re: #40 Obdicut

The Democrats were able to steer the cuts into a lot of areas less painful to them, as well.

It is sad that Obama and the Democrats feel the need to champion these cuts, instead of making the case for the increased spending and higher taxes that we should be doing. But that’s American politics today. Even though the majority of the public supports higher taxes on the highest percentile of income earners, the Democrats lack the political balls to follow through.

Oh, I think there’s something to the idea of budget cuts, I remember one study into it showing that there’s a great deal of “duplication of effort” and so forth that could be cut. But the idea that budget cuts are the sole means by which to tackle the deficit is simply partisan politics. The Republican ideology says that tax increases “only” lead to more spending while “taking” money out of the economy, so for them to admit that we need to raise some taxes or do away with some cuts/subsidies/loopholes in order to balance the federal checkbook is heresy.