Elephants Never Remember

Rick McKee, 7/29/11:

Actually, it's "cut, cap, and balance" -- the Tea Party wants the government to stop doing some unspecified things that it's doing now, like maybe paving roads, keeping the air clean, or Medicaid, and then never again be able to raise any more money than it's getting now, no matter what happens.

And, you know, the government did spend substantially less than it took in...until 2001, when a certain President pushed through a bunch of big tax cuts, a major new entitlement (Medicare Part D), and funding for two wars. So should we just go back to the Clinton-era tax code?

What Else WOULD a Government Do Except Tax and Spend? Play Hopscotch?

Dick Locher, 7/28/11:

So only government revenue (taxation) and programs (spending) keep the country from falling into the abyss?

I wonder if that's what Locher thought he meant.

Budget Bulimia

Taylor Jones, 7/28/11:

Obama and Boehner are discretely vomiting directly behind each other, and if you think I'm going to spend one second more trying to work out how cooperative vomiting is a metaphor for the debt ceiling crisis, you've got another think coming.

Assume Crash Positions

Michael Ramirez, 7/28/11:

So the airplane, representing US government spending, is heading downward at high speed?

I think Ramirez needs to take another look at that metaphor, unless he wants to start thinking of taxes as the fuel that keeps the government from crashing -- which I very much doubt is where he meant to go with this.

All of Us Are in the Gutter

Cameron Cardow, 7/28/11:

So...we're supposed to want our governments to entirely stop spending money?

The Most Wonderful Thing About Congressmen

Jack Ohman, 7/25/11:
This is what we call in the cartoon business a "gimmie" -- when politics hands you a guy in a tiger suit, you have no choice but to do a Winnie-the-Pelosi panel that day.

Snow Day

Henry Payne, 7/27/11:

Remember, the government cannot create jobs, but it's always the one to blame if job creation isn't strong enough.

Also, notice that Payne lives far enough north that he can feel comfortable drawing a snowstorm this week -- must be nice to be him!

The World's Address

V.C. Rogers, 7/27/11:

Oh, no! Mr. Earth will have to go to the cosmic 7-11, which is all the way out in orbit around Neptune, to get more sunblock! And that will mean that he'll have to spend too many galactic dollars for the space gas to fill up his solar scooter!

Is this supposed to be a commentary on global warming? (And, if so, does Rogers know that climate change is not due to any increase in solar radiation?) Or is this just another "Gosh, it gets hot in the summertime" cartoon?

The Taxonomy of the America Homosexual

Paul Berge, 7/27/11:

Aparrently, "the kind who was worked to death by an oppressive government for insisting on his rights" is not an answer Berge is prepared to give to that very pertinent question.

Pity, that.

Aren't "Jobs for Life" Just the Most Horrifying Thing?

Nate Beeler, 7/26/11:

Didn't we used to think that employers who repaid workers' loyalty with loyalty in return was a good thing?

Oh, wait, I forgot: anything the government does is bad, by definition. (Like roads, and clean air, and the military, and the various "keeping old people from dying in the streets" programs.)

And Then Legal Filibusters It To Death

Mike Smith, 7/26/11:

I'm confused: is Smith saying that business doesn't operate like that?

Because I'm pretty sure I've been in that exact meeting several times in my career.

Baby Talk

David Horsey, 7/26/11:

Hey, remember the other day, when Clay Bennett had a "the Tea Party is a big baby" cartoon?

Well, I guess Horsey got jealous, because here's his take on the same idea.

Strap Your Hands Across My Engines

Henry Payne, 7/24/11:

Payne is yet another in the long line of commentators who misunderstands the relationship between the debt ceiling and government spending, but that's OK -- he has this splendidly labeled cartoon to show for it. (If spending is a car, then the debt ceiling wouldn't be a speed limit -- it's the size of the highway system, perhaps.)

Note that we're subtly reminded of Obama's race by the backwards baseball cap.

Also note that it's a small car, which is always a bad thing in a Payne cartoon.

I'm Melting!

Bado, 7/23/11:

The fact that it's hot now no more proves that global warming is happening than the fact that it was cold in the winter proved that it wasn't happening.

C'mon, folks, is the slightest bit of logical consistency too much to ask?

Teeth of a Dilemma

Lisa Benson, 7/22/11:

The teeth of Obamanomics must be really tough on business, since big US companies are posting record profits almost daily. It's got to be tough to hold onto that gigantic satchel of money when it keeps getting heavier and heavier, and the tax burden keeps getting lighter and lighter (with a promised "holiday" to bring back money stashed overseas, too).

Pity those poor, cash-burdened companies. Pity them.

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

Clay Bennett, 7/23/11:

The Tea Party is a bunch of big babies.

