Subjective Invective v.1

Obama plans to cut deficit by $1.1 trillion

"We have a responsible budget that will cut in half the deficit by the end of the president's first term."

Really? The headline doesn't make sense then, because cutting $1.1 trillion over 10 years would not cut the deficit in half over the next 18 months. The CBO estimates that the deficit will grow this year, shrink to just under $800 billion in a couple of years, then explode again to $1.2 trillion by 2020.

"The challenge we have is to live within our means but also invest in the future," Lew said, adding "tough tradeoffs" would have to be made to achieve that goal.

All of these budget cutting proposals seem like a joke to me unless they target the largest budget items: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security (non-discretionary) and Defense. I don't see any tough tradeoffs in the proposals.

A Democratic aide said the budget would reduce Pentagon spending by $78 billion over five years. Pentagon cuts would include the C-17 aircraft, the alternate engine to the Joint Strike Fighter and the Marine Expeditionary Vehicle that the Defense Department says it does not need.

How dare they cut something that the Defense Dept. doesn't need? Ike is rolling over in his grave. That $78 billion over 5 years is a whopping 1.5% of the projected deficits. Way to make a dent in the defense budget.

I wonder what would happen to the deficit if we had another recession before 2020, something I would wager heavily on (and have)? It would not surprise me to see a $4 trillion deficit before 2020.

note: subjective invective was inspired by Stagflationary Mark's sarcasm reports. The format fits my personality too much not to copy it. Thanks, Mark.