The GOP's Unwitting Tax Hikes

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They have robbed the people of our money. Have spent even more by borrowing and now the interest on this debt for 1 month the interest is 1/2 of the SS for a year. It's time for a New Deck in DC. get rid of all the people who have been there for over 10 years. Change the income tax to a fair tax - sales tax and then everyone helps to pay, including the drug dealers and people making money under the table, they'd pay too. Then it's your decision to buy something and pay the 20% sales tax, but nothing is deducted from the money you earned. This is the only way to get the lobbyists out of DC, oh and shut off the GRANTS esp. to churches.

Candie Loomis of CO 1:54PM January 30, 2012

BTW, I believe the payroll tax cut that lowers the federal withholding used to fund Social Security should EXPIRE! It's supposed to be OUR money for OUR retirement! If we fail to save it now we won't have any real funds during retirement.
Additionally, we need to keep Uncle Sam's sticky fingers OUT of the trust fund.
The government wants additional revenue, but reduces the amount paid into SS, and borrows from it if it doesn't get enough revenue (BTW, of all the money the US borrows, the SS Trust Fund is the largest lender, China is #3). This needs to STOP NOW!

Joseph of MD 11:52AM December 09, 2011

Second question:
Why are we talking about cuts to Social Security. Shouldn't this be moot since it IS a TRUST FUND.
Oh that's right Uncle Sam keeps borrowing money from the fund!
If we let congress increase revenue through taxes, what is stopping them from increasing government through borrowing from yours and mine SS Accounts?

Josef of MD 11:42AM December 09, 2011

Regarding the last few sentences of the paragraph beginning with: "The end of temporary tax cuts."
You say: "If Congress does nothing, tax rates will rise for nearly all taxpayers. The impact would reduce disposable income throughout the economy and almost surely curtail spending. If the economy's weak enough, that alone could trigger another recession."
My question is if you're predicting that this "increased revenue" (via tax cut expiration) will almost surely curtail spending ... could trigger another recession"
Why will increasing revenue through tax hikes now be any different?

Josef of MD 11:37AM December 09, 2011

Even though consumers are out spending and the stock market is rising, all the media can report is that it just won't be enough and gloom and doom are the only logical outcome for all countries. No new taxes only meant that they would only raise the old ones; it never meant that taxes would not increase. Since the government now takes roughly one third of what every worker makes, I am wondering if there is ever a stopping point for the worker having to pay for the government's inept handling of the money. Tax increases are not necessary if they curtail anything it needs to be the money spent to support and aid other countries. Every American supports that idea. Our foreign aid policy has nearly bankrupted this country and the government has borrowed almost all of our Social Security to pay all their ill advised financial spending. The government's answer is to cut our Social Security, do away with our Social Security, never increse our Social Security and to try to brainwash the world into believing that Social Security and Medicare are entitlements. Every dime of Social Security was mandatorily taken from a worker without the worker having any choice in the matter. This was the government's promise that this was the best way to be secure in your old age. Now that we are in our old age, the government has piddled away the resource to the point of extinction in just a few years. If we had been allowed to put away the money, we'd still have it and our security. The government always takes the cuts on the weakest sectors of the economy because we don't have the ability or finances to fight back. However, they always exempt themselves from all cuts and continue to raise their own pay and benefits without any consideration for the economy.

Olyvia L. Flynn of CA 1:08PM November 30, 2011

"So CEOs watching the destructive brinksmanship in Washington...". Let's be really clear, the money handed to the campaigns of all politicians in Washington by these same CEOs guarantees the election of party hacks who cause this brinksmanship. The GOP will fight to the death (their own or the nation; whichever comes first) to defend the upper class from one more penny in taxes. The wealthy class is reaping precisely what they sowed (which was probably worth investment). A few thousand for a campaign contribution can mean millions in savings for the tax protection/legal immunity it buys.
However this all ends, they'll still come out on top. Millions of others can be devastated by lost jobs/homes, cuts to government services, etc. The owners of our society will remain entrenched (even as the society itself crumbles). Nobody made it to the top alone but if you think they're about to share a dime through taxes, employee pay raises, or any other way you've lost your mind.
I hate to sound like OWS but their basic point is true even though they're too petty and naive to see that demonstrations just don't matter. Ask the dead in Iraq if the anti-war protests saved them.

Chris of OH 11:04PM November 21, 2011

One need only look back a little more than a decade ago or so, to find a time when not only were there surpluses, but the then Fed Chief said we would have "surpluses as far as the eye can see."
So, it seems the solution to the debt is pretty obvious. Just go back to what we were doing then.
1) End the Bush tax cuts. They've been in place for over a decade and have failed to have the stimulative effect their proponents claimed. Let's face it, if they had been stimulative, we wouldn't have this economic malaise.
2) End the 2 unnecessary, costly and unpaid for wars. You know the ones whose costs were never acknowledged in the budget until they were put on the books in 2009.
3) Revamp Medicare Part-D by allowing the program to negotiate drug prices. This will allow it to become a benefit program for the elderly instead of a government subsidy for the pharmaceutical industry.
Do these 3 things and much of the deficit goes away.
And, if you really want to see the American economy on steroids, do away with China's most favored nation trading status. They are after all currency manipulators whose actions give their workers an unfair advantage over our friends, neighbors and fellow Americans.

godot of NM 5:54PM November 21, 2011

The base of the Republican Party doesn't want tax hikes, (preferring lowering the tax rate while broadening it and ending loopholes) and the base of the Democratic Party doesn't want reform of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The resistance from both bases has put pressure on the super committee, which is why it will probably fail.
And in the middle of the current debate coming from both sides of the political aisle is Joe Manchin (D) - a maverick - who is wondering where Obama has been in all of this and is none too pleased with his lack of leadership.

Ray of OK 2:19PM November 21, 2011