Perspective...

[dkf]

[seabeyond]

1. perspective. did they say they were suppose to fix it all in ONE year? nt

[dkf]

4. No but it's such a baby step and if we make the rest permanent...

Where is the path ahead for a better picture?

[seabeyond]

6. he has other things working on the numbers, this is not the only way. it has been decreasing

steadily and this is just another. for every 62b received that debit number reduces at that amount. it is another start. he started "starting" four years ago.

[dkf]

8. If the tax side is "settled" then that leaves spending.

That's the other part of the problem.

[JHB]

19. The "tax side" is not a side, taxation is part of the revenue side

Stimulating the activities that get taxed also boosts revenue.

[dkf]

20. As in taxation vs spending.

[gateley]

2. I'm viewing this on my iPad, and I was waiting, waiting for the entire graph to load,

then realized I had to scroll WAY down to see the tax increase amount. Yikes.

[PETRUS]

3. Some additional perspective

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/

http://unlearningeconomics.wordpress.com/

http://econ4.org/

[Cal Carpenter]

17. Great links, thanks!

[Fumesucker]

5. We heard not a peep about deficits while Dubya was resident

And yet as soon as Obama was elected every single Republican and M$M talking head immediately set their hair on fire and ran around screaming about deficits.

Perspective.

[dkf]

10. Well if the Democrats have joined the group that has no comment...

We are really doomed.

Democrats are supposed to be the party of fiscal sanity or that's always what I thought. We clean up after the Republicans trash the house, but no, now we participate in the messiness. Not good.

[Fumesucker]

13. Fiscal sanity would involve stimulating the economy to the point the deficit is moot

Moot because tax proceeds would then be enough to substantially reduce or even eliminate the deficit.

Austerity doesn't seem to working out so well for Europe.

But the Republicans have no intention of allowing sufficient economic stimulus, that's where the majority of the problem lies.

[RandiFan1290]

14. You supported the Bush tax cut and its extension

Stop pretending you aren't part of the "messiness"

[dkf]

15. I did not support the Bush tax cuts.

I do acknowledge it isn't advisable to raise taxes when the concern is a deflationary spiral.

But I've always believed our long term solvency rests on Clinton tax rates or something similar.

[RandiFan1290]

18. Yes, you did

You are not fooling anyone

[dkf]

21. Anyone who looks at the budget knows the Bush tax cuts were unsustainable.

Now I look at the Obama tax cuts and see the same unsustainable future.

Argh.

We need Howard Dean!

[kentuck]

7. Shouldn't the red graph be in "trillions"?

[RandiFan1290]

9. This is "3rd Way" "Centrist" government inaction

RW/"centrist" policy is a failure

[Warren Stupidity]

11. So because deficit we should cut ss benefits, right?

Or some other austerity idiocy. I know, raise the age limit on medicare!

[dkf]

12. Those programs need to be fixed in and of themselves.

They are part of a larger picture that we will need to attend to some day. But the sooner the fix the easier it is to do and to prepare.

Saving for retirement can't be done adequately if you start at age 50. The younger you are the better your chances.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. They aren't broken.

SS in particular is doing fine. If sometime in the future it needs more revenue just end the cap.

Medicare needs more revenue, but really our piecemeal patchwork healthcare system is the problem, not Medicare. All suggestions to raise rather than lower the age of eligibility are criminally stupid.