Remember This Next November

I dare anyone out there to try and defend this.

When I say “defend,” by the way, I mean try explaining how this benefits the vast majority of the people in this country instead of continuing to chop away at programs which help them to get a good education, escape from destitute circumstances and/or try to put their lives back together after suffering a medical catastrophe.

Try explaining how this is an act of fiscal responsibility when it will increase the budget deficit as the tax cuts on capital gains and dividend income are allowed to continue.

For the Repugs, this is a happy consequence of the strategy of running up outrageous deficits and then trying to paint themselves as “the party of fiscal management" or something by reducing government to a size “where it can be drowned in a bathtub" to quote the infamous words of Grover Norquist.

I know this abomination is going to be sorted out in some kind of House-Senate committee, but what this budget measure needs instead is a thorough dosing of lighter fluid and a lit match.