Tom Toles for January 10, 2011

You can bicker, you can talk, you can talk, you can bicker, ad infinitum.

When rhetoric meets reality and responsibility.

But he doesn’t know the territory.

They could try to stop spending money they don’t have.

That’s what happened to me several years ago. I ran out of money and had to quit spending.

But then again, I didn’t have a printing press…

Caption for that second balloon

“Deficit shmeficit, we got IN, didn’t we?”

And I see jackson and the rest of the Repubs are conveniently forgetting how they pushed for the so-called ‘Nuclear Option’ during the Bush years.

“A large deficit is good for the economy.”

What we need are more taxes (Fees) on the poor and more tax breaks for the wealthy.

It seems clear the last-session rules of the Senate are unconstitutional. The Constitution implies a majority vote, because the Vice President votes to break ties. Now, with any vote or even debate requiring 60%, there are no ties.

jmattadams, show us your math, if you have any.

Cutting taxes, especially on the wealthy, is a lousy way to stimulate the economy. You can’t identify enough wasteful spending to balance the budget. No one has to date, because there isn’t that much waste, except maybe in defense (the only place we haven’t actually looked for waste over the past twenty years). The problem is that our government is chronically underfunded, and if Americans believe in America, they need to put their money where there mouth is.

Social programs have kept people out of poverty. Do you even care what life was like for America’s elderly before social security?

Do your research before you spout ignorance.

Congress can start by cutting their pay in half and pay for their own health care instead of us paying for them.

You can’t tax the wealthy. George Soros keeps his money in foreign banks, but he doesn’t mine having the rest of us paying his fair share of taxes..

@jmattadams - The supply side economic approach of reducing taxes to balance the budget has been discredited by most economists. It won’t work, although shutting down foreign wars and hundreds of military bases around the world will help. No choice but to raise taxes, and the logical place to start is with the rich, who pay too little and have too many tax avoidance schemes.

@Obamascares - Why single out George Soros for off-shoring and setting up sham offices in favourable jurisdictions to avoid and evade taxes. All kinds of rich Americans take advantage of compliant foreign tax codes. Loopholes need to be closed.

^That’s what they DO…single out Dems while ignoring any Repubs who are doing the same thing. ( Bring up the TARP bailout sometime and watch what happens. )

This is assuming of course, that what he says about Soros is even TRUE. You’ll find many of the cons here have a habit of parroting back what they hear on right-wing talk radio, never mind the fact-check.

Just fill in the Caption

“Repeal Obamacare.”

That will increase the deficit.

“Don’t worry, it’s one of our exceptions for items that don’t have to reduce the deficit.”

Obamascares, you should think before writing. Cutting the pay of congress and their staff will do nothing but make them rely more on lobbyists. And that will cost us far, far more than just paying them what they need to do their job. (Every $1 in donations buys hundreds of times its worth in government contracts, tax breaks, and favors). Every decent company in America provides health care, and the government should hardly be the cruel bad exception. What point are you trying to make? No one should have health insurance?

The proper way to approach this would be that if senators and representatives are truly making more money than people of similar responsibility in the private sector (accounting for their travel schedule and threats to their life), then salary is a place we can cut. If not, maybe they should get a raise. We have enough unqualified members of congress whose only qualification is that their richer than others. It would be smart to pay them what they’re worth in the hopes of attracting smart, capable women and men to run the country. Otherwise we end up only with those who are rich enough and have little enough work that they can afford to govern as a kind of hobby or to make their pet projects happen.

^ I definitely don’t think a ‘raise’ is in order… Boehner wants them to only work 3 weeks out of the month for the same pay as is, so they’re already getting more vacation days.

^^ He has already stated that this is an issue of “quality” over “quantity.” Given that they’re wasting time in a fruitless effort to repeal everything that doesn’t have their name on it like vandalous children who want their names in the history books instead regardless of its usefulness (e.g. Student Loan Reform) as well as inciting tons of extra ‘investigations’ like in the Clinton era, I do not see how it is that I am not being fair.

And tax cuts also don’t have to reduce the deficit, another exemption from the Republican ‘promise.’ How awesome, right?

(and somehow my comment got above 3139lip’s)

Dick Cheney already set the policy for the Republican Party: “Deficits don’t matter.” Insisting on huge tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals carries out the policy. Expect more of the same.

I believe the dome is leaning more to the right than it was this morning.