite funny.
However some bosses have a leash, such as Instructor Razuvious, I used the eye while at the entrance of Naxx to engage him, however he ran back after attempting to reach me. Be warned though, if you are on the floor where he resides he will come after you.
ALSO: The Eye counts as your pet, once summoned you will lose your minion and become defenseless. You're pet will return once the spell has forgone it's duration or once its canceled.
they EoK was a huge help with finding the moldy tome in the series of quest to get the felhunter. for anyone who's doing this quest, or planning on doing so at some point in time. thnaks to some info about the locaiton of the camps i was able to scout the camp from the top of the cliff. i started with the camp close to shouthshore, i was still at lvl 30 at the time. at 1st i ws going to take a shortcut through southshore, but then i saw an ally npc that had a ? lvl,and i thought to myself FUDGE! well let's jsut say that's not the f word i actually used, lol. anyhow, i decided to walk through the forest just west of southshore. all i had to do was kill a few bears,and spiders along the way. even when i got close enough to the edge of the cliff, starting on the west side of it. i only had to look around from tiem to time to see if any beast were too lcose for me to use the EoK. other than killing afew annoying bears and spiders, i had no problem with scouting the camps from the top of the cliff. i searched 4 camps before i founf the tome in the 5th one. then it's fairly easy to get it. i took out two murlocs that's by themselves. but when i sent in my VW to get the third one. the ohter two got aggroed. i was thinking time for plan b. so while my VW was keeping the three murlocs busy, i went down to get the tome. then i hearthed back to the UC and blah blah blah, i got my felhunter. no only one minon left...the felguard. two if you cound the doomguard, but you get the idea.
Whilst questing, i find this spell useful for pulling quest targets out of camps, because the eye has an point-blank-range aggro range, you can pull the mob you want, maybe with one or 2 adds, DoT the target, which makes the Eye disappear (as you're cancelling the channeled effect) and your previously summoned pet will appear again, to assist you.
It moves as if it has slowfall on it all the time but because of the time constraint u can't jump off teldrassil with it
Summon and release it in a guaranteed-to-remain-stuck situation like the leap from the pipe leading to Gluth, and your pet will appear next to you again. Faster than resummoning the pet itself.
Using this eye is very useful for tricky line of sight pulls. For instance, on the Bloodsail Buccaneer's ships in southern STV, i stood at the top of the stairs, summoned Eye of Kilrogg, went down the stairs around the corner, into the guy's room, attacked him to get aggro, ran it back to the staircase, then killed him. The best part: I didn't get a single add!
Am I the only one who hate the fact that it only exists for 45 seconds. Meaning that the "unlimited" range can't be used to it's fullest and I would like to be able to scout with it for more then 45 seconds
Don't underestimate this little eye, while many Warlocks tend ignore this spell, it can be quite useful in both combat and non-combat situations.
You can use this little guy to find quest item locations, especially when you're without a flying mount. With Glyph of Kilrogg it's given the power to fly in Outland and Northrend, but take note that it also allows it to fly in closed areas, such as caves and Dalaran City!
I found it quite useful for my Higher Learning achievement, just pick one location to camp and use your eye to track all the other locations while not even moving a inch, it shortens the running and makes this achievement less annoying.
Are enemy players able to see the eye? Does the eye become visible to enemy players only from a certain distance?
If you find yourself missing a rogue in ICC, you can use this spell to take care of the traps in the first section. The MoBs that spawn are not very deadly if you don't spawn them at the same time as a pull or on top of the raid.
Just send in EoK before making a pull, if there are any traps they should trigger, killing the eye quickly, but the MoB should be far enough away not to aggro. Let him walk a little ways then kill it at your leisure. Worked last time my guiild was in ICC rogueless.
The eye of Killrog can trip traps in Icecrown Citadel! very nice if a trap is hiding in the middle of a trash group :)
2. If your carrying the flag in wsg and are on the top of your own base waiting for your teammates to return your flag, u could use the eye of kilrogg to see if there are any enemies around u. (Or see how your teammates are doing, dunno if u could make it to the other base in 45 sec. ^-^ )
4. See your opponents in Arena before battle starts. (Fixed long time ago, Eye of Kilrogg can't be used in arena anymore.)
I think this spell would get more use if it was some sort of controllable damaging spell. Like a controllable green fire ball that hits fairly hard, and detects stealth. So it's main purpose is knocking players out of stealth, sniping/scouting players from a distance, or preventing flag caps.
