Why fuck with people for the *Appearance* of Deficit Reduction?

[cthulu2016]

Not just SS... this applies to the whole stinking ball of wax.

The deficit is not driven by things like fuel oil assistance for the needy any more than it is driven by foreign aid or the NEA.

Only RW idiots think that stuff.

Our huge current deficit exists because the economy collapsed, and no amount of penny-here-penny-there "thrift" changes anything.

So instances of "thrift" that hurt needy people are theater. Even if somebody thought, for some insane reason, that the deficit should be cut when we have 7-8% unemployment, these petty cruelties do not have much effect on the deficit.

The whole thing is CRUELTY THEATER.

It is not about fixing the deficit, or even pretending to fix the deficit.

It is about being pointlessly cruel, which some degenerates equate with being a grown up.

Will these measures work? That is to say, will these pointless cruelties convince the American people to give greater power to the Democratic Party?

Don't know.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Good thinking.

I kind of doubt that this will give us any greater power. It is pointlessly cruel, for sure.

[The Link]

2. Lack of courage or morally bankrupt.

Either is not good.

[MotherPetrie]

3. K&R

[magellan]

4. I hope it convinces more Americans to vote for progressives

...because the Progressive Caucus Budget For All makes a lot of sense to everyone I've shared it with.

More than anything we need jobs that provide a living wage. Lots of them. Or...we can continue as we have been doing for the last thirty-odd years, with everyone but the wealthiest losing ground.

[Populist_Prole]

5. Methinks he's being coerced by the MIC /Corporatists really running the country

I mean, he's not full on plutocratic he doesn't see the bizarreness of the move, and he's not that naive that by playing nice to the GOP they'll finally want to be friends with him. Gotta be some evil undercurrent. Gotta be.

[Orsino]

6. It's not FOR the appearance of deficit reduction.

It's FOR the corporatization of Social Security.

The appearance of deficit reduction is just one of the fig leaves.

[PDJane]

7. Because it works. It makes us feel as though we are sacrificing for the greater good.

We aren't. And if it can be combined with secrecy, as it is here in Canada, so much the better.

Neither country, the US or Canada, for instance, has the specialized units to track down white-collar crime, for instance. That crime takes more out of the economy than all the 'welfare cheats' there are in both countries. However, 'welfare cheats' are far easier to point a finger at.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Shhhh, deficit is already going down...

Don't tell anybody.

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43697

[robinlynne]

9. We do not need to fix the deficit. We need government spending right now!