That “disturbing” deficit

From a tweet of a bit of Bloomberg news:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the U.S. budget deficit is "disturbing" and spending on entitlement programs must be addressed by both Republicans and Democrats.

I’ve been one of many people who knew it was only a matter of time between passing tax cuts for the rich and calls to shred the last bits of the social safety net. That tax cut was a year ago. And in that year there have been several such calls. What prompted the latest call is the release of a report saying the federal deficit has jumped by a huge amount. Of course it has.

In a couple of tweets Ari Kohen notes that this call to shred the safety net comes three weeks before the election. Politicians are usually very quiet about taking away things people depend on just before an election. They usually act in the lame duck session or at the start of the next Congress, so that we forget about it by the next election. But they’re saying it thee weeks before. It’s like they believe – or have evidence – that the election cannot dislodge them from power.

In the response to Kohen’s tweet is:

A banker, a worker, and an immigrant are sitting at a table with 20 cookies. The banker takes 19 cookies and warns the worker: “Watch out, the immigrant is going to take your cookie away.”