I should specify that I know you don't think those measures are a good idea and that you are actually recommending them.

ETA: And now I have to go get ready for work, so won't be able to stick around for clarification and discussion. Sorry.

Are you suggesting to stop paying out Social Security?

I'm not suggesting doing any of this, it's just that this is the scale of things that would have be done to make a big difference in the deficit. I left out the military because I figured there would be no way the right would suggest something like that. It's a pet peeve, nobody in the media seems to ever ask "what do want to cut that actually adds up to a significant amount"?

If we cut ALL entitlements tomorrow, it would have the effect of a hamster fart in a hurricane on the national debt. They are an almost insignificant portion of the US budget. This is the most infuriating part about the right's lies about "cutting spending."

Not to mention thy this is a f@&ing GOVERNMENT, not a household. Cutting expenses is a houshold soluion to finacial woes. Governments CANNOT afford to think like that because it's not just the wife and kids and car payment they need to worry about, it's ALL OF US WHO LIVE HERE! the government doesn't need to cut spending, IT NEEDS MORE MONEY!

When did "I don't wanna ever have to pay taxes" become the American Anthem? We have to pay for this, and the people with an order of magnitude more money than the rest of us need to pay an order of magnitude more in taxes. But all they have to do is make the people afraid of taxes, and they don't ever have to pay anything.

t cue bullshit Ayn Rand/Atlas Shrugged argument from the right here

Fox news and talk radio have created an alternate reality for the right. Suddenly, letting the tax rates for the top brackets revert to 3% higher is a Fascist-Communist (not an oxymoron in the right-wing media) plot to nationalize the private sector.

I think Fox/Limbaugh/Hannity should start calling the left "Communist Hippe Nazis", just to achieve maximum cognitive dissonance.

When did "I don't wanna ever have to pay taxes" become the American Anthem?

During the first meeting of the Continental Congress, if you want to get technical.

Of course, shortly after the war it was abandoned in favor of the far more sensible "Hey wait, we're gonna need money to pay for wars and stuff. Okay, fine, TAXES," policy that we've had in place ever since...

Of course, shortly after the war it was abandoned in favor of the far more sensible "Hey wait, we're gonna need money to pay for wars and stuff. Okay, fine, TAXES," policy that we've had in place ever since...

Actually, this was done away with during the Bush administration, who came up with the "Hey, let's cut taxes during wartime, and just borrow money from China to make up the difference."

I thought the Bush administration's tax policy was "Rich people always cheat on their taxes anyway - there'll be a lot less math involved if we just don't tax them in the first place. Math is hard, you know!"

No, that was Right Wing Nutjob Talking Barbara.

During the first meeting of the Continental Congress, if you want to get technical.

Snerk.

Although that was less about paying taxes at all than it was about not paying taxes to basically a foreign power who didn't give anything back.

Although that was less about paying taxes at all than it was about not paying taxes to basically a foreign power who didn't give anything back.

There was a certain amount of "When I get my OWN COUNTRY I'm not going to have ANY TAXES!" going on as well, but nearly everyone realized pretty quickly how poorly that would work out in practice.

[And yes, in my head the founding fathers talk like fifteen year olds who swear that once they move out they're never going to do the dishes ever again.]