[Mamzelle]

Did I miss how inflation figures into this?

[gridlock]

That's because our economy is unlikely to handle three more years of gridlock, which keeps us stuck in a phase of higher government spending and shrinking revenue.

Hey, don't blame me!

We have dug ourselves a hole from which there is no un-digging. If we had reasonably high rates of growth and employment, interest rates would rise and the cost of servicing the government's debt would bury us alive.

[raybbr]

Another author that foolishly believes that the left actually cares about how much debt we get into.

[GeronL]

I love the narrative forming that it’s conservatives who refuse to fix the budget and address the “fiscal cliff”...

lolz

[Vaduz]

Nobody is shocked,with Obama&Co it’s expected.

[SkyPilot]

A couple of comments on the article:

1. Our Debt and Deficit are not exploding because of Defense Spending - they are exploding because of Entitlements.

2. Obama and the Democrats have thrown Billions at state and local governments to pay off unions, while they have taken an ax to their own Federal employees.

When Pelosi was still Speaker, she called for a vote in Congress in August (which was not EVEN IN SESSION!) to spend over $40 Billion in yet another "Son of Stimulus" give-away to local governments so that they would not have to lay off teachers, administrators, police, etc or cut their salaries. At the same time, Obama froze all Federal salaries (3 years running, they are still frozen), froze all cost of living pay, froze all locality pay, and froze hiring. A few short months later, the DoD hemorrhaged jobs, with 16,000 Air Force civilians cut, and over 20,000 Army and Navy civilians who lost their jobs.

In short, Obama and the Democrats screwed employees that did work for them, while doling out Billions in borrowed money to local and state unions they bought off - but it is NOT the job of the Federal government and the taxpayer to fund. This article's laments the fact that state and local employees may have to start feeling a real pinch.

[taildragger]

As this chart shows, Japan spends roughly half as much on healthcare as we do, yet arguably has superior outcomes (in areas like longevity and infant mortality). Though this chart is from 2009, little has changed since.

Nothing like leaving out it is a homogeneous culture with little immigration, little or no out of wedlock births, no welfare state, with intact families and the eat darn near Macrobiotic. ( sarc / off )

[Georgia Girl 2]

This guy is on drugs. What he does not seem to understand is that Obama’s mission is to destroy the US economy so it can be replaced with Collectivism. So far he’s doing a damn fine job and I look for him to continue.

[Georgia Girl 2]

This guy is on drugs. What he does not seem to understand is that Obama’s mission is to destroy the US economy so it can be replaced with Collectivism. So far he’s doing a damn fine job and I look for him to continue.

[Georgia Girl 2]

This guy is on drugs. What he does not seem to understand is that Obama’s mission is to destroy the US economy so it can be replaced with Collectivism. So far he’s doing a damn fine job and I look for him to continue.

[DesertRhino]

“As this chart shows, Japan spends roughly half as much on healthcare as we do, yet arguably has superior outcomes (in areas like longevity and infant mortality). Though this chart is from 2009, little has changed since.”

Apples to Oranges. Japan would have little to no advantage over us in longevity if our crime, drug and violence infested minority underclass was not factored in. They also often live life little better than third worlders, with almost no regard to their health. I missed where Japan has 20 million Mexican citizens in their midst bringing in new diseases previously eradicated. I haven’t heard about Japanese crackheads. Which city is the Japanese “urban” Chicago, St Louis, Baltimore, Cayahoga County?

It skews every statistic like this used against us.

I can nearly guarantee, if you made a composite of the average Japanese citizen as far as education, literacy, and lack of criminal record,, and compared that to the similar demographic in America, their advantage would evaporate.

[Buckeye McFrog]

No need to worry about 3 more years of gridlock. Boehner is about to get rolled!

[arthurus]

he kenyan’s party controls the vote count. It doesn’t mater even a tad what bobdole the Republicans cough up in 2015.

[factoryrat]

I highlty doubt that anyone hear would recognize the US of 2016. The beginnings of a socialist revolution are occuring here and now. With the level of denial I see, the transformation should be well under way within the next four years. A lot of nations didn’t think it could happen to them, they thought wrong.

[lentulusgracchus]

[Article]
That was manageable in the late 1990s when the economy was on a robust plane of growth. But today's politicians -- nor the ones who will be pondering a run for the White House in 2015 -- will likely be operating in an environment of robust growth.

---

Either the author's been misquoted, or he punted the last clause by dropping the "not" which would make sense of his statement.

Item, the author pimps (Un)FairTax.org's nostrum of a VAT, the principal objects of which are

• to unload corporate income taxes from the backs of businesses, a grail they've pursued ever since George H.W. Bush [41] became President and gave a subcabinet patronage job at Treasury to business superlobbyist Charls [sic] L. Walker, who used that pulpit to plump for VAT in business media, appearing with relentless regularity on PBS's Nightly Business Report to advocate for VAT, and
• to reload savers and basically steal their savings through consumption taxes, as a way of replacing foregone business taxes and (supposedly) solving the government's operating deficits. Which works for Obama and the Democrats by increasing poverty and dependency among seniors (who normally vote Republican).

The author needs to get stuffed, and his FairTax allies and Alinskyite buds with him.

Now let all the FairTaxers appear and cry "ignorance!" and "prejudice!" and "negativity!" and "try it, you'll like it, and anyway Practicality Demands Compromise!" (with Democrat Alinskyite attack-dogs from hell).

And oh, btw, the rate isn't 23%; if you calculate it not as a lying FairTaxer, but as an honest businessman, you get something more like 33% or more, if you calculate the tax rate as an increment added to the basic cost.

As a coda, this article also serves as further evidence that Townhall is being taken over by Friends of Barack, preaching tactical Alinskyite prolefeed to the unwashed.