With ‘Deals’ Like Fiscal Cliff, Who Needs Societal Collapse?
” No epiphanies in Washington: the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the latest triumphant deal includes $2 billion of cuts for fiscal year 2013. Wow! That’s what the government of the United States borrows every 10 hours and 38 minutes. Spending two months negotiating 10 hours of savings is like driving to a supermarket three states away to save a nickel on your grocery bill.
A space alien on Planet Zongo whose cable package includes “Meet The Press” could watch 10 minutes of these pseudo-cliffhangers and figure out how they always end, every time: Spending goes up, and the revenue gap widens.
This latest painstakingly negotiated bipartisan deal to restore fiscal responsibility actually includes a third of a trillion dollars in new spending. A third of a trillion! $330,000,000,000! Fancy that! In most countries, a third of a trillion would be a lot of money. But in the U.S. it’s chump change so footling it’s barely mentioned in the news reports “
Illustration By Eric Allie
Related articles
- Obama: ‘I Cut Spending by Over a Trillion Dollars in 2011′ (cnsnews.com)
- Fiscal cliff deal will add $4 trillion to US deficit, says CBO (forexlive.com)
- The Spending Cliff | Cato Institute (cg68doc.newsvine.com)
- Say What???? (bobusnr.wordpress.com)
- Obama’s Legacy: $20 Trillion in Deficits (realclearpolitics.com)
- From the Desk of Bruce Josten, Executive Vice President for Government Affairs with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (bewellinsurance.wordpress.com)
- Letter: Fiscal cliff settlement a joke as far as reducing debt (nj.com)
- In Fiscal Wars No Negotiation Is a Negotiating Tactic (abcnews.go.com)
- The fiscal cliff deal’s price tag: -$3.9 trillion or +$600 billion (washingtonpost.com)
- A Truly Historic Presidency (youviewedblog.wordpress.com)