If I had any faith that the Congress wouldn't just keep spending every extra dollar raised time some increasingly shocking multiple, I wouldn't mind raising taxes. That is the truth. But I have not confidence that raising taxes won't just lead to even higher deficit spending and a larger and larger government.
I do think we should close loopholes and get rid of market distorting tax breaks, deductions, write offs and other accounting tricks. That will raise revenue without raising rates. Not enough, of course.
Unfortunately, the Norquist drones in the GOP consider closing loopholes to be a violation of their blood pact. Fortunately, there seems to be some talk about revenues being on the table from a few on the GOP side in this super-committee. I just hope this isn't a ruse to force an amendment trigger.
In this I think Norquist is wrong, although I would concede to him that the extra revenue will likely be frittered away in typical DC fashion. I just happen to think that removing the perverse incentives is worth it, especially if it helps keep marginal rates low or even leads to a flatter simpler tax system in general. I'm not holding my breath, however.
Well, no. We need to handle the Big Four by spending cuts while simultaneously raising taxes. If we try one or the other, we do set ourselves up to fail.
The key part of the sentence is "major spending cuts to all four of the Big 4 Untouchables", Medicare, Social Security, Health Care, and Defense. We cannot cut three and leave the one alone, and nobody will ever cut the one and leave the other three alone in the 21st Century.
Obvious: there's no entitlement program called "Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other mandatory programs." Those are separate problems with separate issues.
By far the biggest driver of deficits over the long-term is Medicare. In the medium term, it's flagging revenues as a result of both the poor economy and poor tax policy. So the best thing we can do to reduce spending is fix health care.
As far as just this year goes, however, those entitlements have been paid for with payroll taxes. It's the stuff paid for with general revenues that's the issue. Big scary numbers aren't any good without context.
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~M~
Hint: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost us $3 trillion ALREADY. SS pays for itself and is fully funded until 2037.
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I do think we should close loopholes and get rid of market distorting tax breaks, deductions, write offs and other accounting tricks. That will raise revenue without raising rates. Not enough, of course.
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Unfortunately, the Norquist drones in the GOP consider closing loopholes to be a violation of their blood pact. Fortunately, there seems to be some talk about revenues being on the table from a few on the GOP side in this super-committee. I just hope this isn't a ruse to force an amendment trigger.
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Good luck.
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By far the biggest driver of deficits over the long-term is Medicare. In the medium term, it's flagging revenues as a result of both the poor economy and poor tax policy. So the best thing we can do to reduce spending is fix health care.
As far as just this year goes, however, those entitlements have been paid for with payroll taxes. It's the stuff paid for with general revenues that's the issue. Big scary numbers aren't any good without context.
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