Of course it could be shot down if someone thinks you're going to prevent a flag cap, and you are vulnerable while your "eye" is away. Just an idea to make this spell interesting again. Instead of deleting it to clean up unused spells, which I hope they don't.
If you glyph this spell in MoP, you will be able to use it to set a demonic circle, which will be very useful, for example you can use it in WG to set a demonic circle in top of the flag, pop dark bargain, (or any survival spells you may have) and run the hell away from there
It says "Controlling Eye of Kilrogg, Detecting Invisibility" when you hover over the buff. I can confirm on 11/14/13 at 8:17 P.M, that it DOES NOT detect stealthed rogues/druids/mages, any class that can stealth, it won't detect it, the Eye itself is invisible though.
The only way to make clear screenshots for Destro locks because of Burning Embers' fire effect. Also useful for Affli locks without Glyph of Subtlety.
The eye of kilrogg is based on the fact the warlord kilroggs chieftain bloodline would cut out there own eye to see into the future of there deaths. They Embrased death and would then start war apon the terroka who tried to invade them soon after he killed his father. source - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRlokbOelfg&list=PLY0KbDiiFYeP8hkPrVS3y0Ua45EJlWRBw&index=4
No longer allows the Eye of Kilrogg to fly in Draenor as of 11/19/2014. Previously this was possible.
Find a nice hiding spot somewhere near Goldshire (like in a tree) and use this to spy on the people there. You can aggro the guards (as Horde) but this will flag you PvP so take off all your armor just in case someone does manage to find and kill you.
Your character's head follows the controlled Eye whilst channelling this spell, even when you're not targeting it. Just a cool detail I noticed whilst playing my Warlock today.
Summons an Eye of Kilrogg and binds your vision to it. The eye is stealthed and moves quickly but is very fragile.
OVW to host four big events in 4 days in December - WWE News and Results, RAW and Smackdown Results, Impact News, ROH News
Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) is proud to announce that their headquarters, the Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky, will host 4 great wrestling events in a 4 day period December 8th through the 11th. This follows on the heels of the announcement of their two day tryout camp/training seminar at the Arena December 4th and 5th, which will see wrestlers from all over the country being seen, trained and evaluated by the OVW staff, OVW matchmaker and ROH on HDNet Executive Producer Jim Cornette, and even WWE Talent Relations VP John Laurinitis. Applications and information on the camp are at OVW’s website, www.ovwrestling.com.
“This will be a great week to be in Louisville if you’re a wrestling fan, or even a wrestler.” Cornette said. “There will be more wrestling action in the Derby City that week than in any other location in the country.”
Wednesday, December 8th kicks off the four-day Arena stand with the weekly OVW TV taping at 7:30PM. In addition to the regular OVW stars, former WWE superstars and old OVW favorites Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin will be returning to the place they began their careers to make a live appearance, as well as current ROH stars “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett and trainer Brutal Bob Evans, and other independent talent from New England. Tickets for the OVW TV tapings are only $5 and will be on sale at the door, or for more info log on to www.ovwrestling.com.
Thursday December 9th and Friday December 10th mark the Davis Arena’s first-ever national television tapings, as the HDNet crew will be on hand to tape 6 weeks’ worth of episodes of Ring of Honor Wrestling programs. Each night will feature 30 stars in a dozen great matches, including Haas & Benjamin, ROH World Champion Roderick Strong, World Tag Champs the Kings of Wrestling, World TV Champ Eddie Edwards, the Briscoe Brothers, “Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels, Homicide, and many more. As a bonus, the OVW Heavyweight Championship will be defended on one night, and the OVW Southern Tag Team Title will be on the line on the other.
Tickets for “ROH–Two Nights Only!” at the Davis Arena are on sale now at www.rohwrestling.com. A limited number of VIP Ringside and VIP floor tickets are still available, and General Admission tickets are only $15 each night, or the “Tag Team Package” features one GA ticket for each night of tapings for only $25. Tickets will be available at the door the nights of the events, but seating is limited, so to ensure not being left out, it’s best to get yours in advance. Belltime for each of the ROH tapings is 7:30PM.
