You have heard the buzz words of this austerity campaign. We are told that we are approaching a horrendous fiscal cliff which must be addressed during the lame-duck session of Congress. In reality, there is no fiscal cliff — it is a myth invented by reactionaries and proto-fascists. The lame-duck session suits Wall Street because many congressmen will be defeated or retiring, and looking to Wall Street for future jobs and lucrative consultancies. We are told we need a Grand Bargain. In reality, the Grand Bargain will be orders of magnitude worse than the Satan sandwich embraced by Obama and the Republicans in August 2011, on the brink of a totally unnecessary US national bankruptcy.