Thanks for posting.

Republicans *don't* actually care about cutting spending. What they care about is diverting public spending, to private corporations run by themselves and their cronies.

Secondly, there *is* a big fat low-hanging fruit of public spending we could cut: military spending. But even if they wanted to, they'd have a problem there because so much of the GOP brand is built on worshipping the military industrial complex, and at this point their own constituency would consider it a betrayal.

...provides a LOT of good paying, middle class jobs. Many of those jobs are union jobs in states represented by Democrats, which is why neither side is proposing serious cuts to the defense budget.

It's not just the republicans and their constituency's worship of the MIC; a great many Democrats, and their loyal union constituency need those MIC jobs.

just about everything the Repos are hell-bent-for-leather to cut also provide a LOT of good paying, middle-class jobs.

Sauce for the goose. If that's a reason to leave military spending alone, it's also a reason to leave other spending alone.

from the making of swords to the making of plowshares...and maybe beer.

he's his own fish and never lets me forget it.

We do not need to be the world cops and we do not need to be some other countries military. Cut the shit out of that

If you make that illegal, I'll be out of a job.

by retooling the military industrial complex into a domestic infrastructural complex.

"Republicans *don't* actually care about cutting spending. What they care about is diverting public spending, to private corporations run by themselves and their cronies."

....makes the article resonate, and you just know it true!!

Rusty Boner's "offers" sound more like ransom demands.

During election season, he said he wanted to raise taxes. Granted, only on the wealthiest, but even that's enough to freak out a lot of people.

He said it outloud, said it proud, made his case, and you know what? The people agreed.

Meanwhile, the right-wing is still spewing bullshit and trying to come up with new ways to bamboozle the people into going against their own self interests.

DOD spending cuts, in excess of the sequester. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the GOP is adjourning to go home and decorate the tree.

Seems like that's the first thing we need to do if we are all serious about balancing the budget.

Obama can't run for a third term, so who better to do it?

If the Repubs actually propose cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, they know that the public will effectively line them up against the wall. The Republican Party is already headed for the dust bin of history if it doesn't make significant changes, and we don't see any indication of that. Cutting the social safety-net would be the end of the GOP.

By the same token, if they propose cuts to the DOD, all the deep-pocket Military-Industrial companies who are getting filthy rich off war would line them up against the wall.

So the GOP is screwed either way. They are trying to make Obama make the proposal on where the cuts should be so they can blame him for it.

That's why Obama is saying, "No, you first."

And welcome to DU!

If Medicare is a separate tax and is solvent to 2024(?) and Social Security is paid for by a separate tax, how do either of these contribute to the deficit? Why are these being discussed?

If they are talking about food stamps and welfare, we can probably pay for that with the tax Exxon, BP and GE should be paying.

Payroll taxes paid by most employees, employers, and people who are self-employed
Other sources, like income taxes paid on Social Security benefits, interest earned on the trust fund investments, and Medicare Part A premiums from people who aren't eligible for premium-free Part A

Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) benefits, like inpatient hospital care, skilled nursing facility care, home health care, and hospice care
Medicare Program administration, like costs for paying benefits, collecting Medicare taxes, and combating fraud and abuse

Funds authorized by Congress
Premiums from people enrolled in Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) and Medicare prescription drug coverage (Part D)
Other sources, like interest earned on the trust fund investments

...they see an opportunity to make money, and they will do anything to get their hands on it. Lie, cheat, steal... They'll do anything. They have no conscience. They don't care about the people who will be harmed by privatizing something in our commons.

Now your second sentence is a very good idea (for us, aka, the People). But. did you know that we actually give all of those you mentioned subsidies? In other words, WE PAY THEM!!!

Welcome to DU.

K & R

"No, they don't. They don't care about spending less. They care about offsetting tax cuts for the rich with cuts to programs that will end up hurting everyone else."

I agree they don't care but like another poster pointed out above, what they really want is to keep spending the same, but divert the funds to themselves via their cronies.