Saturday, December 11th the Davis Arena will host OVW’s monthly, non-televised “Saturday Night Special”, featuring the top OVW stars and a number of top independent grapplers in action in 8 big bouts. The OVW Heavyweight Title, Southern Tag Title and TV Title will be defended on that card, and tickets will be on sale at the door for only $10. If you show your ROH TV taping ticket stub, you will get $3 off the ticket price on tickets at the door. Belltime for this event is also 7:30PM.
“Not only is this a dream week for wrestling fans”, Cornette explained, “but with the $3 discount offer and the ROH Tag Team Package, you can see all 4 events for only $37! There’s nowhere else in the world that you can see this many national stars and this much quality wrestling for that price. It’s our early Christmas present to the OVW and ROH fans!”
For those coming in from out of town needing lodging, a special rate has been set up at the Springhill Suites by Marriott, 10101 Forest Green Blvd in Louisville. This all-suite hotel features 2-room suites with bed in one room and sleeper sofa in the other, microwaves and refrigerators in all rooms, 32″ plasma TV’s and complimentary Wi-Fi, and is conveniently located 10 minutes from both the airport and the Davis Arena, as well as near some of the best shopping and dining in Louisville. When you book ahead and ask for the ROH rate, you will receive a specially-discounted $79 per night rate.
“We look forward to seeing all our fans, both local and out-of-towners”, Cornette said. “Pro wrestling in Louisville is alive and well, and will be rockin’ at the Davis Arena in December.”﻿
3. ICW Champion, “Streetfighter” Timothy Flowers, defeated Marvelous Matt by pinfall to retain the title.
3. “Moneymaker” Adrian Walls defeated The Mauler by submission, in a 3-Way with “Mad Dog” Marty Sugar.
2. Mikey D and “Mr. Beefy Goodness” Vance Nevada defeated Team Japanada (“2010 Superstar” Seth Knight and The Great Kasaki).
1. Raven Lake (female wrestler) and “Mr. Beefy Goodness” Vance Nevada defeated Disco Fury and “2010 Superstar” Seth Knight.
3. ICW Champion, “Streetfighter” Tim Flowers, defeated Chunk, Marvelous Matt and String Bean in a Non-Title Handicap Elimination Match…and then talked trash with The Honky Tonk Man, who was signing autographs.
1. Team Disco (Disco Fury and String Bean) defeated The Trailer Park Boys (Chunk and Marvelous Matt).
3. Team Japanada (“2010 Superstar” Seth Knight and The Great Kasaki) defeated “Moneymaker” Adrian Walls and The Mauler.
4. Honky Tonk Man and Quick-Kick Kirk defeated “Streetfighter” Tim Flowers and “Mr. Beefy Goodness” Vance Nevada
3. “Moneymaker” Adrian Walls and “Mr. Beefy Goodness” Vance Nevada defeated “Mad Dog” Marty Sugar and The Mauler.
3. “Moneymaker” Adrian Walls and The Mauler defeated Team Japanada (“2010 Superstar” Seth Knight and The Great Kasaki).
5. ICW Champion, “Streetfighter” Tim Flowers, pinned The Honky Tonk Man to retain the title, thanks to interference from an HTM impersonator…who got dropped with the Shake, Rattle and Roll, postmatch.
This month the Urban Wrestling Federation (UWF) is holding a special contest for the UWF Fans. To win the contest send in a video of YOURSELF to the UWF (upload via yousendit.com and send to uwftalent@gmail.com) of yourself talking about the UWF’s debut PPV “First Blood.” Just be real and be yourself, the videos shouldn’t be over a maximum of 5 minutes. The WINNERS videos will appear on the next UWF preview show for the next PPV “Hood Justice” which will be shown on cable, satellite, and online on Youtbe; as well as win a UWF Prize Pack (which will include UWF t-shirts, hats which I myself have to say the UWF hats are awesome, the DVD of “First Blood”, and a DVD of the UWF Preview Show on Youtube. The deadline for videos to be sent in is July 25th and participants MUST be over 18 years old and willing to sign a release form for their video to be shown.
Wheeling, WV will host a TNA Live! event on Sunday, March 14 at the John Marshall Fieldhouse at 4 pm. Tickets go on sale Friday, January 29 at http://www.protix.com, the John Marshall Fieldhouse box office or charge by phone at 1-866-977-6849. Appearing live and in person will be TNA World Heavyweight Champion ?The Phenomenal? AJ Styles, Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, The Founder Jeff Jarrett, Beer Money Inc., ?The Pope? D?Angelo Dinero, The Beautiful People and more! Fans that purchase a $35 seat ticket will receive a free TNA DVD (redeemable with ticket the night of the show).
