Tag: spending cuts

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Politics taxes

Republicans Released Their “Balanced” Plan – No Taxes On The Rich, Middle Class Pays More

Republicans have decided to release their list of demands.

After the president’s plan at a balanced approach to avoid the fiscal cliff was laughed at by Republican House Leader John Boehner, Americans waited with baited breath in anticipation of what Republicans would propose. Well the wait is over and to no one’s surprise, Republicans are still protecting the rich and asking the poor and middle class to pay more.

Here are the basics of the “balanced” plan proposed by Republicans today:

1. No new taxes on the rich.

2. Spending cuts on services benefiting the middle class to the tune of $600 billion

3. More spending cuts on what is being called “Health Services” to the tune of another $600 billion

4. Revenues from “tax reform” equaling $800 billion over 10 years.

In total, Republicans are looking to bring in $2.2 trillion dollars by cutting services that benefit the needy, while at the same time, protecting the greedy. After releasing their offer, House Speaker Boehner told the press that the plan was “credible.” He said,“what we are putting forward is a credible plan that deserves serious consideration by the White House.” He also requested that the White House respond as soon as possible.

The president’s plan in comparison looked to raise $1.6 trillion in new taxes, while letting the tax rate for those making more than $250,000 go back to what it was under the Clinton administration. It called for tax reforms and closing loopholes and cuts $400 billion in services.

Categories
Domestic Policies taxes

Cliff Notes

When I was growing up, I had a good friend named Cliff. He was smart and funny, OK, corny, and a bit nerdy, but he had a good heart and I’m sure he’s doing wonderful things with his life.

Meanwhile, his name is being dragged through the mud.

This Fiscal Cliff business is terrible for anyone named Cliff and it’s even worse that it’s hogging the headlines around the holidays with no end in sight. The media is absolutely breathless at the thought that on January 1…very little will happen. Yes, tax rates will go up and federal spending will go down, but it will take a few weeks or months for the real effect to take hold. Of course, the real impact will be on the stock market and on business spending because if there’s no deal then they’ll have to make serious decisions that could tilt us back into recession.

In the meantime, the political posturing is so bad a team of chiropractors is on 24-hour call on Pennsylvania Avenue. Maybe that stretch that has all of the homeless people sleeping under scaffolding. The president and John Boehner could do worse than to meet there just to remind themselves of what effects their actions have on the country.

What’s obvious is that the Republican Party has learned very little from last month’s election. It’s clear that the public will blame the GOP if there is no deal because, unlike the far right, most Americans have a sense of fairness that says that wealthy people need to pay more and some social programs need to be cut because that’s what we do when we have a problem in this country. We compromise. We talk to each other. We each contribute what we can to solve the issue.

The Republican establishment doesn’t understand this and it’s in President Obama’s best interest to remind people daily that the failure will fall squarely on one political party. Grover Norquist’s notorious no-tax pledge has always been a bad idea, and its effects on our system have resulted in a government that teeters between not being able to pay its bills and doing just enough with what it has to mess things up. Ronald Reagan famously said that government is the problem, then set us on a fiscal course that ensured a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Elections have consequences and fortunately, this year’s results shifted the debate away from obstructionism and towards practical solutions. Unfortunately, political change take time. The Democrats didn’t realize how much they had lost the message after 1984 and it took them at least 8 years to regroup and find the Clintonian third way. The Supreme Court robbed the country of a slow recovery from the excesses of the Gingrich revolution in 2000, and the hardened right was able to solidify its gains in 2010.

It could take until 2016 or even 2018 for the left to realize what this past election promised. Marriage equality, a path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, a fairer tax code, universal health care and biting financial regulation will get pushed this term in the Congress, but real progress will be slow. The last clawing cuts of the Republican conservatives will draw blood for a while longer, to the detriment of society at large. Perhaps the next president, who will be a Democrat, can push these things over the finish line. History will remember and celebrate Barack Obama for setting the table.

So as another week dawns and we wonder what new twists the political debate will take, keep in mind that we are seeing the end of an era. It was an era of excess and stubbornness, with some necessary reforms, but ultimately as much a failed experiment of the right as the end of the 1970s was for the left. The fiscal cliff is but a symptom. The GOP will lose more than they gain because they have to if we are to move forward. My hope is with the future.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

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Barack Obama Politics White House

President Promises To Veto Bill With Entitlement Cuts Alone

As the middle class continues to suffer, another Washington showdown has begun.

Last week, John Boehner made a statement in which he advised the Super Committee to keep taxes off the negotiating table, “it’s a very simple equation,” Boehner said, speaking to the Economic Club of Washington,”tax increases destroy jobs. And the Joint Committee is a jobs committee. Its mission is to reduce the deficit that is threatening job creation in our country.”

Boehner’s claims of course, are unfounded. Over the last 11 years, taxes on these “job creators” have been lower than in previous administrations, including the Clinton White House, where they paid more in taxes, and the economy flourished. If lowering taxes was the answer, the economy would be better now than it was under Clinton.

