GOP House's Budget Resolution -- More of the Same

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/17/republican-budgets-whack-_n_6885122.html

Victims -- the poor, kids who want to go to college, ObamaCare, the elderly

Beneficiaries -- the military, the wealthy.


Is this really where we have come to?  The Republican Party so blatantly saying a huge "fuck you" to anyone who isn't wealthy or making weapons? 

If you are really concerned about the budget deficit (there is no reason to be concerned about the budget deficit, it is under 3% and is going down), then you do what any reasonable person would do - raise taxes and cut spending.  You need to cut back on Social Security COLA and increase the level where the tax ends, and you need to cut Medicare reimbursement some.  Everyone should have to pay some taxes, or at least not get money BACK from the government (Reagan's invention - the Earned Income Tax Credit).

So, if you have a $600 billion deficit, you raise taxes by $300B a year and you cut spending across the board by $300B.  You are all set.  Unfortunately, 33% of spending is off limits to the GOP and there is NEVER an appropriate time for a tax increase ("we are in a recession!"  "We re doing so well!"  "We are just starting to do better!"  "We are just starting to do worse!")

Look - you want to fuck over the poor?  Fine.  But then lay some pain on the rich also.  Do I want to pay more in taxes?  Certainly not.  But if we reach the conclusion that the budget deficit is SOOOOOOOOO awful (again, it is not) then we need to all do our part to get it to $0.

By the way, in 2001, Bill Clinton had left such a great economic situation for George W. Bush that we had a projected surplus.  The federal government sent out checks to people as their share of the projected surplus!!!  (Yes, this actually happened.).  However, the deficit hawk GOP apparently did not exist back then because GWB signed TWO different tax cuts into law and drove the deficit skyward.  Not one GOP leader said a thing. 

The reason that the people in power do not cry about deficits is that deficit spending increases jobs and GDP.  It makes you look like a better ruler.  The reason people who are NOT in power cry about deficits is that the perceived "good times" reflect well on the people in power (i.e., not them).   Reagan - huge deficit creator; George HW Bush -- tried to gear it back, generally did not succeed.  GWB -- his VP noted, "Deficits don't matter."  But, boy, the black guy gets into office with the worst economic meltdown since 1929 in full force?  "Oh my God!  He is deficit spending!!!"

Makes me sick.