Opinion

Gallup reported yesterday that a greater percentage of Americans (17 percent) are identifying the issue of the federal budget deficit and the debt as the most pressing favoring the country than at any time in the last 15 years. This is not surprising given the fact that it has been the dominant debate in Washington since the 2010 election, and especially in the last week or so as Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan laid out the GOP plan to solve the issue Wednesday President Obama unveiled his solution.

This week’s CNN poll shows Donald Trump tied for the lead among the GOP 2012 presidential contenders, along with Mike Huckabee. Trump and Huckabee came in at 19 percent, Sarah Palin at 12 percent, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich tied at 11 percent, followed by Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul in single digits. This poll says to  me that many Republicans are still looking around, waiting for Superman to arrive.

Remember last week’s $38.5 billion budget deal? The one that averted a government shutdown? If you’ve paying attention to the news, you might have noticed that that $38.5 billion is a suddenly slippery figure. Depending upon who you listen to, deal actually only cut $352 million (with an ‘m’) in spending, or added $3.3 billion (with a ‘b’), or looking over the longer term, it cut $20-25 billion or maybe even $315 billion.

Is your head spinning yet? Here’s a primer on where the various figures come from and what they mean.

Benjamin Franklin once said that nothing in life was certain save for “death and taxes.” With a Democrat in the White House the part about taxes is certainly true.