Political Ruminations

Chart of the Day

President Obama’s proposed budget will do some serious deficit a$$-kicking, according to the chart prepared by the CBO, as seen below.

Kevin Drum explains:

The light blue line is their "baseline projection" which assumes that all current laws stay in effect forever and the Bush tax cuts all expire at the end of the year. It shows the federal deficit nearly disappearing by 2017. The dashed line is their "alternative scenario," which assumes extensions of the Bush tax cuts and a few other things as well. It shows the federal deficit improving a bit, but then deteriorating to 6% of GDP by 2022.

The dark blue line is the Obama budget, and it's somewhere in between. But here's an important point that you can't see just from looking at the chart: Obama's budget reaches primary balance in 2018. This means that federal spending is in balance, and the only source of the deficit going forward is interest payments on the national debt. At that point, the debt-to-GDP ratio is stable. That's a big milestone.

Via Bob Cesca

Morning Quote: Tax the Rich

According to a new NBC/WSJ poll, it’s time to tax the rich. Kevin Drum:

Out in real America, people want to tax the rich, cut stupid weapons programs, and stop subsidizing prosperous oil companies. They don't want to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or education.

Call your senators and reps, and tell them what you want. We need Democrats to hold the line against the draconian budget cuts proposed by the House Republicans.

- Contact info for your senators
- Contact info for your representatives

Adding……be sure to contact your friends and relatives to ask them to take action as well.

Is the Use of the Term ObamaCare Really So Bad?

I discussed this with another Liberal recently, and in doing so, I realized that my view of it had changed.

At first, it really, really annoyed me since 'ObamaCare' was in such wide use as a derogatory term for the health care bill, which was not only good and right, but sorely needed, as well as truly historic. Recently however, my feelings about it changed to closely resemble those of Jon Cohn, who said:

…I like the term. I think this bill will be popular someday and, in the meantime, I think it's a reminder that this administration did something that will help millions of Americans while starting to put our health care system in order. Maybe I'm wrong — I've certainly been wrong about this before — but I think that within a few years, and maybe even by 2012, association with the health care plan will be a net plus.

Kevin Drum also weighed in with a slightly underwhelming ‘yes’ vote:

I'd say that 2012 is pretty optimistic, but I certainly agree that eventually Obamacare will be a popular program. My question is whether this is ever likely to catch on. Social Security isn't RooseveltSecurity and Medicare isn't JohnsonCare. Presidents really don't get their names associated like this very often except with broad world views like Bush Doctrine, Reaganomics, etc. And even that's not very common.

So, I do agree with Kevin that this bill will probably not be popular for a few more years…in fact, probably not until after the mandate kicks in in 2014, when the cost of health insurance will also decrease, and most people will receive full or partial subsidies to purchase their insurance.

Meanwhile, words have no power unless we impart that power to them. I plan to use the term ‘Obamacare’ more and more frequently, and if we all do this, it will naturally cease to be used as a derogatory term. .

Via Kevin Drum