No, it's not "quite simply" , Torp. Early on the President offered Congress a 4:1 and 3:1 deal on cutting entitlement spending to tax increases, and the Congress refused both offers because Grover Norquist told them not to accept the deals. Imagine a 4:1 deal that would have cut entitlements & subsidies by a trillion $ for a tax increase that would have generated 225 billion in new revenue.
We got into our national debt by cutting taxes on the rich and on the corporations. It's well documented; no denying it. A major cause of our near miss with a second economic Great Depression was caused, in big part to unbudgeted tax cuts for the rich, and 2 unbudgeted wars and a VP Cheney that kept saying deficit spending doesn't matter. If Supply Side hadn't been embraced, our national debt would be well under 3 trillion instead of 18 trillion and this discussion wouldn't be taking place. Why would you want to put these dumb dickheads back in charge of the country to cut taxes yet again and accelerate the national debt even more? It's never worked ... it WON'T WORK now. Slow learner? Why do you think there are over 7,000 pages to our tax codes ... Reagan, Reagan, Reagan ... and his stupid "trickle down". Look at what has happened to Wisconsin and their state "trickle down" budget, and compare it to Minnesota, who took the opposite approach. And Scott Walker wants to become President? Yeah, right!
As a country, we ALL first have to accept the fact that Supply Side does not work and has been harmful. Then, we have to accept the fact that simply cutting entitlements or simply raising taxes are not going to accomplish getting us OUT of debt. Ronald Reagan screwed the middle class, big time, and Republicans embraced the bastard. We need a balanced budget approach to getting out of debt. People need to be working, earning above poverty level income, and the filthy rich need to accept the fact that many of them got rich on the backs of the middle class, and NOW its time for PAY BACK.
Personally, I think Obama's done an exceptional job working around the "do nothings" who ran their campaigns and promises on jobs, of which they generated none, and stopping Obama from accomplishing anything. What pissed me off was the "free ride" given to Wall Street and banks ... and now Republicans want to relax the laws and let them do it all the fuck over again. I'm particularly pissed at AIG, as I've done business with those leaches ... and I refuse to endorse anything that corporation represents from now on. Its time everyone who benefited from the bailout to annie up.
Sarcastic? You bet your ass I'm being sarcastic about this topic, because half the people in congress are doing nothing constructive, AND they're obstructing everyone else who's trying to be.
Oh, and the count on the Republican congress voting to ******* ACA is now at 61 times at a estimated cost of $700,000 per congressional vote ... that now means they've wasted around $42 BILLON our OUR MONEY accomplishing NOTHING. Something they've become quite good at doing. So, why would the Supreme Court agree to continue subsidies on the Federally run health programs? Because they knew the fraudulent & selfish intent of the Republicans. Why can't Republicans just sit down and agree to work out the bugs of ACA; there are many? Because they HATE Obama so much, they'd much prefer to simply crash the economy to prove their point ... period, end of excuses. And what do they offer? NOTHING but more "trickle down". How frik'n dumb do they think voters are?
Republicans should ask themselves why Donald Trump is double digit leading all the other Republican candidates for the GOP spot in the upcoming election. Whether that man is right or wrong, he's saying what those other dickheads won't or can't say. They better hope he doesn't decide to run as an Independent.