Head on with a cop!

[Osteomata]

It strikes me as unnecessarily simplisitc, even absurd, to lay the annual budget deficits and long term national debt at the feet of either, rather than both, modern national parties and their leadership. Both parties are spend mad, just generally on different things, although they are both willing to bleed us all for the projects and line items that support their own reelection bids. Both parties also have minority voices that have long called for fiscal sanity and even been willing to make potentially dangerous (in terms of reelection) concessions to get it, although they clearly approach how to get there from different revenue and expenditure perspectives.

I think my conservative friends tend to downplay the danger that two groups of freshmen GOP House members represent: those who believe that defaulting on the national debt is actually not a bad thing, and the less crazy but unreasonable ones that will not exchange in negotiation even slight revenue increases in exchange for significant spending cuts, say a 75/25 percent split.
AND
I think my progressive and liberal friends too quickly paint the entire tea party with a crazy brush for their insistance on addressing a very real and dangerous long term fiscal solvency problem, when it is continueing with the status quo of the last couple of decades that is the true path of insanity.

As for BO himself, his economic model is pretty mainstream, and the majority of professional economists do seem to think that stimulus during recession is, if not the ideal, then at least pretty defensible as a tactic. I think the "cars for clunkers" was incredibly stupid from any perspective other than "we all like free stuff", but the majority of his budget and monetary policies have been pretty mainstream, hardly controversial at all outside of the amplified arena of partisan politics.

The future national debt problem is solvable with significant defense cuts, raising the social security retirement age by two years phased in starting a few years from now, and medicare means testing. Get the GOP to go along with the first, the Dems the last, and good luck with the middle one. But all three will be required.

[tom4bren]

Downsizing the military can help to lower the deficit but will play havoc on the economy. Imagine if you will, a Government ban of the fast food industry. It would have a similar effect on the economy/unemployment.

Remember BO's plan to help the deficit by freezing the DOD Civilian pay? In approximately 10 years, it could defray approximately 2% of the deficit. Now that's affirmative action for ya.

Yah, it's a sore spot for me ... I are one.