CM Punk on the reaction backstage to his promo - WWE News and Results, RAW and Smackdown Results, Impact News, ROH News
GQ.com is featuring a lengthy and detailed interview with WWE star CM Punk where he talks about his time with the company including high and low points, the reality of an actual heel and babyface bus when traveling and the reaction his promo on Monday Night Raw a few weeks ago caused.
“Gorilla position is our central base of operation, right behind the curtain. It’s called that because that’s where Gorilla Monsoon, a legendary wrestler, used to sit and watch all the matches. That’s where the wrestlers come in and out. I cut that promo, and my mic was cut off. I knew we were on the air, and it didn’t make sense for me to walk back through there. There was going to be a lot of angry people waiting for me. So I jumped off the ramp, double birds in the air: “. this place, I’m leaving.” I walked out a side ramp, and I actually walked past this gigantic group of people who were all waiting at the bottom of the stairs in Gorilla to see me coming out. I walked out and got to see everyone’s legit reaction. It wasn’t like, “Oh, he’s coming,” stone-faced. I walked behind people, and they had their hands on their heads, eyes wide open, looking around like, “Did you hear that?” I loved it. It couldn’t have been any better. If I can do that with employees, I was immediately thinking that maybe we did that with the live audience. And you couple that with the millions of people watching on television throughout the world—somebody in Egypt is probably sitting their, hands on their head, mouth wide open, calling their friends. By the time I left the ramp and got to my phone, I had more than 200 text messages. It’s a great feeling.”
WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan recently appeared on the FOX Sports show “Crowd Goes Wild” and took part in a pro wrestling guessing game with legendary television host Regis Philbin. You can view the video below.
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Your character has tossed and turned, counted forward and backward, assigned a word to each letter of the alphabet. After what feels like an eternity, first light finally arrives. Write a 250-word piece about the strain and stress of restlessness for your character. What caused the distraction? Is it resolved or exacerbated by a sleepless night? Create a mood for the moment when first light hits, and lead your reader to decide if the next action is cathartic or tragic.
The Attorney General says it&apos;s legal for the UW to use race as an admissions factor. One lawmaker says change the law.
He says it&apos;s difficult to get anyone to declare what he calls reverse discrimination illegal. So, he wants to make a new law to spell it out.
Grothman feels race or ethnic background have no more place in determining who should get into UW than say religion.
He says, historically in this country, we can&apos;t discriminate based on someone&apos;s religious beliefs and we shouldn&apos;t be able use someone&apos;s ethic background either.
Senator Grothman says polls show most Wisconsinites don&apos;t like the UW holistic admissions policy and hopes his fellow lawmakers will listen to the voters.
They&apos;d rather not make motorists suffer through an arrest, but Major Dan Lonsdorf with the Wisconsin State Patrol says they&apos;re doing what they have to in hopes of getting people to make better choices, rather than getting behind the wheel after drinking alcohol. Drunks don&apos;t intend to harm anyone, but they do. Last year, alcohol-related traffic crashes killed 305 people in Wisconsin and injured nearly 6,000.
Lonsdorf says there are no warnings for drunk driving. No exceptions. They&apos;re adding additional officers to the streets. Wisconsin is part of a nationwide effort to crack down on drunk driving to make our highways a little safer.
The nationwide crackdown, called "Drunk Driving. Over the Limit, Under Arrest," is going on now through Labor Day weekend. Lonsdorf says, if you must drink, there are other options besides getting behind the wheel.
A roundup of news on mergers and acquisitions around the world from Dow Jones Newswires on Monday, June 27, 2011.
SEOUL --A consortium led by Posco and CJ Group Monday separately submitted final bids for a controlling stake in Korea Express Co., in a move to seek synergies with their existing...
"I don't think you can understand a country unless you see how people live on an everyday basis," says Mr. Stern, 73 years old, president of Big Wood...
The Obama administration and top Republicans and Democrats in Congress continued to discuss options Friday for legislation to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff.” A meeting between the president and the Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate did not lead to a definite agreement, but negotiations continued on a possible deal.
In a statement following the meeting, Obama said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat of Nevada) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) were working on a proposal. Calling the meeting “constructive,” Obama insisted, “We’ve got to get this done.” Reid called the meeting “very positive.”
