I tried once... Obama is not the problem... underfunded government and a heath care crisis are...
then I tried again... Obama is not the problem... underfunded government and a heath care crisis are... part deux
I think one point I failed to make was that we have to keep in mind the voting behavior of the people we are talking about. The elected officials themselves. What are the patterns? You can whine about politicians saying one thing and doing another, but yeah, why are you shocked? Every politician says one thing and does another. If people aren't happy about their elected official they kick them out, if not they stay... so there is no reason to moralize on that front. We have to focus, if the question at hand is the deficit on the likely behaviors of those in office and look at what they do, not what they say. And from there be strategic on whom to pressure and whom to call out.
Example. Those elected officials screaming loudest about the deficit aren't voting that way...
Many of the same Senators and House members who launched the sharpest verbal attacks this week on the President’s budget or the congressional budget plans — on the ground that the deficits and debt projected under those plans are much too high — then opposed a number of the tough choices the President’s budget makes to start reducing deficits. Those tough choices include allowing many of the generous tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 to expire for people at the top of the income scale, making the 2009 estates tax rules permanent rather than eliminating still more of that tax, and limiting itemized deductions for families making over $250,000 to help finance health care reform that is intended to reduce costs over the long term.
Many of these same Senators also pushed — in some cases successfully — proposals that would significantly worsen deficits, unless their costs were offset. And many of these Senators have a track record of insisting that the tax cuts they promoted in this week’s budget debate not be offset.
Of particular note, the Senate narrowly went on record in favor of a large additional cut in the estate tax, which is already shrunken markedly from what it was a decade ago. The President’s budget proposes to extend the tax permanently at its 2009 level, with a $7 million exemption for couples and a top rate of 45 percent; under the Obama proposal, the estates of more than 99.7 percent of Americans who die would be tax free. But, the Senate voted yesterday to shrink the tax further — that is, to eliminate or reduce the tax further for the wealthiest 0.3 percent of Americans, the only ones whose estates would owe any estate tax if the 2009 tax rules are made permanent. The Senate estate-tax measure would result in nearly $100 billion more in revenue losses than the President’s proposal over the first decade its effects would be fully felt (2012-2021).
One might also ponder about their support for the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq war? But that aside, one cannot bemoan Obama and remain silent on the Republicans who are pushing for creating even larger holes in the budget.
Lets keep in mind, there is no push to majorly cut back on government spending. The Republicans had eight years and showed no interest in it. The Democrats obviously aren't going to. That means we have to address the things that are dragging down the deficit--for those who haven't got the memo, that would be health care spending. Without getting control of health care spending all this hemming and hawing is moot.
So there is no push to slash federal programs, there are no votes to make that happen. That means we have to get back to bringing in enough revenue to pay for current expenditures--one can debate whom to raise taxes on and what taxes to raise. We also have to reform the health care system, those who scream the loudest about the deficit will obviously prefer a reform that keeps government costs the lowest. My hunch is these deficit hawks will likely side with private insurance company profits, by way of tying the hands of government plans.
Also whom do we trust, Republicans who created the deficits or Democrats many of whom helped balance the budget the last time Republican tax cuts brought us deficits.
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