Commentaries

Congress Takes Vigorous Steps to Look Like it’s Planning to Reduce Deficit

By Rocky Vega

11/20/10 Stockholm, Sweden – Erskine Bowles, President of UNC, and former Wyoming Senator, Alan Simpson, the co-chairmen of President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, are getting political leaders caught up with the obvious reality of the US’ precarious financial state… that the budget deficit is quickly hurtling the nation toward a debt crisis not unlike Greece, but on a much larger scale.

Yet, even with annual interest payments alone already totaling roughly $200 billion, there is little political will to make the kind of cuts necessary to have an impact on the deficit. Policy makers and citizens alike want action to be taken, but the required sense of taking personal responsibility — with fewer public services, higher taxes, or reduced welfare — is still lacking.

This cartoon came to our attention via The Mess That Greenspan Made’s post on the appearance of getting something done.