- Jun 6, 2007
- 853
- 483
- 910
Congress should not extend the Social Security tax cuts, I know extending them will help struggling middle class families but there is other ways to help these Americans without being a bad steward of the nation's finances which extending them will amount to! Back in December of 2010 when the SS tax cuts were first enacted into law it being done because Washington politicians didn't have the courage to pass stimulus payments to America families because of the political stigma attached to them even though that is what the nation needed many analysts said this was a really bad move on Congress's part because once they lower this SS tax they will have to make it permanent because of the political gamesmanship that will surround not doing so from the standpoint that politicians that don't agree to the extension will be labeled as tax raisers and suffer political fallout over it. At that time, I personally thought like many good Americans no our society has not disintegrated that much that it would mess with the well-being of the Social Security fund for political reasons which such a course would do. But we have been proven wrong President Obama and Democrat Congressional leadership have been characterizing the issue this way that the Republicans want to raise taxes on middle class families to protect millionaires and billionaires and the Republicans have accepted this premise that not extending the SS tax cut is raising taxes on Americans. The mischaracterization of this whole issue is a grievous wrong to the American people this 6.2% Social Security charge on Americans' income are pension payments, the Social Secuirty Administration pays millions of retired Americans a pension every month and the money to pay these pensions comes from this 6.2 % charge on American workers income, this SS program today operates at a cash flow deficit that is the payments from American workers doesn't pay for the pension payout to America retirees. This action by Congress to extend the SS tax cut and let's be honest the plan is to make this tax cut permanent will lock-in this Social Security system being a financially unsound system and is either guaranteeing that this program will one day face a day of reckoning where either benefits or workers premiums will be changed in a dramatically negative manner or this program will be a permanent albatross on the country's finances as significant amounts of money from the nation's general fund have to be directed to pay Social Security expenses on a yearly basis. This isn't even a close call this extending Social Security tax cuts for a Social Security Pension Program that long-term can't pay its pension obligations is outrageously irresponsible it demonstrates clearly America's political system is completely broken!
If members of Congress really care about middle class families and the economic struggle they go through this is how they can responsibly help. Stabilize the price of gasoline, middle class families need to drive to go to work, to do necessary shopping and for their children's needs, high gas prices really hurt these families a lot. The facts are that a large portion of the cost of a gallon of gasoline is dictated by the price of oil used to make the gasoline why doesn't Congress fix the price of domestically produced oil at say $90.00/barrel this still gives plenty of profit to oil producers, Congress only needs to do this for five years to allow the country to recover from the recession and bring on more domestic oil supply and cut oil demand by having the nation transition to an electric hybrid passenger vehicle fleet. It would even be immeasurable help for Congress to price fix domestically produced oil at $100/barrel today's current price range.
If members of Congress really want to show they care about middle class families why don't they provide the help they readily can to stop very high food inflation. It is a given that the current high food inflation that America and the world is experiencing is because of a shortage of various grain commodities and this is because of weather problems throughout the world and growing demand for these commodities. What the world needs is more farm land brought on line so more crops can be grown so commodity supplies increase which will cause commodity prices to be driven down. Congress has the power to force public lands to be used for farming in many cases this will require forests to be cleared but Congress can order this be done, it is Congress's duty to provide an ample food supply for the American people it is obviously not doing it's job here as evidenced by escalating food prices this suggested course of action will fix this for Congress!
