Tom Toles for December 11, 2012

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    SusanCraig  over 11 years ago

    any way you look at it…. ouch

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    ConserveGov  over 11 years ago

    “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child,” Obama said on July 3, 2008, at a campaign event in Fargo, N.D.

    “That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic,” said candidate Obama.

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    Doughfoot  over 11 years ago

    Here’s a challenge for all the conservatives commenting on this cartoon: you say the debt is of vital concern to you, and you think taxpayers are being burdened with unnecessary expenses, and the payment of unnecessary benefits. Now there are a great many government programs out there intended to encourage this, or discourage that. About 96% of all Americans receive or have received some direct personal financial benefit from their fellow taxpayers, either in the form of a subsidy, a credit, or a tax deduction. Effectively, these are all the same thing. They all increase the debt. So here’s my question: What program FROM WHICH YOU PERSONALLY benefit, or have benefited, do you want to eliminate to help put our financial house in order? Give us some reason to NOT think that the only pain you are willing to inflict is on someone else. What are YOU willing to do for your country? I’ll even start: let’s phase out the home mortgage interest deduction that has distorted the housing market for generations. Doing this would increase my tax bill. Also: eliminate the tax deduction for charitable gifts. Why should the national debt be raised simply because I give to my church? Without them, I would not be able to itemize my tax return, so all my other little deductions would go away too. Will you come along with me on those two? There was once a name for countries with low taxes and a low-cost do-nothing government: they were called “third world” countries.

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    Bilword  over 11 years ago

    Funny

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    chazandru  over 11 years ago

    @Doughfoot- Great insights and well stated opinion. Much appreciated.@Masterskrain- Wabbit season! Thank you for the laugh.@Narrowminded- the money doesn’t belong to the government. But the government does decide the value of money vs. the value of the services for which it is exchanged. I disagree with most of your post, even if you weren’t being sarcastic, but on this point, part of the reason for our financial crisis is we have placed value on services that provide no product. Currency trading for instance. People are using fancy algorithms and powerful computers to make bets on what the value of the yen vs the dollar vs the euro vs etc etc etc. Money is made but at the end of the day, what was created? Wealth created for wealth’s sake is useless. You can’t eat it, you can’t drink it, you can’t wear it…. Money is great. You can get people to jump through hoops and compete to be the one who kills for you if you have enough of it. But when the storms hit, or disasters strike, you have a pocket full of paper and numbers in a bank representing more of the same. A bar of gold won’t buy you a single bottle of water if it’s the only water for the next day or two.We need to put value on real things.People are real.Respectfully,& Happy HolidayzeC.

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    lafayetteann  over 11 years ago

    Ima, how’d you miss ditching the mortgage deduction? It benefits you so you want to keep it?

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    Marty Z  over 11 years ago

    ConservGov quoted Obama talking about W in July 2008, 2 months before the financial meltdown. By Sept 30, 2009, which is when W’s last budget period ended, the debt was $11.9 trillion, up from $5.8 trillion on Sept 30, 2001. So Bush’s contribution was $6.1 trillion- more than doubling it.

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    Marty Z  over 11 years ago

    Ima, it is common knowledge that Obama budgeted for the wars. No need to “document” it. Just get your “news” from someplace other than Fox and Rush. It’s not our job to fill in your “voids”.

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    ninety_nine_percent  over 11 years ago

    It’s all downhill from here.

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    Rickapolis  over 11 years ago

    The question is, of course, will the GOP decide to help or hurt America? Let’s hope their future actions are more responsible than their past ones.

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    Fuzzy Thinker Premium Member over 11 years ago

    Someone noticed that there are a lot of items of public business coming due, soon. Since the R and D and President have failed to work together for 2 years, I guess the ‘kick the can down the road’ bubble is going to burst.

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    edward thomas Premium Member over 11 years ago

    Democrats did not control Congress for four years. In fact, only part of two during the Al Franken Confirmation to the Ted Kennedy Death. At the end of 2010, Pelosi was MINORITY leader, and House Dems did not have the votes to push their legislation past Bonehead. From 2007 to 2009, BUSH was president, and any budget would have had to get by his veto! And with Senate rules, it takes 61 votes to get anything done, which the Dems had for only that short window mentioned above.

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    kaffekup   over 11 years ago

    “Democrat-controlled” = lliterate. You musta gone to one of those gubmint-controlled skools…

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