Mitt Romney has written an editorial. It should prompt a national discussion. It won't.

[berg80]

We all know the benefits of a flat tax!

Consumption taxes hurt the poor.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

But really, there is going to be some type of event and the world govts will declare a crisis. Currency will go away and a digital currency will appear. No one that we elect cares a dime about solving our debt.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Mitt Romney: Tax the Rich, Like Me​

In 2012, political ads suggested that some of my policy proposals, if enacted, would amount to pushing grandma off a cliff. Actually, my proposals were intended to prevent that very thing from happening.

Today, all of us, including our grandmas, truly are headed for a cliff: If, as projected, the Social Security Trust Fund runs out in the 2034 fiscal year, benefits will be cut by about 23 percent. The government will need trillions of dollars to make up the shortfall. When lenders refuse to loan the money unless they are paid much higher interest rates, economic calamity will almost certainly ensue. Alternatively, the government could print more money, inducing hyperinflation that devalues the national debt — along with your savings.

Typically, Democrats insist on higher taxes, and Republicans insist on lower spending. But given the magnitude of our national debt as well as the proximity of the cliff, both are necessary. DOGE took a slash-and-burn approach to budget cutting and failed spectacularly. Europe demonstrates that exorbitant taxes without spending restraint crushes economic vitality and thus speeds how fast the cliff arrives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/opinion/romney-tax-the-rich.html

The title applies to his belief the $176K income cap for social security taxes should be done away with.

I long opposed increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied (this year, the cap is $176,100). No longer; the consequences of the cliff have changed my mind.

The largest source of additional tax revenues is also probably the most compelling for fairness and social stability. Some call it closing tax code loopholes, but the term “loopholes” grossly understates their scale. “Caverns” or “caves” would be more fitting.

He goes on to say the "step up in basis" capital gains tax treatment for wealthy estates should be amended. Meaning, if you inherit an asset for which the owner would have faced a capital gains tax upon its disposal if the owner did so while still alive, you shouldn't be able to inherit the asset tax free.

The thread is not intended to start a debate on the details of Romney's recommendations. Rather, it is to highlight the impending shortfall in the SS trust requires the nation to have a serious debate over what to do about it. And soon.

So too we need to have a discussion about the debt, during which both higher taxes and lower spending are on the table. There are still more.

Many have said our elected representatives have failed us with the rise of partisanship leading to paralyzing gridlock. The result being critical issues are not being effectively addressed. I say we have failed ourselves by not electing serious and informed officials to represent us. A reflection of "we the people," who spend too much time entertaining ourselves and not enough learning about fact based solutions to problems that will bring this republic down if they are not resolved in an intelligent, thoughtful, forward looking way.

Congress has been stealing from the "Trust Fund" for generation.
Convert 80% of the "trust fund" into US equities

The entire "Trust Fund is only 1/2 of NVIDIA

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Damn those dems for wanting to pay the bills that we all made. I want free stuff!

They could care less about paying bills. They want more money for freebies and giveaways and grift. Quit being so naive and gullible.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Why don't you remove your lips from Trump and Musk's butts.
The ending of USAID is MORE than quantifiable. Google is your friend.
This..was a travesty. The height of incompetence. Like a small child being handed a loaded gun.

USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, according to Harvard Chan School’s Atul Gawande.

hsph.harvard.edu

again opinion not facts try again.

 

[berg80]

But really, there is going to be some type of event and the world govts will declare a crisis. Currency will go away and a digital currency will appear. No one that we elect cares a dime about solving our debt.

The crisis is here whether governments declare it so or not. People are raising red flags right now. It is inevitable that we will have to offer higher bond yields to attract bond investors. At some point the markets will recognize the unsustainable nature of our debt at which point it is game over.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

again opinion not facts try again.

These are facts Sarge. Here's another link. There are a dozen or so articles with a simple search.
But I don't expect a true believer to come to their senses...so why don't you do the board a favor and don't respond.

https://www.cgdev.org/blog/update-lives-lost-usaid-cuts

 

[buckeye]

No, it's not "fair" to place a higher revenue burden on higher earners. But there are a lot of things in life that happen that are unfair. In the grand scheme of things, this would be LESS unfair.

It doesn't seem to me that democrats understand that half the SS tax on an employee is paid by the employer.

You raise the limit on high wage earners and you're raising taxes on employers significantly.

 

[buckeye]

Vance won't be the nominee.

Why do you think that?

 

[berg80]

It doesn't seem to me that democrats understand that half the SS tax on an employee is paid by the employer.

