President Obama unveiled his 2012 budget proposal today, and everybody who pays attention to these things said, "Eh, too much/not enough." Even with the tax increases for the wealthy and the humble request that U.S. multinationals occasionally pay a few dollars of tax and the savage cuts to programs that help the very poorest people in America do things like pay their heating bills so they don't freeze to death in the winter, this proposal would still find our United States with the largest deficit in post-WWII History: 11% of America's GDP -- the highest since World War II. So what, right? "Deficits don't matter," that's what Dick Cheney always said. Anyway, $3.7 trillion dollars. That is a lot! Yet, a trillion dollars will be cut, over the next decade. What does any of this even mean? It means Eric Cantor doesnot approve, that's what.
The AP reports:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., called Obama's proposal a missed opportunity to address the nation's fiscal problems.
"We need a government that finally does what every other American has to do in their households and their businesses, and that's to live within our means," Cantor said in a statement. "Instead, President Obama's budget doubles down on the bad habits of the past four years by calling for more taxes, spending and borrowing of money that we simply do not have."
We agree, Young Gun! Let's cut defense byhalf, and thendoubletaxes on billionaires and the Fortune 500 companies that launder all their profits through the Caymans and Ireland and wherever. Eric Cantor will balance the budget and put an organic chicken in every cast iron pot! Eric Cantor demands Pentagon budget be cut by half! Eric Cantor demands that Google actually pay its share of taxes in America! Yayyyyy! [ Los Angeles Times ]
I have a kid on my shoulders trying to steer me by the hair.
I'm impressed. It only made my eyebrows knit together in puzzlement before I decided that someone just hit the wrong button. And I guess in a way, he did.