Tomorrow, Bennett will also assert that they're meanie doo-doo heads, and that he's going to hold his breath until they let him play with the good blocks.

Listen to the Resounding Chorus of "Too Soon!"s

Milt Priggee, 7/22/11:

In defense of Priggee, at least he didn't show the GOP as a blond-haired Norwegian guy mowing down all of the little US credit rating kids on an island. So we have to give him some credit.

Growl Snarl Snap Growf Bark Woof

Mike Lester, 7/21/11:

Lester isn't really implying that black Americans are vicious dogs that need to be "returned," is he?

Please tell me this is based on some actual news story about violent pets that I've missed....

Shocked, Shocked!

Lisa Benson, 7/21/11:

It is continually surprising when people with completely different political ideals and goals fail to go along with one's exceptionally partisan plans, particularly when those plans are carefully crafted to benefit one's own supporters and deeply damage the opposition in every way.

My Achy Breaky Head

MStreeter, 7/19/11:

Migrane headaches are an absolute disqualification for the office of the President, as is any mildly serious health condition.

Like polio.

Hot Enough for Ya?

Scott Stantis, 7/21/11:

Sometimes it gets hot in the summertime, and this is surprising.

Also see cartoons by Jimmy Margulies, Paul Fell, Robert Ariall, and Jeff Stahler.

Pat Bagley gets away with it by actually including an element of political humor, which was once considered a prerequisite for this job. Chris Britt attempts a non sequitur that should rightfully been done by a cartoonist in Kansas.

Is Her Name Warda?

Clay Bennett, 7/21/11:

Hold on a minute, there -- Cain only hates the evil kind of Muslims. He just happens to believe that they're all evil, and that our cities can only be purified by fire and blood. That's not racist at all.

Fly Boys

Joe Heller, 7/21/11:

Actually, Obama's approval rating has been up and down, like most Presidents', without any really consistent pattern. (Except for the fact that, also like most Presidents, we liked him a lot better before he actually started doing specific things.)

But Heller gets bonus points for attempting the extra difficulty of Three Things Make a Cartoon, instead of settling for the usual Two.

Note the Subtle "In Bed With the Media" Insinuation

Mike Lester, 7/19/11:

Any foreign scandal can be illustrated by a caricature of the current president as a battle-axe housewife.

This has been Lazy Cartoonists' Lesson # 385 -- collect the whole set!

Who Are They Playing Against?

Gary Varvel, 7/20/11:

Judging by their jerseys, the donkey and the elephant are on one team, and Obama is on the other -- so are those first two actually arguing about who gets credit for all of those goals?

Dim Bulbs

Randy Bish, 7/20/11:

Because Thomas Edison, tireless inventor, holder of 1093 patents, actually wanted technology to stand still, and for new inventions never to supplant old technology.

Perhaps Bish needs a trip to Menlo Park for a little refresher course on what Edison really stood for.

Sad Murdoch Is Sad

Dan Wasserman, 7/18/11:

It's so sad when a billionaire scandal-rag owner finally gets the what-for he's given other people for the last forty years.

No, wait. What's the other thing? Glorious.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Chuck Asay, 7/19/11:

Remember: children must be taught that some things are shameful and evil, and that they should never, ever do them. Oh, and cheating's bad, too.

(There's not a single education-related story that Asay won't link to sex education somehow -- he's like that guy on the bus who keeps ranting about the Trilateral Commission.)

It's Warren Buffett's World; We Just Live in It

Jeff Koterba, 7/19/11:

Today Koterba's got a little shout-out to the bond wonks -- ah yeah!

(Translation: BH bonds are currently, and uniquely, being rated by the market as safer than Treasuries.)

She's a Goddamn Marvel of Modern Science

Matt Bors, 7/18/11:

It'll be a damn sad day in American when being effectively insane is a disqualification for running for high office, rather then the prerequisite it is today.

And I resent Bors for trying to hurry that day along -- the only real question at hand is: is Bachman crazy enough to be President?

If You Find Yourself in a Hole

Tom Toles, 7/18/11:

Every other cartoonist has done a version of the "digging out from under the debt ceiling" cartoon by now, so it's finally Toles's turn.

But, since he's not in favor of the blindingly obvious metaphor everyone else uses -- if you're shoveling out something under the debt ceiling, it must be the stuff pushing you up to that ceiling, i.e., spending -- he instead comes back from vacation with that eternal friend of the lazy cartoonist, a panel complaining that politicians are practicing politics.

We All Shine a Light

Bob Englehart, 7/16/11:

Why on earth is the Fox News logo behind Teh Grauniad's [1] logo? Are we suppose to link the two somehow, or think that Murdock's own companies are actually investigating him?

Or did Englehart just put that in so that American readers will recognize something in this cartoon?


