<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><a href="http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/15710-focus-the-myth-of-living-beyond-our-means">http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/15710-focus-the-myth-of-living-beyond-our-means</a></span><br><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; "><h1 class="txttitle" style="margin-top: 30px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold; width: 475px; ">The Myth of Living Beyond Our Means</h1><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; line-height: 17px; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; ">By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; line-height: 17px; font-size: 15px; color: rgb(220, 59, 65); font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">25 January 13</div><div style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; line-height: 17px; font-size: 15px; "> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; line-height: 17px; font-size: 15px; "><img border="0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; " id="4877a8de-be88-4c97-bccd-239bfdef7d36" height="25" width="20" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:72D63400-598F-4532-80BB-25BC3B603F00">race yourself. In coming weeks you'll hear there's no serious alternative to cutting Social Security and Medicare, raising taxes on middle class, and decimating what's left of the federal government's discretionary spending on everything from education and job training to highways and basic research.</p><p class="indent" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; line-height: 17px; font-size: 15px; text-indent: 30pt; ">"We" must make these sacrifices, it will be said, in order to deal with our mushrooming budget deficit and cumulative debt. But most of the people who are making this argument are very wealthy or are sponsored by the very wealthy: Wall Street moguls like Pete Peterson and his "Fix the Debt" brigade, the Business Roundtable, well-appointed think tanks and policy centers along the Potomac, members of the Simpson-Bowles commission</p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; "><p class="indent" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; line-height: 17px; font-size: 15px; text-indent: 30pt; ">These regressive sentiments are packaged in a mythology that Americans have been living beyond our means: We've been unwilling to pay for what we want government to do for us, and we are now reaching the day of reckoning... </p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><a href="http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/15710-focus-the-myth-of-living-beyond-our-means">http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/15710-focus-the-myth-of-living-beyond-our-means</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; "><p class="indent" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; line-height: 17px; font-size: 15px; text-indent: 30pt; "> </p></span></div></body></html>