If members of Congress really want to show they care about middle class families they can do a lot more to solve the European Union debt problem. This problem "financially distressed" Euro countries not being able to sell bonds at affordable and reasonable interest rates threatens to end the "Euro" as a currency, kill the European Union banking industry, cripple the U.S. banking industry, send the European Union into a depression the balance of the world into a recession. At the current time this problem is suppressing stock prices, scaring people that have money from investing, banks from lending and consumers from spending the way they would otherwise. Congress could solve this problem by authorizing one trillion dollars be given to the current Euro countries rescue fund as long as the Euro countries can get countries throughout the world to contribute another one and a half trillion dollars. With this bond buying power and a commitment from the European Central Bank to buy one dollar of bonds for every three dollar of bond the Rescue fund buys from distressed Euro countries this should end this problem, sovereign debt investors will know distressed Euro countries always will have a safety outlet to buy bonds and so these investors do not have to fear buying these countries bonds. U.S. and other countries help here shouldn't be run through the IMF because IMF has a reputation and it is necessary to preserve this reputation of holding debtors feet to the fire to get their money back and some of these distressed Euro countries which the Euro rescue fund rescues by buying their bonds may have to shown partial forgiveness in regards to paying on those bonds because repaying is just too onerous causes to much hardship on the people and their economies. The Congress also needs to authorize $400 billion for a TARP fund for European Union banks as long as the European Union can raise another $800 billion to add to this fund for recapitalizing European Union banks the world can't see a healthy European Union Economy without a healthy European Union Banking Industry, Tarp programs don't lose money if run well look at the US 2008 TARP program for example. It goes without saying that Congress should insist on the fiscal policy controls the European Union is already planning to implement be implemented for U.S.'s help here.
If members of Congress really care about middle class families and the economic struggle they go through this is how they can responsibly help. Stabilize the price of gasoline, middle class families need to drive to go to work, to do necessary shopping and for their children's needs, high gas prices really hurt these families a lot. The facts are that a large portion of the cost of a gallon of gasoline is dictated by the price of oil used to make the gasoline why doesn't Congress fix the price of domestically produced oil at say $90.00/barrel this still gives plenty of profit to oil producers, Congress only needs to do this for five years to allow the country to recover from the recession and bring on more domestic oil supply and cut oil demand by having the nation transition to an electric hybrid passenger vehicle fleet. It would even be immeasurable help for Congress to price fix domestically produced oil at $100/barrel today's current price range.
If members of Congress really want to show they care about middle class families why don't they provide the help they readily can to stop very high food inflation. It is a given that the current high food inflation that America and the world is experiencing is because of a shortage of various grain commodities and this is because of weather problems throughout the world and growing demand for these commodities. What the world needs is more farm land brought on line so more crops can be grown so commodity supplies increase which will cause commodity prices to be driven down. Congress has the power to force public lands to be used for farming in many cases this will require forests to be cleared but Congress can order this be done, it is Congress's duty to provide an ample food supply for the American people it is obviously not doing it's job here as evidenced by escalating food prices this suggested course of action will fix this for Congress!
If members of Congress really want to show they care about middle class families they can do a lot more to solve the European Union debt problem. This problem "financially distressed" Euro countries not being able to sell bonds at affordable and reasonable interest rates threatens to end the "Euro" as a currency, kill the European Union banking industry, cripple the U.S. banking industry, send the European Union into a depression the balance of the world into a recession. At the current time this problem is suppressing stock prices, scaring people that have money from investing, banks from lending and consumers from spending the way they would otherwise. Congress could solve this problem by authorizing one trillion dollars be given to the current Euro countries rescue fund as long as the Euro countries can get countries throughout the world to contribute another one and a half trillion dollars. With this bond buying power and a commitment from the European Central Bank to buy one dollar of bonds for every three dollar of bond the Rescue fund buys from distressed Euro countries this should end this problem, sovereign debt investors will know distressed Euro countries always will have a safety outlet to buy bonds and so these investors do not have to fear buying these countries bonds. U.S. and other countries help here shouldn't be run through the IMF because IMF has a reputation and it is necessary to preserve this reputation of holding debtors feet to the fire to get their money back and some of these distressed Euro countries which the Euro rescue fund rescues by buying their bonds may have to shown partial forgiveness in regards to paying on those bonds because repaying is just too onerous causes to much hardship on the people and their economies. The Congress also needs to authorize $400 billion for a TARP fund for European Union banks as long as the European Union can raise another $800 billion to add to this fund for recapitalizing European Union banks the world can't see a healthy European Union Economy without a healthy European Union Banking Industry, Tarp programs don't lose money if run well look at the US 2008 TARP program for example. It goes without saying that Congress should insist on the fiscal policy controls the European Union is already planning to implement be implemented for U.S.'s help here.