[1] Inside-British-journalism joke, misappropriated so that you'll think I'm more of an insider than I actually am.

What Good Is Money If It Can't Inspire Terror In Your Fellow Man?

Chris Britt, 7/15/11:

For a cartoonist working in a town named Springfield, having a guy who runs a power plant grabbing money and actually named "Burns" has got to be the biggest gimmie in the world.

And Britt, feeling the wind at his back, takes full advantage of the opportunity.

And, in Today's Random Partisan Slam....

Clay Bennett, 7/15/11:

Haw! Haw! Get it! Bennet puts no credit in the Republicans' fiscal policies! It's a meta-cartoon!

Well, either that, or it's yet another "Boo! The other guys are evil and incompetent!" cartoon about nothing in particular.

Today's Epistomological Questions

R.J. Matson, 7/15/11:

Is that can actually falling off the vanishing point? And if, in the world of this cartoon, the vanishing point is a place objects can reach and plummet from, how can any of us be safe?

National Treasure -- or Treasury?

Rick McKee, 7/15/11:

Selling off our national monuments to balance the budget is exactly the kind of forward-thinking, free-market solutions that our Congressional leaders would embrace -- and, if there's a low-bid sweetheart deal for some major campaign contributors, all the better!

Normally, I wouldn't expect Obama -- that first guy is meant to be Obama, right? -- to along with that kind of plan, but he's moving closer to the Republican position every day, so another week or so should do it.

Is She Proud Mary?

Hap Pitkin, 7/14/11:

Yes, the Boulder Big Wheel Rally is a real thing.

And also a fine example of Two Things Make a Cartoon!

Lock Up Your Sisters! Congress Is In Town!

Paul Fell, 7/14/11:

So Congress is in cartoon "robber" shorthand, having stolen a big bag of...something from...somewhere.

But they'll pay! Because the Junkyard Dog of Fall Elections is going to get them!

Until someone remembers that all of Congress stands for election in even-numbered years.

And then we all just scratch our heads, and try to puzzle out what Fell could have possibly been thinking of.

Is This What They Call Truck Farming?

Ann Cleaves, 7/14/11:

California's 405 freeway will be under serious construction this weekend...in the vicinity of Los Angeles, rather than in any of the agricultural areas of that fine state.

So I know what this cartoon is referring to, but I'm vastly less clear on what it means.

Don't Forget to Charge the Baby!

Dick Locher, 7/13/11:

Either there just was a big tech merger involving, one one side, a company starting with the letter "M" and, on the other, a firm whose logo has a woman in a hospital bed...

...or Locher is in one of his "screw it, let's just draw stuff" moods again.

Dunning Letter

Bob Gorrell, 7/13/11:

Because there's no reason why forcing the government to stop paying its debts would, you know, actually affect the money the government pays out or anything, right?

TL; DR

John Auchter, 7/13/11:

"Minor city no-one else cares about."

See? Easy.

East, West, Each as Stupid as the Other

Pat Bagley, 7/13/11:

Ah, it's been a while since we had a good "Republicans are Bond villains" cartoon, hasn't it?

But why are we all pretending anyone really cares about the corporate jet loophole? (Is it just the official synecdoche term for this particular budget foofaraw?)

Going Over Like a....

Scott Stantis, 7/13/11:

So Elmer Fudd is flying a gigantic concrete balloon, upside down?

I suspect this is another in Stantis's odd little series expressing his disdain for Chicagoland's public art, as seen last month.

Does This Mean Angier is Da Nang?

V.C. Rogers, 7/13/11:

It's always a secret Communist plot when one thing looks like another thing! Sorta, kinda. If you squint. Really hard.

Is the Ponytail As Distracting To Everyone Else?

Kevin Siers, 7/11/11:

Obama murdered the economy with chloroform and duct tape! And he's going to get away with it, too!

(After that, he's probably coming to get your guns!)

Two Men in a Boat

Paul Fell, 7/12/11:

Now, now, let's not get all rude and personal here...and, besides, don't we all know that the intransigence in the House is all really Eric Cantor's fault?

Turn Your Head and Cough

Eric Semelroth, 7/12/11:

Shouldn't it be the elephant that's the patient, since he's the one having the reflex reaction?

And what's up with the donkey's sock, anyway -- is that somehow germane to the joke here?

Hoist By His Own Ringtone

Milt Priggee, 7/12/11:

It would be really rude to point out that the phones hacked were all mobiles, and thus cordless, wouldn't it?

So forget I mentioned it.

Shall Not Perish From My Plate

Chris Britt, 7/11/11:

This might not exactly be reason for rejoicing or anything, but I seem to recall that there are currently fifty states, so Illinois, at the 23rd fattest, is right in the middle of the pack.

But don't let that get in the way of a good Fat Abe joke or anything.