WARNING: Do not show this chart to a liberal (unless wearing headgear to protect you from a cranium exploding into high-velocity brain-shrapnel)

A couple of observations about this graph:

• The vaunted "Clinton Surplus" was, in fact, the work of a GOP House that was willing to fight for fiscal sanity (current Ohio Governor John Kasich was one of the architects of the surplus); in addition, two events conspired to turbocharge the economy -- in spite of Clinton, not because of him.

• Liberals like to talk about Reagan's deficits, but they ignore the fact that every budget Reagan ever sent to the Democrat-controlled House was declared "dead on arrival". Reagan supported a Balanced Budget Amendment, sought to eliminate useless agencies like the Department of Education, and otherwise believed in the U.S. spending within its means.

• Since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, they have jammed through the most fiscally irresponsible spending programs in world history (I won't use the word "budget", because they've refused to propose a budget for roughly 1,029 days).

In short, Democrats never propose less spending than Republicans -- unless we're talking about defense. And now, after four years of Democrat-controlled spending, the federal government is forced to borrow 40 cents for every dollar it spends.

And that, my friends, is bound to end badly since the hard left Democrat Party and the RINOs appear ready to turn the spending on auto-pilot -- right into the tarmac.

J. Wellington Obama's Official Budget

J. Wellington Wimpy -- better known simply as "Wimpy" -- was Popeye's recurring sidekick in the long-running cartoon series.

And Wimpy had a motto that could just as well be President Obama's:

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"
As Cato explains, Obama's budgets consist of tax hikes now, with spending cuts and accounting gimmicks sometime... in... teh... future.

We’ve become so used to these unfathomable levels of deficits and debt—and to the once-rare concept of trillions of dollars—that we forget how new all this debt is. In 1981, after 190 years of federal spending, the national debt was “only” $1 trillion. Now, just 30 years later, it’s past $15 trillion...

As ATR points out, the "Obama Plan Uses Budget Gimmickry To Mask Explosive Spending":

• The budget continues to call for spending at historic levels: the request sets spending for the fiscal year at $3.8 trillion and projects $47 trillion in spending over the next ten years

• Holds spending at 23 percent of [GDP] the next ten years, two percent higher than its historical average

• Uses totally dishonest accounting: the President claims to include $4 trillion in deficit reduction. These supposed cuts include $1.6 trillion in tax hikes and $900 billion in war spending the President plans to plow back into infrastructure spending

• Repeats failed “stimulus” spending: For the third year in a row, the plan looks to create a permanent Infrastructure Bank with $350 billion in new spending. The budget also requests $500 billion for a transportation package while shifting Highway Trust Fund spending to mandatory accounts, ensuring its insolvency for posterity

• Continues practice of extending Medicare providers payments without offsetting the $438 billion in spending with cuts elsewhere

• The budget only addresses 40 percent of the government spending problem: the President bankrupts the entitlement programs by once again refusing to confront the nation’s largest debt-drivers

• Fails to take into account the coming costs of the government takeover of healthcare and financial regulatory overhaul. Instead, the President’s budget claims zero effect for supposed cost-saving mechanisms, such as the implementation of the Obamacare Independent Payment Advisory Board

James Pethokoukis summarizes some of the most important changes for the average worker and small businessman:

• The top income rate [for individuals and most small businesses] would be raised to 39.6 percent vs. 35 percent today... [Ed: well, that should help hiring.]

• Between now the end of a second Obama term, Obama proposes $707 billion in “net deficit reduction proposals.” Of that amount, only 16 percent is spending cuts.

• The capital gains rate would rise to 25.0 percent (including the Obamacare surtax and deduction phase out) from 15 percent today... [Ed: well, that should help investments.]

• The double-tax on corporate profits (including dividends) would increase to 64 percent based on the statutory corporate tax rate (58 percent using the effective tax rate), easily the highest among advanced economies... [Ed: well, that should help hiring.]

...Higher taxes, more spending, more debt, and no long-term entitlement reform plan. Hmm, this isn’t a rosy scenario at all. It’s actually a pretty bleak one.

The problem on Capitol Hill is spending, catastrophic levels of debt and an impending fiscal collapse. And we need another wave of real conservatives -- not RINOs and certainly not Democrats -- to continue turning the tide. Because the feckless John Boehner ain't cutting it.

Awesome: Senior Romney Adviser Says a Republican President Could Never Repeal Obamacare

Yet another reason to support one of the two non-Romneys in the race:

Mitt Romney adviser Norm Coleman, a former senator from Minnesota, predicted the GOP won't repeal the Democrats' healthcare reform law even if a Republican candidate defeats President Obama this November.

"You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president," Coleman told BioCentury This Week television in an interview that aired on Sunday. "You can't whole-cloth throw it out. But you can substantially change what's been done."

...Coleman's remarks are remarkable because every Republican candidate — including Romney — has vowed to make repealing the law a priority. Coleman is also the chairman of the American Action Network, which has urged the courts to strike down the law's individual mandate and its Medicaid expansion.

Squishes like Norm Coleman, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are cowards who are either too scared or too invested in the status quo to try to save this country.

Folks, I don't mean to be a polyanna, but every expert from Obama adviser Peter Orszag to the CBO says that America is headed into a fiscal abyss. And these clowns are waving the white flag before the fight has even started?

So what do we do? We need to demand -- demand, not ask! -- that these establishment RINOs are replaced as Congressional leaders in 2012 by Tea Party conservatives like Michele Bachmann, Allen West, Jim DeMint, Marco Rubio, etc. If it takes a march on Washington, so be it. We're tired of being ignored by these numbskulls. Enough is enough.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Here's something we can all get behind: House Speaker John Boehner faces primary challenger from Tea Party

The feckless RINO House Speaker -- a curiously perma-tanned man named John Boehner -- faces a primary challenger in Ohio.

House Speaker John Boehner will face a challenge in the GOP primary next year, Fox News has confirmed.

26-year-old David Lewis, who does not live in Boehner's Ohio district, has filed with the Butler County Board of Elections (in Boehner's home county) to challenge the speaker on March 6.

Lewis is a Tea Party loyalist who lives in Clermont County on the east side of Cincinnati.

Asked about the challenge, Boehner spokesman Cory Fritz said: "The Speaker is focusing on working for the people of the eighth district to cut wasteful Washington spending, eliminate excessive regulations and help create a better environment for jobs and long-term economic growth."

Boehner did not face a primary challenge last year, though Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones has flirted with previous bids.

Looking for something you can do?

Make a New Year's resolution to lend David Lewis a hand. It's time to start firing the big government RINO's who are either too incompetent or too ideologically blinkered to fight the destruction of our Republic.