I'm the sheep? Our taxes are among the lowest in the advanced world. Many groups, corporations for example, pay less effective taxes now than they ever have in the modern era... Meanwhile, we have a massive debt (fueled in part by tax cuts... Revenue loss) and you tell me I'M THE SHEEP?
We face a debt problem; When you are balancing your own budget do you only look at how much you're spending? No, you look at revenue too. If you're having a hard time paying your bills you can either find additional revenue or you can cut services you dont need. In the case of the U.S. government there is plenty of room on both sides (cuts and revenue increases)... To miss this very basic and undeniable point really shows how clouded your judgement is by idealogy.
I am not, however, in favor of any Austerity ATM; Full employment is priority #1 IMO.
edit:
Here is revenue from 2007 (before the recession) compared to other advanced nations, specifically the G7:
And here is a graph that illustrates the "runaway spending" you are so sure Obama is responsible for:
As you can see, the U.S. generates less revenue than other advanced nations. As you can also see, the increase in "size of government" as defined by government spending as a % of GDP (which raised from ~20% to 24% under Obama) isn't because of some crazy government takeover or anything of the sort... In reality our short term deficits are caused by further losses in revenue (because we're in a slump) and increased social safety net spending. In other words, what has happened is exactly what you'd expect to happen... If we were at full employment the deficit would actually be much smaller (because we'd have all that extra revenue and we wouldn't be spending so much on programs like employment insurance).