But back to the showdown…

After Boehner made his statement trying to influence the decisions being made in the Super Committee, whose job is to come up with another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction by Thanksgiving, Senior White House officials told the Huffington Post that President Obama will veto any agreement that has only cuts in entitlement programs and no tax increase on the wealthy.

“[W]hat the president is saying is he is not doing [beneficiary reforms] if the Republicans are unwilling to ask the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share,” explained a senior administration official. “What they can’t do is send something to us with the things we propose and without the stuff on the revenue side because we will veto that.”

In a speech today, the President will also outline a proposal to ask the top 3% of millionaire Americans to contribute at the same tax rate that middle class Americans pay.

If we are to draw a conclusion from previous showdowns between the White House and the Congressional Republicans, calling this a win for the no-compromising-Republicans would not be far-fetched. However, the Super Committee’s decision is above the influence threshold of Boehner and the Republicans.

Built into the agreement to raise the debt ceiling is specific language that governs how the Super Committee functions. And part of that language states that the President maintains his veto rights and can use those rights if he disagrees with the Committee’s recommendations. But if an agreement is not reached by the members of the Committee, a trigger mechanism automatically goes into effect, cutting funds from programs both Democrats and Republicans adore.

Hmmm, maybe the President did win the debt ceiling debate after all…!

 

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Politics

In A Ron Paul Administration, Disaster Victims Are On Their Own

Ron Paul is running for President on the Republican ticket. Let’s just say for argument’s sake, that Ron Paul wins his party’s nomination and goes on to win the Presidency in 2012. I know, it’s far-fetched, but let’s just say… If Ron Paul becomes president, his government will not help out when there are natural disasters.

With Hurricane Irene quickly approaching the east coast, this report was filed concerning Paul’s plan to handle such disasters;

After a lunch speech today, Ron Paul slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and said that no national response to Hurricane Irene is necessary.

“We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960,” Paul said. “I live on the gulf coast, we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district.

“There’s no magic about FEMA. They’re a great contribution to deficit financing and quite frankly they don’t have a penny in the bank. We should be coordinated but coordinated voluntarily with the states,” Paul told NBC News. “A state can decide. We don’t need somebody in Washington.”

FEMA is a Federal Emergency Management Agency whose job is to  assist local governments when they need help recovering from disasters. But according to Paul, FEMA is a “great contribution to the deficit.” Pay no attention to the real American lives this agency saves all the time.

And Ron Paul is not the only Republican who believes in money over human lives. Eric Cantor also shares Paul’s views, and even said that if any monies are spent to save or help Americans in the recent Earthquake and the upcoming Hurricane, then that money must be offset by spending cuts.

So to conclude, your home, your livelihood and even your life may hang in the balance, but Cantor will need to go to Washington first, figure out how much to cut from another program, preferably Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, then apply those newly cut funds to helping disaster victims.

Paul on the other hand, would prefer the government to just sit on its hands and watch the citizens suffer.

Welcome to a Republican controlled America. Good thing its just make believe.

Categories
CNN Politics

Multiple Polls Say – Raise Taxes Before Spending Cuts

Two polls, conducted on the same day showed the same thing – Americans, by a margin of 2 to 1, prefer raising taxes to address the deficit instead of spending cuts alone. The Gallop poll, conducted on 8/10/2011, shows 66% supports raising taxes, while 33% prefers spending cuts, and the CNN poll conducted on the same day mirrors the Gallop results, with 63% for more taxes, and 36% for more spending cuts.

Another poll conducted a day before on 8/9/2011 by another polling agency called McClatchy/Marist, showed the same results. In that poll, 68% of Americans think raising taxes is the way to go, as opposed to the 29% who want more spending cuts.

If you think there’s a pattern here, there is. Over 23 different polls dating back to December 12th, 2010 found the same thing – Americans prefer raising taxes to combat the deficit problem over cutting spending to programs that help people.

See the full table here.

 

Categories
Politics Republican

Boehner Plays Hardball–Government Shutdown Looms Ahead

The Boehner has spoken!

“We are going to cut spending!” And with those words, the House Speaker exited the podium to the left. But in his haste to cut spending, what will happen to the funding of everyday government operations after the March 4th deadline?

The Republican controlled House is determined to cut $100 billion in spending from the new budget, and the Democratic controlled Senate is poised to refuse such “draconian” cuts. Can the two governing bodies come to a compromise before the deadline?

To make matters worse, both the House and the Senate will be off the entire week for President’s day. When they return to work after their much needed vacation – because we know how hard they’ve worked over the last month, a total of 10 days in January – they will have only five days to come to an agreement on the new budget.

Boehner is not budging on his $100 billion cuts he promised the Teaparty, saying;

“We are hopeful that the Senate will take up the House‑passed bill that comes out of here today, tonight, tomorrow morning, whenever it is, and we hope that they will move it. But I am not going to move any kind of short‑term CR at current levels. When we say we’re going to cut spending, read my lips:  We are going to cut spending.”

And what is the Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid saying about this?

“I am disappointed that Speaker Boehner doesn’t believe he has the votes to avoid a government shutdown, unless his members get their way on all of their demands. It is unproductive to resort to threats of a shutdown without any negotiations.”

Meanwhile, the clock ticks on til March 4th.

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