The right wing base is living a pipe dream if they think the Republicans are going to lower their FICA or payroll taxes, no no no...they want to keep that delicious slice of revenue coming in, just as it is now. They just want to "reform" the programs that are fed with the money so that they they can get a huge cut.

The only real tax cut they have ever cared about is the one to the corporations and the ultra rich, the middle class cuts that where sprinkled in there by W were just cover.

I think even Republicans realize this that is why polling shows they are opposed to cuts in either program. "keep your government hands from my Medicare" and all that.

The overriding goal of the right is the destruction of the social contract between the government and the citizenry. They don't want to "reform" and definitely don't want to save "entitlement" programs like Social Security & Medicare -- they want to eliminate them.

Their long term strategy has been explicitly articulated and for the most part adhered to:
STARVE THE BEAST
Shrink government to a size that can be drowned in a bathtub.

They know these programs are popular and will never be eliminated as long as there is funding to keep them going. So their strategy is to make these programs unaffordable.

And how do you starve the beast?

Starve it of revenue. Fight tooth & nail against any tax increase, regardless of deficits.

In fact, deficits are absolutely essential to the Republican strategy.

That is the only way for them to achieve their long term goal.

Pretty obvious, but never mentioned in the MSM.

...say no to it all

they didn't want Less Spending when bush-cheney were throwing money like mad fiends on two wars and a medicare drug plan without Paying for them.

If Republicans were to propose actual budget cuts they would be engaging in "policy."

But Republicans haven't engaged in actual "policy" since the Gingrich Revolution. Republicans leave policy to the Democrats, and then attack the Democrats' policy proposals.

Republicans don't make policy. Republicans just make propaganda.

Im a veteran and support spending on providing for our troops and fellow vets but the JSF is going to cost over $1.5 trillion, come on!

http://nation.time.com/2012/12/11/more-bad-news-for-the-joint-strike-fighter/

I just spent 15 minutes clicking on the links and it is a wealth of information

Great job of analyzing the basic repuke understanding of gov't--which is to say, a poor understanding, separate from reality.

And this: the only budget cuts the pukes have "depend on a WILLINGNESS TO INFLICT EPIC AMOUNTS OF SUFFERING ON THE VERY POOR."

They hide that agenda from the public with their social conservatism...which kicks the crap out of the people their dumbass base is looking to offer as sacrifice to their god of punishment.

Pentagon spending truly is out of control, if the Republicans truly cared about the deficit they would admit it but instead they call for more Pentagon waste.

Part 1: The fat in the budget is mostly in the defense department. We are talking things like a radar-invisible fighter to use on countries that have no radars. Or huge armored divisions that burn a million gallons of fuel a day to go up against insurgents who wouldn't want tanks if they were free. We are gearing up to go to war against enemies who became our trading partners before some of the soldiers we have now were even born...and NOT gearing up to fight the enemies we actually have, which are terrorists.

Part 2: The Republicans will not accept defense cuts.

Part 3: Forty percent of our general budget is funded with borrowed money. But fifty percent of our general budget goes to the defense department.

Part 4: The only solution, then, is to raise taxes and that, too, is unacceptable.

So you see the problem: without raising taxes and getting the useless glory items (F-35, new Navy ships) we can't balance the budget because there isn't enough fat to cut. And even if we tried cuts-only we would still have to cut defense because the second huge slice of the budget is interest on the bonds sold to finance 31 years of delusion.

The GOP won't recommend cuts because they know spending cuts alone can't - not won't but can't - do what they demand. Remember, The Path to Austerity doesn't balance the budget for nearly 30 years.

Imagine taking a three year old daughter to get twelve shots and her ears pierced in one afternoon. She is going to scream and fight before the process starts, and before every needle goes in. That's where we are right now with the GOP - they know what is going to happen but are fighting every inch of it.

I am reminded of the scene in Trading Places where one of the Duke Brothers protests that they are paying their employees too much and someone (I think it was Dan Aykroyd's character, but it's been a while since I saw the movie) replies "Ah well, can't get around that old minimum wage".