Don't Fall for the Balance Budget Bull

UPDATE II: "There’s a big difference between Republicans who have pledged to cut the deficit and true fiscal conservatives." Read The New York Times, Imagining a Deficit Plan From Republicans. The article includes a graph showing the magnitude of the problem:




UPDATE: "Banana republic, here we come." Read The New York Times, Downhill With the G.O.P., which confirm what I've said, "the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: 'No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.' (Quoting Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.)

America's political meltdown, the road to poverty.

"Explore the various facets of the government's budget and see how revenues and spending have changed over time." See the Washington Post, Taking apart the federal budget.