Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Steve Breen is fast developing a reputation for provocative political cartoons that have captured the attention of some of the nation's premier publications. His cartoons regularly appear in The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek and US News and World Report. His comic strip, Grand Avenue, appears in more than 150 newspapers across the country.
© Steve Breen - All Rights Reserved.
Matt Bors by Matt Bors
Chris Britt by Chris Britt
Comments (38) (Please sign in to comment)
Clark Kent said, 3 months ago
Not home to roost. The rethugs created it.
Bruce4671 said, 3 months ago
@Clark Kent
Gee whiz Kent, you’re so astute in your analysis. Why, sequestration appeared with The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 and again with Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987 as a tool to control deficit spending (LOL). It provided for automatic spending cuts (called “sequesters”) if the deficit exceeded a set of fixed deficit targets. The House passed the bill by a vote of 271-154 and the Senate by 61-31, and President Ronald Reagan signed the bill on December 12, 1985 (the house being controlled by democrats and the senate the republicans) ans so you can see even though it was debated, amended and passed on a bi-partisan vote, the idea is totally a republican ploy (even though it didn’t work, was found to be unconstitutional when applied and had to be reworked). (rethugs so quaint).
Today’s sequester was a tool agreed with by all parties to force those slimy republicans to give in to the oh so noble efforts of the democrats to continue to spend every last dime in the treasury and then borrow more in order to avoid cutting waste found in all departments. Well no one could get over their stupid arguments (more taxes/cut spending) and work out a way to do both like little children arguing over the last piece of pie never ever thinking that hey why don’t we just cut it in half.
So here we are and the President – as children often do – is going to make sure he eats his pie making a loud smacking noise with each bite (release the detainees -smack) and insure that each item is as painful as possible to those who dare to disagree with his method.
They will agree to taxes NOW by golly.
WE all need to back up and look at the big picture. Our government has failed us. Both parties. It is time to re-boot the system.
ivison.bedard said, 3 months ago
@Clark Kent
Waaa, why can’t I recklessly spend money that is not mine…???
ansonia
said, 3 months ago
Great ’toon.
TheTrustedMechanic said, 3 months ago
@HOWGOZIT
Unlike your clueless, attacking comments against anyone who dares to disagree with you? KoM’s comment was very observant and a clever play on the old fashioned, backwards ways of the republicans. Sorry you don’t like the truth.
TheTrustedMechanic said, 3 months ago
@Bruce4671
some good info in there. But you totally lost it at the end. This sequester was brought about because of the republicans adamant refusal to acknowledge that taxes were at historic lows and too low to support government. They also flat out refused to accept any cuts to defense spending, even the wasteful procurement of weapons, weapons systems and “assets” that the military neither wanted, asked for or needed. So Obama never refused cuts, he refused to do any cuttingto programs that actually benefited the People until the republicans agreed to raising taxes on those who most benefited from the financial disaster, whose incomes had continued to rise and whose tax breaks did the most to damage the revenue and the least to improve the economy. President Obama was pretty clear about what he wanted in exchange for targeted cuts. The republicans demanded cuts in areas that benefited the People but protections from cuts or tax hikes for their über-wealthy friends. Typical republican tripe, protect the rich at all costs and stick the poor and middle/working classes with the bill.
BillWa said, 3 months ago
So let me get this straight. If there wasn’t the horrible spending cuts the budget would only be 1.8 trilllion more, but with sequestration it is only 1.75 trillion more. And sorry Obamaites, but this was the plan from the start.
Respectful Troll said, 3 months ago
Sequestration isn’t bad, but untargeted cuts and unregulated spending is.
^
There is too much inefficient regulation, sometimes watered down by lobbyists seeking advantages and there are too many stupid rules/laws that are outdated or serve no purpose. There is widespread duplication and redundancy that we know exists in numerous government agencies. The answer isn’t to necessarily reduce regulation, but to make it more appropriate to what needs to be regulated. We need good people to make those decisions that are vested with the authority to enforce compliance. I believe we can save much more money by auditing how hospitals bill us than we can by cutting medicare; that we can reduce military spending by auditing contractors and having efficiency EXPERTS study programs being implemented. It is my hypothesis the cost of such an endeavor would be more than compensated by the findings of the investigators.
^
We have numerous examples of the enormous cost of the failure of our system with the B.P. oil spill, the financial meltdown experienced because of regulatory failure, the Bernie Madoff’s of the world who destroy peoples life savings. All of these situations have regulation on the part of the SEC, OSHA and the EPA, yet they happened anyway. We have taxpayer advocacy groups that have identified billions of dollars in government waste yet nothing gets done because it is politically impractical and gets buried in congressional committees.
^
Auditors, accountants, and efficiency experts are the best weapons to use in the fight against waste, fraud, and lobbyist incursions into appropriation bills. I’ve frequently mentioned a group of people who are actively saving the US gov’t tens of millions a year through their reviews of procedures, contracts, and on site visits. Every year for the last 10 years, these people have more than justified the pay and benefits they will receive for the entire career with ONE YEAR’S efforts.
^
If we can balance the budget simply by making sure we’re not wasting money uselessly, shouldn’t we at least try?
Please consider this objectively. It is a bipartisan idea.
Respectfully,
C.
p.s. – this was edited by a very good friend who is NOT a liberal but whose advice and intelligence is much appreciated.
Dycel
said, 3 months ago
Damn birds on the wrong house again should be on the Capital Building!
-
A visual look at the fiscal cliff/sequester breakdown.
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/fiscal_cliff/fiscal_cliff.html
Dycel
said, 3 months ago
@Respectful Troll
All good points, we do have a means to correct our economy.
Allowing the American people to buy into medicare is a good place to start, by allowing us to pay our premiums to fund federal healthcare we kill two birds with one stone and get real healthcare out of the deal to boot.
Current privatized healthcares administration, lobbyists, politicians, divedends, blackbooted thugs, CEO’s and bonus’s accounted for 52% of every premium dollar in 2008, under ACA they are suppose to spend 80-85% of the premium dollar on healthcare but as seen they paid out huge rebates for failing to achieve this requirement.
The federal government VA and medicare/medicaid programs spends 3-5% on these administration expenses just think we could cut premiums by 25% and partially fund medicare which now accounts for some 27% of our budget.
Bottom line though is we cant achieve a balanced budget by cutting services the only way to make it work is the create policices that create revenue also.
David
said, 3 months ago
@HOWGOZIT
Not so Kent. Chicagoan Obama’s plan from day one. But now that he signed it, it is the
GOP’s fault.
I laughed so hard at the parody, then realized who wrote it. Still laughing, but for different reasons…
DrCanuck said, 3 months ago
Conservatives: “Cut government spending, cut spending, cut spending….”
Obama: “Ok, I’ll cut spending with my new idea, sequestration.”
Conservatives: “Don’t cut spending, don’t cut spending, don’t cut spending.” “It’s all Obama’s FAULT that spending is down.”
(You Rednecks really have no idea what you want, do you?)
David
said, 3 months ago
What a tangled web they wove
when they listened to Karl Rove…
ahab
said, 3 months ago
@DrCanuck
Howgozit was home schooled in a nursing home…one that specialized in dementia.:-)
Respectful Troll said, 3 months ago
@David
Nice.
Your Onomatopoeia is a bit off (if I’m using the word correctly) but the intent and irony is exquisite! Well played, sir..Well played indeed!
Delightedly,
C.