Deficit Reduction

From an interview on PBS Newshour.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Absolutely, Judy. You're absolutely right. And the deficit is a very serious problem. Please, do not mishear me to suggest that it is not.

The deficit primarily has been caused by two wars unfunded, huge tax breaks to people who don't need it, an insurance-company-written Medicare Part D prescription drug program, and the bailout of Wall Street.

The cause of it is not hungry children in this country or people who are sleeping out on the street. So, we have got to deal with the deficit, but you do it in a fair and progressive way. For example, this year alone, we're losing a hundred billion dollars in revenue because corporations, the wealthy, are stashing their money in tax havens in the Cayman Islands.

This year, ExxonMobil, the most profitable corporation in the history of the world, is not paying a nickel in federal income taxes, despite having made $19 billion last year. In 2005, one-quarter of corporation -- large corporations in America making a trillion in revenue didn't pay a nickel in taxes. You have got a military budget which in many ways is still fighting the old Cold War.

So, I believe that we have to move toward significant deficit reduction, but you don't do it on the backs of the middle class and working families who are already suffering as a result of this Wall Street-caused recession.

It's much easier to cut an imaginary budget

From Time.com
As Mark Thompson noted yesterday, the House today voted to strip funding for the the second engine of F-35 aircraft – an engine the Pentagon repeatedly said it doesn't need but members who had parochial stakes in manufacturing the plane -- in Ohio and Massachusetts -- have protected the engine in the past. Republican Senators Brown and Rob Portman of Ohio have the most to lose if the engine is cut. In response to the House cut, Portman reiterated his support for the engine. ...

The Tides Roll In, The Tides Roll Out

Bill O'Reilly is a tidal bore.
But to jump to say, "God did it" is a losing bet. They used to say that about thunder. They used to say that about people getting sick. They used to say that about, oh, why the Moon and Sun are in the sky, and why we have tides. Say.
I don't regularly watch any of the cable news shows much less Fox.  My only exposure to them is when I'm in a waiting room. But I've never heard a Bill O'Reilly quote that made much sense to me. This web page responds to some comments he made recently suggesting that the existence of tides proves the existence of God. The Flat-Earth Society lives on.