This week, Norway's peace was shattered by homegrown terror; the Murdochs dodged inquiries -- and a pie -- in Parliament; and Michele Bachmann's migraines gave her campaign a splitting headache. In Washington, the "Grand Bargain" on the debt ceiling fell apart, leading President Obama to lament being "left at the altar" and John Boehner to blame the failure on "different visions for our country." But, in truth, neither side is addressing the simple mathematical reality that we will never be able to reduce the deficit unless we prioritize growth. Trying to eliminate our debt by spending cuts that will reduce consumer demand and tax revenues, and prolong the recession, is like deciding to remove the gas tank from a stalled car and hope for the best instead of restarting it with jumper cables. Elsewhere, today is the first day gays can marry in New York so, unlike the "left at the altar" president, same-sex couples will finally be able to tie the knot. Congratulations, newlyweds!
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Mohamed A. El-Erian: Americans Can Ill-Afford This Debt Ceiling Debacle
Mitchell Bard: Lesson From the Debt Ceiling Negotiations: The GOP Is Now Run by Far Right Ideologues
My Dad and I are both fans of her work and enjoy seeing her appear on various political shows. I was fortunate enough to see her speak in San Rafael in March (I made a road trip out of it...I live in Vancouver, BC). Ms Huffington was brilliant and funny, I loved her! I admit at that time I had been a bit nervous about the AOL merge, but I definitely realized she hadn't sold HP to go lie in the sun...she had more ideas, more goals and a lot she wished to accomplish. I respect and admire the woman. I left the auditorium phoning my Dad, who wanted to hear all about it!
Keep up the awesome work, Ms.Huffington!!
People are being convinced religion is the evil--pushing ppl to favor harsh policies like war and torture,, and now that white christian extremists get in the news--well it's just one crazy maniac doing this--and he wasn't really christian--which is true about both terrorist actions...
All the while debt is being piled up in this war on terror--which names a jihadist group specifically and the while the bankers are moving in and imposing austerity on populations---How many ppl are beginning to believe austerity is the sharia law--and that industry oligarchs are manipulating all these jihadist and christian extremists into demonizing the only thing that could save us---better governance---most countries don't have a military industrial complex to fundas they rely soley on aid from wealthier nations for it--which is paid back thru resource access--privatized water, power and prisons--construction projects--for multi national corporations...
The american public has lost their govt which is being taken over by bankers thru debt--and their now imposing an austerity program(sharia law) on the population---right under the peoples noses!
um... mathematically sustainable growth is... 0%. Sustainable growth does not exist in nature. Only for cancer but eventually the host dies. That is not something to aspire to. The debt cancer will have to be kicked down a few notches if America is to survive. And that includes tax increases.
Please don't use math in a sentence then not understand math.
Here's a video that might help. "Arithmetic, Population and Energy": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY .
Probably the best answer to a math deficient education and how discussions about "growth" are meaningless unless we know what growth actually means. It's about an hour. There's math at the beginning but the rest is about the ramifications of this very simple math.
Tens of thousands of comments but has anyone taken a hard look at the Federal Budget. Some specifics:
Corporation for Public Broadcasting - $445M
AMTRAK Subsidies - $1.565B
International Fund for Ireland - $17M
National Endowments for Arts and Humanities - $335M
Woodrow Wilson Center -$20M
Title X Family Planning -$318M
DC Assistance - $210M
Assistance to Egypt -$250M
Exchange Programs for Alaskan Natives - $9M
Appalachian Regional Commission - $76M
DC Metro - $150M
Travel Budget -$15B
Vehicle Budget -$3B
Hope VI - $250M
Agency for International Dev - $1.4B
Community Dev Fund - $4.5B
New Starts Transit - $2B
Intercity Rail Grants - $2.5B
USDA Sugar Program $14M
National Community Services Act Programs -$1.2B
It seems like you want to push us back into the 1800's.
1) ConservatiÂÂves want to beat Obama and figure the higher the unemploymeÂÂnt the better to beat Obama. anyone who becomes unemployed is a liberal, so who cares. Grover Norquist will never be unemployedÂÂ, so driving the unemploymeÂÂnt rate to 50% would be fine with him.
2) getting the deficit reduced by slashing programs while Democrats are involved will make it possible to cut taxes as soon as RepublicanÂÂs win back the House, Senate, and White House and the deficit can be increased to $2t annually because Obama proved trillion dollar deficits don't matter.
Look, it is impossible to get any robust job creation going without tax hikes, and where we are now, big tax hikes.
NEVER HAVE TAX CUTS DRIVEN JOB CREATION.
The only robust job creation I can find in the US began with significanÂÂt TAX HIKES. Unless taxes were already way up at at marginal rates of 70-90%.
The job creation has become weaker as tax rates have fallen over time.
When a nation can't sacrifice to pay taxes, then it can't sacrifice to be capitalist and forgo consumptioÂÂn to build up the public capital assets a great nation requires.
The general view that reflexivelÂÂy seeks to cut taxes at every turn suggests a nation in decline, a nation that is consuming its capital before dying in bankruptcyÂÂ.
The Democrats are on the right track and all the Republicans can do is derail the economy, the people and the president. just my opinion, but a well-thought out one.
We, the citizens, have been held hostage to the intransigiencies of our elected government. We have listened, watched, read about the debt ceiling ad infinitum. How much more can we take of these kindergarten shenanigans? Most Republicans, Democrats and Independents are saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
Work on CREATING JOBS - that is what we sent you to Washington to do. You want more revenues in the coffers - get people back to work.
I have been unemployed for 6 months after 33 years of non-stop working and paying taxes. And, I am still paying taxes on my UI benefits. It is so hard for me to make by Cobra benefits payments which are almost $500 a month. And I still have not found work.
What they are doing to the citizens of this country is UNFAIR .
Raise that debit ceiling for at least 2 years - I don't know about the rest of you, but I do not want to go through again in 3 or 6 or 12 months.