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Tax Cuts: Unsolicited Advice to the President

by: elwood

Sat Nov 13, 2010 at 10:28:02 AM EST
So President Obama's top priority is extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class. And if that means a $700 billion giveaway to the rich, that may be okay.

And President Obama's Catfood Commission is urging that we cut Social Security benefits, raise the retirement age, cut back veterans medical benefits, and make lots of other unspecified cuts because the deficit is unsustainable.

Now, I'm not as credentialed as Austan Goolsbee or Tim Geithner. But my advice is: let the damn tax cuts expire as scheduled. Return to the Clinton-era rates, which were not onerous. Let the deficit recede (you will also need to end the damn wars, like you promised.)

Stop promoting attacks on the social fabric.

Stop acting like a Republican.
elwood :: Tax Cuts: Unsolicited Advice to the President
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Tax Cuts: Unsolicited Advice to the President | 3 comments
Social Security (4.00 / 2)
has nothing to do with the deficit, as Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina points out:

More to the point, Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. "Since Social Security is legally prohibited from ever spending more than it has collected in taxes," Dean Baker correctly argues, "it cannot under the law contribute to the deficit."

The Social Security system "fell outside of the mandate" of the Deficit Commission, Baker said. "They must have been expecting extra credit."

We are right to worry about Social Security, and we are right to worry about our long-term deficit. But the two are completely distinct.

So proposing to "reform" Social Security because of long-term deficits is like invading Iraq because Afghanistan attacked us.

Or maybe the Social Security system has weapons of mass destruction.

If only more of our elected officials would point this out, instead of engaging in pre-emptive compromising.  

member of the professional left  

"It's a big club, and you ain't in it." (0.00 / 0)

It might be possible that Carlin was too subtle.

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." A. Einstein

[ Parent ]
Republicans continue to shift the (0.00 / 0)
center to the right, and Democrats are only too happy to chase it.  

Next thing you know, there will be a plan out there to squeeze money out of Social Security, cut veterans' benefits, and reduce education spending so that we can lower the top tax bracket to 23%.  You can't make this stuff up - it's like a nightmare.

It's also reflective of every other policy debate in DC.  In order to provide some crumbs to the masses, huge giveaways are necessary to "compromise".

"People are so tired of dealing with two-foot midgets, you give them someone two foot four and they start proclaiming him a giant."  Studs Terkel.

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." A. Einstein

Tax Cuts: Unsolicited Advice to the President | 3 comments

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