Madeline
Rookie
- Banned
- #1
You want the deficit reduced by about one-third in a decade or so? Here's what that looks like:
* A national 6.5% sales tax
* Elimination of the tax deduction for mortgage interest (replaced by a 15% tax credit)
* Elimination of the tax deduction for charitable giving (replaced by a 15% tax credit)
* Increasing social security wage taxes on high income taxpayers (at present, income earned over $106,800 is exempt from this tax)
* Depress the future social security benefit levels of all taxpayers other than the benefits of low-income people
* Changing the income tax brackets for individuals from 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35% to just two: 15% and 27%. (Without knowing where they'd cut off, it is impossible to know how this would play out but it appears it is a shift of the tax burden down onto the poor and middle class and away from the rich.)
* Changing the corporate income tax rate from 15, 25, 34, 39, 34, 38% to just one: 27%. (This seems like an oversimplification, but I am guessing the new rate decreases the tax burden on most corporations.)
* Freezing defense spending; estimated to save $1.1 Trillion by 2020
* Freezing "domestic program" spending; estimated to save $1 Trillion by 2020
Implementation of these changes is expected to reduce the deficit by $6 Trillion by 2020. Today, the deficit stands at $13.7 Trillion, so these changes do not even eliminate half of that amount.
These changes are the recommendations of a BIPARTISAN Committee co-chaired by former Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who was the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee for more than a quarter-century, and Alice Rivlin, who served both Congress and President Bill Clinton as budget director. The proposal is a project of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which was founded by four former Senate majority leaders.
Bipartisan panel proposes national sales tax to help reduce deficit | cleveland.com
Are you prepared to suck it up to this degree or not? If not, are you willing to relinguish the goal of cutting the deficit?
Your thoughts?
* A national 6.5% sales tax
* Elimination of the tax deduction for mortgage interest (replaced by a 15% tax credit)
* Elimination of the tax deduction for charitable giving (replaced by a 15% tax credit)
* Increasing social security wage taxes on high income taxpayers (at present, income earned over $106,800 is exempt from this tax)
* Depress the future social security benefit levels of all taxpayers other than the benefits of low-income people
* Changing the income tax brackets for individuals from 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35% to just two: 15% and 27%. (Without knowing where they'd cut off, it is impossible to know how this would play out but it appears it is a shift of the tax burden down onto the poor and middle class and away from the rich.)
* Changing the corporate income tax rate from 15, 25, 34, 39, 34, 38% to just one: 27%. (This seems like an oversimplification, but I am guessing the new rate decreases the tax burden on most corporations.)
* Freezing defense spending; estimated to save $1.1 Trillion by 2020
* Freezing "domestic program" spending; estimated to save $1 Trillion by 2020
Implementation of these changes is expected to reduce the deficit by $6 Trillion by 2020. Today, the deficit stands at $13.7 Trillion, so these changes do not even eliminate half of that amount.
These changes are the recommendations of a BIPARTISAN Committee co-chaired by former Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who was the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee for more than a quarter-century, and Alice Rivlin, who served both Congress and President Bill Clinton as budget director. The proposal is a project of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which was founded by four former Senate majority leaders.
Bipartisan panel proposes national sales tax to help reduce deficit | cleveland.com
Are you prepared to suck it up to this degree or not? If not, are you willing to relinguish the goal of cutting the deficit?
Your thoughts?