We may yet get a budget deal without a government shutdown, but it won’t be any credit to the Tea Party absolutists who see ANY compromise as a betrayal of their core principles. It will be because feckless Democrats caved on theirs. The last I heard, the Dems were so desperate for a deal they [...]

A little lighter fare for the holidays. I’ll be back to my nasty old self soon enough.

We now have two commissions recommending ways to trim the deficit. The one the president appointed made its preferred approach known last week, and now an independent commission has come up with an even stronger approach. Given the current state of affairs in washington, both approaches are dead on arrival. The GOP will have nothing [...]

After a week off to work on a special ultra-double-secret project, I’m back. I’m so tired of the endless Washington ugliness, I decided to go elsewhere (sort of) for a cartoon subject. As a long-time space geek, I’m as troubled as anyone by the seeming lack of direction at NASA, its inability to leapfrog the [...]

I’m not sure, given the dire economic conditions, that Obama had much choice, but the combination of bailouts, stimulus and tax cuts created a budget with a projected $1.7 trillion deficit. The $100 million he’s asked in cuts is laughably tiny compared to the massive spending. A deficit this large will have serious long-term consequences. [...]