Not Serious

Here is all you need to know about the report yesterday from the Deficit Commission. It is best thing I've read so far on the Bowles-Simpson trial balloon.

This covers all you need to know. These people aren't really serious about deficit reduction because all our problems are with health care costs and they aren't really being addressed. As I have said before, any deficit discussion you hear from someone that mentions Social Security with respect to the deficit you can immediately ignore because they are ignorant and/or just bullshitting you.

It is really galling to read article after article in the media that don't make the point that Social Security is not part of our deficit problem. A tiny tweak to the amount of income subject to SS taxes would make it solvent forever.

A Trillion There A Trillion There

The House had no problem with deficit spending today and voted to approve another emergency supplemental appropriation to fund the unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This appropriation takes the total Congress has allotted for these cluster fucks at over $1 Trillion with a capital T.

Among the countless tragedies both in cost and in human suffering is the reality that if the action in Iraq had not happened(and it shouldn't have) and distracted us from the 'real' mission we might actually have been out of the quagmire in Afghanistan by now. The minor trillion dollar distraction in Iraq has cost us failure in Afghanistan and nine years laters, it's still a mess with no foreseeable resolution.

Now that the GOP is busily trying to polish the turd of  George Bush and Dick Cheney's rule we should all remember one thing ... that $1 trillion is all deficit spending and it's money we could surely find a better use for if it is on the plastic.