You'd be wrong about that. But eliminating the personal income cap could be done so it only impacts employees so as not to overly tax businesses........as long as some business tax loopholes are closed.

 

[Independent thinker]

Mitt Romney: Tax the Rich, Like Me​

In 2012, political ads suggested that some of my policy proposals, if enacted, would amount to pushing grandma off a cliff. Actually, my proposals were intended to prevent that very thing from happening.

Today, all of us, including our grandmas, truly are headed for a cliff: If, as projected, the Social Security Trust Fund runs out in the 2034 fiscal year, benefits will be cut by about 23 percent. The government will need trillions of dollars to make up the shortfall. When lenders refuse to loan the money unless they are paid much higher interest rates, economic calamity will almost certainly ensue. Alternatively, the government could print more money, inducing hyperinflation that devalues the national debt — along with your savings.

Typically, Democrats insist on higher taxes, and Republicans insist on lower spending. But given the magnitude of our national debt as well as the proximity of the cliff, both are necessary. DOGE took a slash-and-burn approach to budget cutting and failed spectacularly. Europe demonstrates that exorbitant taxes without spending restraint crushes economic vitality and thus speeds how fast the cliff arrives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/opinion/romney-tax-the-rich.html

The title applies to his belief the $176K income cap for social security taxes should be done away with.

I long opposed increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied (this year, the cap is $176,100). No longer; the consequences of the cliff have changed my mind.

The largest source of additional tax revenues is also probably the most compelling for fairness and social stability. Some call it closing tax code loopholes, but the term “loopholes” grossly understates their scale. “Caverns” or “caves” would be more fitting.

He goes on to say the "step up in basis" capital gains tax treatment for wealthy estates should be amended. Meaning, if you inherit an asset for which the owner would have faced a capital gains tax upon its disposal if the owner did so while still alive, you shouldn't be able to inherit the asset tax free.

The thread is not intended to start a debate on the details of Romney's recommendations. Rather, it is to highlight the impending shortfall in the SS trust requires the nation to have a serious debate over what to do about it. And soon.

So too we need to have a discussion about the debt, during which both higher taxes and lower spending are on the table. There are still more.

Many have said our elected representatives have failed us with the rise of partisanship leading to paralyzing gridlock. The result being critical issues are not being effectively addressed. I say we have failed ourselves by not electing serious and informed officials to represent us. A reflection of "we the people," who spend too much time entertaining ourselves and not enough learning about fact based solutions to problems that will bring this republic down if they are not resolved in an intelligent, thoughtful, forward looking way.

An editorial on how to lose? He quit in disgrace.

 

[buckeye]

I've noted this before......now this is based upon Trump still being coherent in three years. It's a decent odd he won't be.

If he is, he will get behind one of his son's. Everything is about him.

TDS makes for some very weird conclusions.

 

[Gabe Lackmann]

Consumption taxes hurt the poor.

FICA is a payroll tax. What's your point?

 

[berg80]

TDS makes for some very weird conclusions.

Don't you think it's time to drop that silly meme? trump deserves every bit of the scorn, derision, and criticism he gets. Primarily because he is now, and always has been, unfit for the job.

 

[buckeye]

It would be a little less than $800 a month. Perhaps small biz owners could get some relief in a newly written tax code.

That doesn't make sense. SS tax is 6.2% for an employee and matching from the employer. Self employed pay both ends, employer and employee so they pay 12.4%.

12.4% of $300,000 is $37,200.

Hardly $800./month

 

[Hafar1014]

Make SS voluntary

 

[buckeye]

again opinion not facts try again.

Leftists don't know the difference.

 

[ColonelAngus]

I still remember when you loons said Romney was Hitler.

They said DeSantis was Hitler when it looked like he could win the primary.

Now they have moved on to Vance, knowing he will likely by the Pub nominee in 2028.

Lefty political discourse:

EVERYONE I DO NOT LIKE IS A HOMOPHOBIC TRANSPHOBIC MISOGYNISTIC ISLAMAPHOBIC RACIST HITLER!!

 

[RetiredGySgt]

These are facts Sarge. Here's another link. There are a dozen or so articles with a simple search.
But I don't expect a true believer to come to their senses...so why don't you do the board a favor and don't respond.

https://www.cgdev.org/blog/update-lives-lost-usaid-cuts

you keep linking to opinions and unverified studies of academia not real lists of actual people,

 

[theHawk]

As I said, folks like yourself need to be reduced to barstool cranks and eliminated from serious consideration in the public square.

^^ ahh, the Fascist response: I can’t respond to any of your points, so you just need to be “eliminated”.