Time to talk deficit-fiscal cliff. Clinton left a budget surplus of more than $200 billion. George Bush left a trillion-dollar deficit. Large chunks of Bush’s deficit consists of’ Bush tax cuts, two wars, Medicare Part D all put on credit cards. In addition the Bush recession added to the deficit.
The problem is not: food stamps, school lunches, Headstart, Big Bird, Pell Grants, W.I.C. etc. The poor, college students, the working class, elderly DID NOT cause the deficit.
Further SOCIAL SECURITY has zero impact on the deficit. It has no business being on the table. As for Medicaid, it’s under-funded now. Medicare, raising the eligibility age is a bad idea.
The cuts should start with the military and the monster complex of the national security system. The U.S. spends more on military than the top 16 countries combined. Nearly 67 percent of discretionary spending is military related. Between the military and national security industrial complexes, we could cut deeply and bejust as powerful and just as safe. In fact, perhaps safer! See Top Secret America by Dana Priest and Wm. Arkin.
When GWH Bush dared to raise taxes, the economy grew; when Clinton increased taxes the economy grew. When G.W. Bush cut taxes the economy dived and job losses increased so badly so that at the end of 2008 we were losing 800,000 jobs per month! It’s been about 10 years since the Bush tax cuts went into effect, the “job makers” have not been making jobs.
To my elected reps: leave Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare alone. Do not cut safety new programs. Do let the Bush tax cuts for top 2 percenters expire. Do cut Pentagon and National Security budgets. Do create a jobs program in FDR style.
Karn Martin, Cheboygan