Michael Ramirez for December 28, 2012

Ramirez and reality have never met.

You have to understand Leftist thinking. Obama and his fellow tax-and-spend liberals WANTED to spend 10s of trillions of dollars, but slightly reduced the amount they wanted to spend, and so claim they’ve reduced spending!

That’s like a store doubling the price of an item, then putting it “on sale” for 10% off and claiming it’s a deal!

2008 budget 2.9 tril 2012 budget 3.8 tril yup down alot

I am flagging you. That is really uncalled for.

@Gore Bane, Mercedes, and King of Me: All three of you need to grow up. Mercedes, I flagged your comment as well.Also, King of Me: Howgozit and Bruce looked at a set of facts and came to a different conclusion. It happens. No one is lying. Learn to reason things out before you criticize someone for not thinking. Lastly, there are liberals have used weapons to commit murders as well. I find your reference to be distasteful and frankly bigoted.

@Mr Ima, her comment is only a few hours old. it may not have been caught yet. Give the mods a chance to do their job before you start making accusations of conspiracy.

This is why the country is in the state it’s in. The two political parties, which are the only choices we have, are overrun with zealots who would rather see everyone suffer than admit they might need to compromise.

Everyone ELSE is a spendaholic??????With just days left for President Obama and lawmakers in Congress to avert a major tax hike, sequestration, and other major policy changes, today I 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.

~~*FOUR MORE YEARS OF THIS FISCAL INSANITY ???

If our credit is that good, maybe we are overdue to borrow more?

I know that some posters can be very annoying, but descending to a low level of response is not helpful. Let’s try to act like adults. Posters from both sides are at fault here.

This is the richest country on earth. We generate enough wealth to easily pay down the debt and reduce the deficit, but the Reeps don’t want to get the money from those that have it but rather from those who have a lot less. Go figure. Oh, wait, that’s right. They were bought off to screw the country so a few can profit off the rest of us. Insane!

“No—just get some more of your “facts” as told by Ed Schultz.”

Actually according to the Wall Street Urinal Obama never went on a spending binge. Its the slowest spending in decades (as a matter of fact since the Reagan Era spending was least with the Dems in charge).

$40 BILLION, just to remove our equipment from Afghanistan. The F-35 is now up to $1.3 TRILLION in contracted costs. The proposed Obama changes will save $1.6 Trillion over 10 years. Boehner’s suggestion will “save” $540 billion over the next decade.

Now given just these numbers tell me where, and by whom, our debt was most escalated? Now, if we increase contributions to Medicare, and increase the top tax rates, and cut 30% from “defense” CONTRACTING, which would not impact true “defense” one whit, as confessed by most military men in charge of programs, and combat operations, but much protested by members of Congress seeking funds for their respective districts, we’d start to accomplish something.

Fact: revenue is down even more than spending during Obama’s Presidency. That’s what happens when you inherit stupid tax breaks & a financial melt down.If McCain had actually won in 2008, he’d have been another Hoover.

Jack, for some time, the government HAS been disposing of unused buildings and “items”, like military bases unused, that we can get rid of more, but it would break the economies in many southern states.

Small tracts of isolated government land have also been disposed of, over many years, I used to work up the sales on many of those parcels. However! Republicans in Congress have proposed more land disposal of the TAXPAYERS land. Now given that many of those lands would sell for up to well, maybe even $1,000 an acre in some areas close to cities, those same lands might return over $1 million dollars an acre, EVERY YEAR if the minerals were leased instead of given away under the mining acts, or leased at WAY below fair market value for oil and gas. Also, if fair market value was charged for grazing, they would bring in 4-5 TIMES more revenue, EVERY YEAR! Timber and other resources have also been going “on the cheap” for over a century, and it’s time to get “businesslike”, and again, charge actual fair market, and make industry (corporations) pay the same as they would for either state, or private resources. Most states for example charge 3-5 times more for grazing, and sell timber and other resources for close to, or the same as, private lands.

Public lands have potential to return far more to the treasury. Oil and gas leasing alone SHOULD be bringing in enough, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, to nearly balance the budget, eliminating the deficit…

But, the “energy lobby” has far more clout than any citizen, and that should change, but Congress isn’t likely to do that, Democrat OR Republican.

it is NOT just the spending, but the refusal to either tax as under Eisenhower, let alone Clinton era formulas, and the irresponsible giving away of TAXPAYER OWNED resources (government) that keeps shooting us in the foot. BTW, subsidizing Tobacco, and other agricultural products is also stupidly continuing. The "panic’ over milk prices merely reflects paying at the counter, for what TAXES have offset, for decades, so isn’t it appropriate the Republicans, especially in agricultural states where the numbers are understood, should be the FIRST to demand “free market” practices, instead of “free stuff” going to farmers, which are overwhelming CORPORATIONS today, not “mom and pop”family" operations. Now if you consider Wal Mart "family’ business, I guess that fits.