As if it's now good news that they're "only" going to cut $1.5 trillion when the economy still is not back on its feet and won't be for years and years to come. HuffPost via HuffPost Hill:
The deficit panel tasked with cutting $1.5 trillion in federal spending won't "go big." No, it's not like Jim Clyburn, Patty Murray and Jeb Hensarling were thinking about renting a stretch Hummer, hightailing it to Mexico where they would disappear for five days as they binged on cheap prescription medicine and Sol in the back room of a Mexicali veterinarian office/agrarian supply store ... so far as we know. No, a bipartisan group of 36 senators urged the panel to "go big" today and propose cuts upwards of $4 trillion. Later, Joe Lieberman, who was one of the 36 senators, tweeted "Maybe we 36 began a 'Washington Spring' today." Of course, there is a BIG difference between young people staring down the security forces of a ruthlessly dictatorial regime clinging to power and a bunch of old white farts who want to limit the medicine your grandmother has accessibility to. But maybe there isn't, and maybe children will one day sing songs of the brave Mr. Lieberman who dared to stand in front of the tank of social welfare. Yesterday, a member of the panel, who asked not to be named, told Alexander Bolton that it is unlikely that the 12-member panel will be able to forge a consensus that contains more than the bare minimum of $1.5 trillion, much less $3 or $4 trillion.
