Yes, did you really think the budget battle was going to be over with the automatic spending cuts ?
TAX DAY is just around the corner and will be on everyone’s mind for those that have to pay by April 15th.
Since the Congress has been unable to preform their Constitutional Duties, the President will have to lead the way. He has been trying to make a general public argument and is failing with the general message.
The President needs to trust the American Public and get specific !
Find the 10 most popular tax deductions that are nothing but a mere subsidizing industries, Banks and the Oil Companies and should not be hard to find. Use these as a example of the type of “tax loopholes” he has been talking about in the general sense. Tax incentives for taking money overseas and or sheltering it from taxes would be specifically good to point out.
If you are going to bargain some of these ridiculous tax deductions, you need to say what they are or allow the Republicans in Congress define them as tax increases. This has been his big mistake.
After all, we have been told by the same Congressional Leaders that the free markets are so good and the Government should “get out of the way”… so let’s get out of their way by means of ending tax subsidies. Especially for those having record profits and have used those extra profits to buy-out competitors ending choices with the public, hence higher prices at the expense of the consumer.
Who at that point will have egg on their face ?
Only those who are protecting the “BIG MONEY”.
You will never see a meaningful FLAT tax proposal in congress as the rich would lose their shirt with such a flat tax and they know it !
This fact goes to show who’s interest the Congress has been protecting and that goes for both sides of the isle.
Most all the really big money benefits with all those tax deductions.
Yes, they pay a very high rate but only on a limited amount of the money they earn because of the deductions.
Even Mitt Romney had a lower effective tax rate than Someone I know supporting a wife a child making 35,000 total a year and can not afford the health care for his family so he goes without it and insurance on certain items he owns so he can put food on the table.
I can see no reason why the President can not bargain the high rates against ridiculous deductions that only the rich can afford to take in the first place.
Subsidies of corporate America receive far out way the social programs they complain about. Social Security is paid for in the most part by it’s recipients and should not be part of any bargain.
It would be time to pay back the money the SSA has invested in US Treasuries and that is something the Republicans don’t want to see happen. They claim a crisis because we might have to pay back the excesses of money in the system the government has basically borrowed. Something that started in a big way with the Reagan Administration.
Yes, that was the idea when Reagan told us how in danger the SSA was in and raised tax withholding’s we did not yet need. They took the new money and bought Treasuries that the government then was able to spend. Spend it we did on a massive navel build-up in the South Pacific and other military programs.
This brought jobs and not many complained loud enough about the fundamentals.
But those investments in US treasuries were to offset when the “baby-boomers” came to age and a strained the system of payout and healthcare.
The Time has come where the payout will exceed the paycheck withholding’s and Congress wants to keep the money and just cut spending within the system so those treasuries never get cashed-out. This make me wonder where the treasury dept has invested the money. The argument the recipients should suffer any cutbacks is terrible as they invested even higher amounts that was re-invested in the US and it will soon be time to pay-up/pay-back.
This is more of what the budget battle is about behind the scenes.
Of course, There has never been a social program that the Republicans have not set-out to destroy ! If they can not end it immediately, they will chip away at it one crisis at a time (fabricated or not) and reduce it’s funding.