1062: Budget News

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Budget News

Title text: I will vote, no questions asked, for any candidate who describes themselves as 'more of a deficit sugar glider.'

Explanation

This comic is a use of homonym of the word "hawk" in the phrase "Deficit hawk". Wikipedia has a great definition: "Deficit hawk is an American political slang term for people who place great emphasis on keeping the federal budget under control. Deficit hawks believe the best way to reduce the deficit, pay off national debt, and balance the budget is by a combination of increasing taxes and cutting government spending." It is derived from the concept of a "hawk", or "warhawk", being a person who advocates aggressive foreign policy, compared with "doves" who prefer negotiated diplomacy; a deficit hawk thus tends to promote harsher economic actions to 'defeat' deficits.

And obviously, a 'regular' hawk is a bird of prey. In this case, the prey has become a politician known to be fiscally strict. This event may have been contrived, as a certain Black Hat is visible in the audience.

In the title text, there is a reference to the sugar glider, which is a small gliding possum originating from the marsupial infraclass or subclass. They are generally considered to be cute and harmless, as well as being relatively obscure, indicating a politician who is humorous and good-natured enough to make such a comparison, as well as nerdy enough to know what a sugar glider is. Having an insect diet, along with the sugary saps that inspire its name, a "deficit sugar glider" would not normally be seen as aggressive (by anyone not relating themselves to any sort of insect) as the carnivore-inspired "hawk", but would perhaps be considered more proactive than those who might be said to equivalently tend to 'peck' at a deficit's 'peppercorn grains' and 'low-hanging fruits'.

Transcript

[The front page of a newspaper with the name of the paper in large gray letters at the top, and several unreadable sections left of, right of, and below the main front page news. A large heading is written to the left of a photo on the right. In the photo a man with black hair who has been standing behind a lectern with a microphone delivering a speech is falling towards the left and holding out one hand in that direction while blocking his face with the other hand against an attack from a large black bird. Below the podium with the lectern is the top of the crowd in the front row. Five Cueball-like guys (two cut off at the edges), a person with black hair and Black Hat to the right can be seen. Below the headline and below the picture are black lines indicating the main text in the article.]

Title: The Daily News

Headline: Deficit Hawk Attacked by Regular One

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Discussion

Shame the hawk didn't go after a war hawk. Iran has been going on for faaar too long. Davidy²²[talk] 13:43, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

This has now happened to Donald Trump http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-narrowly-escapes-being-attacked-by-a-bald-eagle-on-time-magazine-shoot-a6767501.html 162.158.255.37 03:45, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

Yeah but I wouldn't call Trump any kind of eagle. That scene is still hilarious and indicative though, especially since now Bernie Sanders can simply summon small birds to him -Pennpenn 108.162.250.155 05:33, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Of course Trump is some kind of eagle: an ill eagle! 162.158.154.37 17:28 22 April 2017 (UTC)

Has anyone else noticed that Black Hat is in the audience? Does anyone else think that that might be a hint as to what's going on? --XndrK (talk) 00:09, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

almost definitely. 172.69.68.122 10:20, 4 October 2021 (UTC)