by | SOCIAL SECURITY, TAXES
Could it be that the Senate Majority Leader is so clueless with respect to Social Security that he believes it is a solvent program? Harry Reid recently reiterated the claim he made last year on Meet the Press: that we are not in a crisis in Social Security, that Social Security is fully funded for the next forty years, and that the arithmetic works. What’s worse, this man had the audacity to suggest that the problem of Social Security was merely fiction — perpetuated by people who do not like government!
The facts: Social Security is underfunded to the tune of $ 7.7 trillion, and it’s getting worse every day. Had any private company or organization operated in such an underfunded way, its principal would have been charged criminally.
Clearly, we cannot have rational discourse over matters as serious as Social Security if the Senate Majority Leader does not care to realize that the program is in an absolute calamitous state. It’s difficult to imagine that he would intentionally try to dupe the moderator with his flim-flam. The only plausible explanation is that Harry Reid is so intellectually challenged that he doesn’t understand the issue himself.
Anything short of his resignation says something about the fact that politics trumps rational analysis in our political system. That Reid is allowed to speak such buffoonery and not be excoriated by anyone, or even that such a person can get to this political level and be so flagrantly incompetent is very disconcerting. I am staggered by the fact that his comments are not the headlines of all the major newspapers.
by | ECONOMY, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, OBAMA, POLITICS, TAXES
President Obama has all but admitted that raising the tax margin on the top 2%/”millionaires and billionaires”/the wealthy might, just might, affect the economy negatively. Anticipating increased economic decline when he pushes up the rate from 35% to 39.6%, Obama has proposed another successful round of stimulus.
What might this new stimulus look like?
Extending the 2 percentage point Social Security payroll tax cut, boosting a tax incentive to businesses, establishing a $50 billion bank for long-term infrastructure projects, and extending unemployment benefits.
And the cost to taxpayers?
An estimated $255 billion total — which the GOP would surely need to demand that it be matched dollar-for-dollar in extra spending cuts.
So, let’s recount the logic of the Left:
Raise taxes –> Economy falters due to less consumption spending —> Need to spend $255 billion in government money to prop up the economy.
How about some other logic?
Keep tax rates the same as they’ve been for 10 years —> Economy gets a chance to recover without government interference and economic uncertainty —> No need to spend another $255 billion of taxpayer money
Some have suggested these are merely bargaining chips for the budget discussions. However, if Obama was so sure about his economic policies, and if these policies were really so good, he wouldn’t need to “spend” more or bargain any.
by | ARTICLES, FREEDOM, TAXES
Senator Orrin Hatch nails it today when he discussed Obama’s ideas regarding budget negotiations:
“What [Obama] proposed this week was a classic bait and switch on the American people—a tax increase double the size of what he campaigned on, billions of dollars in new stimulus spending and an unlimited, unchecked authority to borrow from the Chinese,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in Saturday’s weekly GOP address.
“Maybe I missed it but I don’t recall him asking for any of that during the presidential campaign. These ideas are so radical that they have already been rejected on a bipartisan basis by Congress.”
Obama’s proposed deal includes: $1.6 trillion in tax hikes, $400 billion in spending cuts, and at least $50 billion in economic stimulus spending! (some estimates are more than $250 billion of stimulus
On the Republican side, they have sought additional and larger spending cuts that will also include entitlement reform as a baseline for considering increases to the tax margin.
So far the discussions are at a stalemate. This means Congress has 30 days to act before the tax tsunami comes.
