Matt Wuerker for December 28, 2012

Oh, NOW they make this comment. Now that he’s become irrelevant.

Matt forgot the 5th and 6th branches: Corporations and the NRA.

Mike Smith’s cartoon today says the three branches are Judicial, Executive, and Lethargic.

I thought Cheney was the original fourth branch as President of the Senate – neither Executive nor Legislative.

… and stealing from the environment, too.

You’re forgetting the fourth branch of the current government, George Soros, and all his ready cash trying (and unfortunately, largely succeeding) to undermine the Constitution.

With just days left for President Obama and lawmakers in Congress to avert a major tax hike, sequestration, and other major policy changes, today we bring you a list of the top 10 facts on federal spending in 2012:

Four years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Fiscal year 2012 concluded with a $1.1 trillion deficit, marking the fourth year of trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Too much spending is the root cause of the federal government’s deep and sustained deficits. At 23 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 and on track to rise further, federal spending is growing at a dangerous pace.National debt hit $16 trillion. On September 4, the U.S. national debt hit the $16 trillion mark. We owe more on the national debt than the entire U.S. economy produced in goods and services in all of 2012. Sixteen trillion dollar bills stacked one on top of the other would measure more than 1 million miles high, which would reach to the moon and back more than twice.The debt limit was raised by $1.2 trillion. On January 30, the federal government raised its debt limit from a staggering $15.194 trillion to an even bigger $16.394 trillion. This increase was the last one of three granted in the Budget Control Act of 2011, a result of that summer’s debt ceiling negotiations, which allowed for a total debt limit increase of $2.1 trillion.The $650 billion fiscal cliff distracted from the $48 trillion looming fiscal crisis. Much of 2012 was spent arguing over tax rates in the fiscal cliff debate while lawmakers ignored the much more dangerous looming fiscal crisis. As large and as major a concern as federal budget deficits are today, they stand in the shadow of $48 trillion in long-term unfunded obligations in Social Security and Medicare. Even with President Obama’s originally proposed tax hikes in his budget, the federal debt would still rise by more than $7.7 trillion in the next 10 years.Social Security ran a deficit for the second year in a row. According to the 2012 trustees report, Social Security spent $45 billion more in benefits in 2011 than it took in from its payroll tax. This deficit is in addition to a $49 billion gap in 2010 and an expected average annual gap of about $66 billion between 2012 and 2018. Social Security’s deficits will balloon yet further. After adjusting for inflation, annual deficits will reach $95 billion in 2020 and $318.7 billion in 2030 before the trust fund runs out in 2033 and a 25 percent across-the-board benefit cut occurs.Three years of spend-as-you-go policies without a federal budget. The last time both chambers of Congress agreed on a budget was on April 29, 2009. Since then, Congress has operated on a spend-as-you-go basis, characterized by incoherent, ad hoc budget procedures. The House passed budget resolutions each of the past two years, but the Senate failed to do its part.The government spent nearly $30,000 per American household. The average American household’s share of federal spending in 2012 was $29,691, or roughly two-thirds of median household income. The government collected $20,293 per household in taxes in 2012, resulting in a budget deficit of $9,398 per household in 2012.Obamacare will spend $1.7 trillion over 10 years. After the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, the Congressional Budget Office did an update of its scoring of the law. The result: Obamacare will spend $1.7 trillion over 10 years on its coverage expansion provisions alone, including a massive expansion of Medicaid and federal subsidies for the new health insurance exchanges. This means that Obamacare will increase federal health spending by 15 percent.Social Security was the biggest federal spending program. In 1993, Social Security surpassed national defense as the largest federal spending category, and it remains first today. The top five biggest spending programs, in order, are 1) Social Security; 2) national defense; 3) Medicare; 4) Medicaid, CHIP, and other government health care; and 5) interest on the debt.More than 40 percent of Americans are on some government program. According to Census Bureau data and Heritage Foundation calculations, 128.8 million people in America depend on a government program for basic (or not so basic) needs, such as rent, prescription drugs, and higher education.

I’ll say it again, I think Grover Norquist is a hired agent for a foreign power bent on destroying America. Look what a good job he is doing of it.

Imagine that, elected officials signing a pledge written by a 12 year old.

Harry Reid won’t take those bills out of committee because every one of the “jobs” bills passed in the house call for lower taxes and “offsetting” the spending. Funny how Repubs never seem to want to"offset" extra military spending.

How did this non elected, no title lobbyist manage to get so much control over the republicans? I know the tea party had the organization and the money of the Koch brothers money as backing, but who is behind Grover?

The Republicans are following the wisdom of a 12 year old (who must have flunked basic arithmetic), and insist that while we spend more on “defense” than the next 14-16 nations in the world, combined, we must increase that spending by TWO TRILLION DOLLARS, and CUT taxes too boot!

Does the fact we spend so much to kill people, and do it on our credit card, give any clue as to why we also murder people in this country with our guns more than that same 14 countries combined, but won’t pay for health care, either physical or mental?

‘When Bush announced his tax-cuts in 2001 and explained that the Clinton-years had produced “unnecessary surplus” . . .’Good post. That was my experience of those years also – the time when today’s debt was made as inevitable as night following day.I would add to your post that the “War on Terror” will end up costing $3 to $5 trillion (and future disability payments and health care costs will total an additional $600 billion to $900 billion). Also, the 2006 Medicare Part D big Pharma giveaway will cost $720 billion through 2018.Ironically, the goal and purpose of the ‘Clinton surplus’ was to allow us to absorb the ‘bulge in the snake’ – the mass retirement of the Boomer generation, which would (and did) begin in 2010.The surplus was squandered, however, and replaced by deficits. The younger generations will spend the next 30-40 years paying for the Boomers’ retirement.

“The below average IQ O voter believes that the rich got rich by stealing from the welfare people. If only the welfare people would get jobs, but they are in a catch 22, give up the safety of free food stamps, free healthcare and a monthly check for doing nothing, or showing up 40 hours a week and earning it.”-

You misspelled could with a w. Happy to help.

Actually welfare is 6291$ per year. assuming you are without child + 200$ a month for food stamps comes to a total of 718$ per month, Now under minimum wage in Canada which is around 10$/h in all but 1 province, that is 70 hours or 17h / week.

Assuming we go by median wage in most northern states at 17$/ hour you would see same amount as you get on walfare in a month in 42 hours or 10.5 hours per week.

Can’t say value of healthcare as in Canada we all receive government healthcare.

While it is possible to live off welfare it is far from living life la viva loca. At best you live with same standards as working part time minimum wage.

Oh, this is gonna’ be fun. Conversing with right-wing, conservative, wing-nuts. Glad I found this cartoon.

@corzakthat’s right. the republicans chickenlittle story during the clinton years was that SS was going bankrupt and needed to be privatized right away so it could be invested in the stock market. then the stock market crashed. they also fabricated the idea that a government surplus was the government stealing from us. so now they have the deficit they wanted, they are screaming the government is stealing from our children.what a bunch of losers.

Yes, that’s right. They re-elected Boehner!