The Deep Cut---Republicans Cutting Away All The Way To Clinton

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55088.html

"After campaigning on the promise to roll back spending to Bush-era levels, House Republicans have overshot their mark and landed in the last years of the Clinton administration — at least in the case of cuts from labor, health and education appropriations important to poor and working-class families."

Would asking for a reversion to Clinton-era tax rates not be reasonable now?

The People's Budget

An interesting alternative to the Obama plan (which I do not think cuts enough) and the Republican plan (which I think cuts in all of the wrong places).

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/americas-only-honest-budget-proposal-20110428

The budget proposed by the Progressive Congressional Caucus aims to balance the deficit by substantially reducing runaway military spending, and reinstating the estate tax, and higher tax brackets for the wealthy (as well as letting the Bush tax cuts expire.) It purports to be able to balance the budget by 2021, which is about 10 years before the Republican budget (a notoriously anti-progressive program that focuses on cuts from education, low-income services and welfare for the elderly). Of course, these are all claims, and politicians are notoriously bad at delivering on their promises---but this is a bold approach to balancing the books that should be acknowledged. At the very least, I hope this puts more pressure on the Pentagon to slash military spending.

Even the Economist, which usually leans to the right, hailed the Progressive Caucus on taking a fresh, bold approach to reducing the deficit.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/04/debt_proposals

One thing's for sure---we can no longer ignore the catastrophe that is slowly unfolding before us.

 

America needs to solve that problem---without resorting to this.

 Pictured: "The Path to Prosperity."

 

Pictured: America after the "Path to Prosperity"