{"id":24537,"date":"2018-12-06T02:57:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T10:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=24537"},"modified":"2018-12-06T02:57:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T10:57:34","slug":"cartoon-the-tax-cut-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=24537","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: The Tax Cut Cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you like these cartoons, please help me make more by supporting my patreon<\/a>! A $1 pledge really matters to me.<\/p>\n

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I’m fascinated by cycles, and I’ve done several cartoons before attempting a circular layout. I think it’s worth doing, because it’s important to realize how many things in politics do become self-perpetuating cycles.<\/p>\n

It’s also (to me) an interesting technical question. Comics are, by nature, rectangular (or square); magazines pages are rectangular, images for posting on the web are rectangular. So how can a circular cartoon be made to work with a rectangular image area? And what to do with the somewhat awkward center area that usually results from doing pie-slice-shaped panels? And what to do with the empty areas outside the circle? I always find it interesting to try and solve these problems.<\/p>\n

The issue this cartoon looks at is one that I find immensely frustrating, like virtually all the progressive Democrats I know. The Republican party continually uses the deficit as an excuse to say no progressive legislation can be afforded (and indeed, to argue for making huge cuts); but as soon as they’re in charge, they blow up the deficit with enormous tax cuts and large (often military) expenses.<\/p>\n

Like I said: Frustrating. <\/p>\n

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON<\/strong><\/p>\n

This cartoon is a circle. At the center of the circle is the title of the cartoon: “The Tax Cut Cycle.” Four panels are in the circle; arrows indicate that the panels are to be read clockwise.<\/p>\n

PANEL 1<\/strong>
\nTwo men, one in a collared button-up shirt and carrying a clipboard, the other wearing glasses and a necktie, are speaking cheerfully to the reader.
\nCLIPBOARD: Now that the budget looks okay, the GOP has a plan to cut taxes for Americans (especially the rich ones).
\nGLASSES: Don’t worry! This definitely won’t increase the deficit!<\/p>\n

An arrow leads clockwise from this panel to<\/p>\n

PANEL 2<\/strong>
\nA newspaper (“The Weekly Daily”) shows the headline “Deficit SOARS.” A graph on the front page of the newspaper shows a trend line heading upward.<\/p>\n

An arrow leads clockwise from this panel to<\/p>\n

PANEL 3<\/strong>
\nClipboard and Glasses – Glasses now looking a great deal more malevolent – are smiling and speaking to the readers. Clipboard is shrugging in a “what ya gonna do?” gesture.
\nGLASSES: Despite our huge tax cuts, the deficit still went way up!
\nCLIPBOARD: So now we have to cut social security! Gosh, what a sad outcome.<\/p>\n

An arrow leads clockwise from this panel to<\/p>\n

PANEL 4<\/strong>
\nTwo people in business wear, a man and a woman, are talking. They look unhappy.
\nMAN: So now we put our priorities on hold to fix their deficit?
\nWOMAN: We’re Democrats – it’s what we do.<\/p>\n

An arrow leads clockwise from this panel, back to panel 1, restarting the cycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you like these cartoons, please help me make more by supporting my patreon! A $1 pledge really matters to me. I’m fascinated by cycles, and I’ve done several cartoons before attempting a circular layout. I think it’s worth doing, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24539,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24537\/revisions\/24539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}