Deficit reduction proposals

Unions or not, policemen and firemen are about as working class as you can get.

 

Yes and apparently the only working class folks a conservative can love.

 

There are two separate issues with the deficit.

1) The amount of ish we promised to the baby boom generation, in terms of SS and Medicare, would almost literally take the entire economy to pay off in a few decades.

We're going to default on those promises, so that doesn't really matter. Politicians are just playing a game of chicken to see who gets blamed for it.

2) We are currently borrowing $1.3 trillion a year just to keep this economy afloat, and our debt is reaching unsustainable levels. We are taking 4% of the GDP every year and sending it out for debt repayment. Inflating the debt won't even help that much, because we've tied most of that debt into short-term maturation to try to keep the costs down, and we'll have to go back and reborrow it soon anyway, at whatever the new rates are.

 

I love that "union" now means "rich." You lower the bar anymore in this society and you'll trip over it.

 

Spoken like a true believer/idiot.

 

Cut it off. When the money's gone, the money's gone.

 

Social Security would be easily solvent for the next 100 years if every dollar of income was taxed, not just the first $100 K or so, and the SS tax rate for every earner could be lowered substantially.

But I forgot that sales taxes or a flat tax, which disproportionally affect middle- and lower-income families, are fair because everybody pays the same rate, but that applying the same principle to SS and making every dollar of income taxcable would be unfair to the top 2-3 percent of the taxpayers, even if the other 97 percent would benefit.

The intelligence was there, specifically about the high possibility of an attack. The party in power chose to ignore it.

Sorry, but it takes a larger workforce to run a country of 350 million than it did to run a country of 200 million. The "do more with less, and pay those we keep even less" philosophy seems to working well in journalism, no?

 

Seriously. Why would anyone consider taking away the rights of government workers to unionize but allowing cops and firemen to do so.

What would be the reason to exempt them?

 

This is such a huge number...

But if you want to start chipping away at it, start taxing all non-profits, and that includes churches.

Keep the tax breaks that help the middle class the most (getting a break on taxes because of the mortgage) but screw over the millionaire asshats who create a "charity" to hide their money.

You can also create a $.25 tax on any internet transaction. Just a flat rate for any transaction. You won't notice it on a purchase, but it will add up in a hurry.

 

So I guess I am raising taxes.

 

Listening to the story is much better than reading it. The wife was sobbing and could barely finish the sentence.

 

When pencil pushers start putting their lives on the line, you get back to me. Certain professions need unions. Many don't.