White House officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, also held a private conference call with corporate CEOs Friday evening to discuss the current state of negotiations.
Obama said that if the Senate leaders were not able to reach an agreement, he would call for an up-or-down vote on his own proposal, which would extend tax cuts for households earning less than $250,000 and keep in place federal extended unemployment benefits. It is doubtful that this proposal, if it got through the Democratic-controlled Senate, would be passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The “fiscal cliff” is an arbitrary deadline that includes the expiration of Bush-era income tax cuts, federal extended unemployment benefits, and payroll tax cuts that affect the majority of workers. It also includes automatic spending cuts to domestic spending and the military.
The Obama administration and the Republicans have sought to create a crisis atmosphere around the “cliff” to facilitate passage of highly unpopular measures. These efforts will continue in the new year if no comprehensive agreement is reached by December 31.
The most significant immediate consequence of the fiscal cliff is the end of federally funded extended unemployment benefits for more than 2 million long-term jobless workers. This socially devastating prospect is treated by the two big business parties as a bargaining chip. Continuing these benefits was not part of a Republican proposal in the House earlier this month, and it may not be included in any final agreement.
An end to this program would halt cash benefits for a million people over the next several months in addition to the 2 million-plus who would be impacted immediately. “Other consequences of going over the fiscal cliff won’t be felt for some time,” noted Christine Owens, director of the National Employment Law Project, “but losing Emergency Unemployment Compensation will deliver an immediate and severe blow to people who are already down.”
According to the New York Times, citing congressional officials, one compromise plan under discussion would extend all expiring Bush income tax cuts for families with less than $400,000 in income (as compared to the official proposal from Obama to extend tax cuts for incomes up to $250,000).
In addition, the Times writes, “Some spending cuts would pay for a provision putting off a sudden cut in payments to medical providers treating Medicare patients. The deal would also prevent an expansion of the alternative minimum tax to keep it from hitting more of the middle class. It would extend a raft of expired business tax cuts, like the research and development credit, and would renew tax cuts for the working poor and the middle class included in the 2009 stimulus law [the payroll tax cuts]. The estate tax would stay at current levels.”
Highlighting the class character of the discussions is the fact that the estate tax is emerging as a central issue. The estate tax, currently at 35 percent, affects a tiny fraction of the population—those leaving behind estates with a value of more than $5.12 million dollars.
The tax would rise to 55 percent on estates over $1 million if nothing is done by the end of the year. Obama has proposed returning the tax rate to what it was in 2009–45 percent, with an exemption of up to $3.5 million.
According to a report in the Hill, “Addressing the estate tax rate could be the key to getting Republican and centrist Democratic support for higher income taxes”—that is, for the expiration of tax cuts on the super-rich. There is also talk of keeping dividend tax rates at their current levels—again affecting only a small layer of wealthy investors.
As for spending, if the across-the-board cuts are allowed to go forward into next year, these will likely be replaced early in the year by proposals from both parties targeting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Any increase in income taxes on the wealthy will be used as a fig leaf by the Obama administration for further devastating cuts in these programs, aimed ultimately at dismantling the principal health care and retirement programs upon which tens of millions of people depend.
Earlier this month, the Obama administration presented a proposal that included $700 billion in cuts from health care and other social programs over the next decade. This is on top of over $1 trillion in cuts passed last year. Obama has boasted that the cuts already approved reduce non-military discretionary domestic spending as a percentage of GDP to the lowest level since 1962.
Speaking on the “Today Show” Friday morning, Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, said he was “hopeful for a deal that avoids the worst parts of the fiscal cliff, namely taxes going up on middle-class people.” He said nothing about the expiration of unemployment benefits.
Schumer added, “We know we have to cut some of the mandatory programs and do other cuts, but it has to be accompanied with revenues… the problem has not been Democrats being willing to do cuts—we did a trillion of them last year. We’re willing to do more this year.”
Whatever tax agreement is worked out by the end of the year, moreover, will likely be replaced next year by a “comprehensive tax reform” supported by both parties. This refers to the reduction of corporate and income taxes, combined with the elimination of deductions that benefit many working people.
Behind the smoke and mirrors of the “conflict” between the Democrats and Republicans over the fiscal cliff is a common agreement that the working class must pay for the capitalist crisis through a drastic reduction in social programs and living standards.