Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles have made their initial recommendations on how to cut the deficit. The legislation that comes of this, if any, will look very much different, but what they presented may serve as a blueprint, especially for those areas where there is not a hard and fast constituency.
The way it looks now, I'll take a beating. They recommend eliminating the home mortgage interest deduction, and my employer-provided health benefits--which my employer has reduced each of the past few years--will become taxable. I don't like it, but I can live with it. This country rode the gravy train for too long, and even though i wasn't one of those who overextended himself and defaulted on a credit card or mortgage, I understand everyone will have to pitch in.
Just so long as everyone does.
I don't mind if my tax obligation increases twice as much as someone who makes half as much. Hell, I don't mind if it increases more than twice as much if that guy's still raising small children, with the million expenses kids accrue. I just want to make sure the guys who make twice what I make--or ten times, or a hundred times--get nicked, too.
Conservatives complain about the "redistribution of wealth" every time a new tax is proposed. What has been done since 1980 with every tax cut? Those, too, have been redistributions of wealth, though in the other direction, taking money away from those who didn't have as much and giving it to those who already had more.
I'll pay my extra share willingly, so long as those above me on the income ladder pay theirs. If not, then I'm going to get belligerent about this. Enough's enough.
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Conservatives complain about the "redistribution of wealth" every time a new tax is proposed. What has been done since 1980 with every tax cut? Those, too, have been redistributions of wealth, though in the other direction, taking money away from those who didn't have as much and giving it to those who already had more.
Amen.
Hopefully, "enough is enough" will mean we can stop insisting a third party can NEVER win. Of course, now that the extreme right has proved otherwise, it’s up to liberals to vote what they want rather than against what they fear ...
It was interesting watching Maher last night (especially when Moore went off on a good rant) ... the problem I have with both of them is the absolute disdain they had for Nader ... they're true liberals until push comes to shove, then they shit their pants and vote Bush-light (or Bush-heavy, depending on how you want to look at it). Last night Moore mentioned a few times how Obama ignored the youth vote that put him in office. If only he remembers that come 2012 ... it reminds me of how he discovered the penalty for refusing insurance based on a pre-existing condition is $100 per day (vs. the millions it might cost for an insurance company to actual cover a cancer patient, etc.). He championed single-payor and then at the last minute did what he claims Obama does now--give in. A lot of wind with good intentions. Enough of that shit. It's time to go out and get it (what he says but doesn't practice).
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