With his singular style, Tom Toles tackles the complex issues of the day. This Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist skillfully targets political, economic and social concerns — in particular complicated environmental issues — with a clear-eyed precision that hits the mark every time.
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Comments (44) (Please sign in to comment)
Harleyquinn
said, 4 months ago
What ever happened to that scalpel Obama told Mc he was going to use in order to cut the deficit in half? Just words right? Face it Obama has no clue how to help the American people.
Respectful Troll said, 4 months ago
Glad to see there’s a few of today’s artists addressing important issues. Many of our regular commentators expressed very good thoughts on this issue and others. My own suggestion for ‘damage control’ involves the use of auditors, accountants, efficiency experts, and others to do a full ‘audit’ of our government, the contracts the government has with business, the way the gov’t is compensated for minerals mined on public lands, entitlements are managed and paid, etc, etc, etc. over a one year period. Professionals with whom I’ve spoken believe hundreds of billions spent on waste, fraud, and abuse could be saved and a few even hypothesize the deficit could be turned into a surplus within 6 years, or less. If so, then a .0001 tax on hypertrading and better regulation of banks that have become too big to fail or to prosecute, would probably help us get out of debt even faster. Then there’s getting Americans into the work force so payroll taxes can be added to the federal coffers. There are solutions to the problems and I am grateful for the GC commentators who provide links and info that show how we got here and how we move forward like a United people.
Respectfully,
C.
Omnius said, 4 months ago
@Harleyquinn
Poor little Harleyqueen doesn’t understand that the republicans took Obama’s scalpel out of his hand with their constant whining and obstruction of doing anything to help our country. You are the Clueless One little queen.
Omnius said, 4 months ago
Sad that it was the republicans who brought about the sequester as a way of settling their whining obstruction to lifting the debt ceiling in 2011. It’s the tea baggers who are the deadbeats who want to renege on paying our legally binding debt.
Dycel
said, 4 months ago
Simply the Repubby’s being hoisted by their own petard!
onguard said, 4 months ago
@Omnius
Obama has never cut/reduced any government expense.
Kirk Sinclair said, 4 months ago
@onguard
“Never” is an awfully big word, onguard, especially when used in relation to something as large as the Federal government. Your use of it represents typical black and white thinking I hear all the time from conservatives, who are either unable or unwilling to see beneath the surface of things. This is exactly how children think, in black and white. I’m certain Obama has cut at least one government expense during his tenure. And no, I’m not going to look it up.
TheTrustedMechanic said, 4 months ago
@Omnius
You beat me to posting the obvious answer to the trolls lack of rational thought.
Dycel
said, 4 months ago
Want to get the economy working again?
Why don’t we all support returning us to the days before the banking industries became “investment” banks.
The creation of derivative trading has driven “supply and demand capitalism” out the window and saddled the taxpayer’s with huge risks.
Rising costs for everything traded on the futures market is the direct impact of derivatives traded by the biggest banks who have huge $228+ Trillion in margin capital debt being hedged against real capitalism demand with the taxpayer waiting to save them when their casino goes bust!
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http://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/derivatives/bank_exposure.html
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/five-banks-account-96-250-trillion-outstanding-derivative-exposure-morgan-stanley-sitting-fx-de
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-17/derivatives-lobby-has-u-s-regulators-on-the-run.html
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These are just a few of the recent reports on the derivative timebomb.
While we get sucked into our political disfunction we have a real threat over all our heads, past time scream about it instead of pissing and moaning about the sequester which in retrospect is a minor issue!
Godfreydaniel said, 4 months ago
The answer, my friend, is means testing in the wind, the answer’s means testing in the wind. (Oh, and we could get rid of Congressional pensions to start things off with a small but annoying expense!)
fredgold said, 4 months ago
@onguard
That is, simply, a lie.
Dycel
said, 4 months ago
@Godfreydaniel
When pigs fly!
Rickapolis said, 4 months ago
I have a suggestion: All republicans resign from politics as of today. Then watch America’s economy soar. Watch rights expand. Watch justice spread.
…perchance to dream…
Harleyquinn
said, 4 months ago
@Omnius
Poor little Harleyqueen doesn’t understand that the republicans took Obama’s scalpel>
D had control of house ans Senate two years before and two years after Obama came to power. Obama pledged that he could cut the dept in half and that W dept was unpatriotic. Add Two more years of R control of the House where they have done there job and passed many budgets only to have the D controlled Senate not have a budget. Obama was to have a budget the beginning of Feb. He did not, he has not had a budget on time 3 out 4 times.
Now tell me who is not doing their job!
Harleyquinn
said, 4 months ago
@Omnius
Sad that it was the republicans who brought about the sequester as a way of settling t"
This is Obama’s doing!