'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Big-spending liberals will soon run out of other people's money. This should scare them straight. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, food stamps and other welfare programs reaching deep into American pockets will soon leave no money for anything else.
The leaders of the defunct White House debt commission Tuesday floated a new deficit-reduction plan and warned that President Obama's legacy is riding on his ability to rein in runaway government spending.
Scratch past the surface of a proposed tax code overhaul and deficit-reduction plan shaping up Tuesday on Capitol Hill and it's clear: It's déjà vu, all over again.
If Congress and the Obama administration don't reach an agreement before year's end, income tax rates will increase automatically for every taxpayer, defense spending will be slashed, and other federal spending will be cut across the board.
The leaders of the Simpson-Bowles commission are still shopping their 2-year-old, $4 trillion debt-reduction plan around Washington, and they say it is gaining enough traction to possibly form the basis for a bipartisan federal debt-cutting deal by year's end.
With congressional gridlock unlikely to change in this year's elections, both President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spent the weekend saying they are willing to compromise to get budget deals done — though both drew bright lines they said they won't cross.
With the failure of the deficit-reduction supercommittee, Congress turns its attention again to several previously disregarded bipartisan plans aimed at dealing with the federal budget mess.
Before leaving for his Hawaiian vacation, President Obama signed a two-year extension of existing tax rates for most businesses and individuals, forestalling the steep
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform ("the Simpson-Bowles Commission") deserves credit for spotlighting the nation's unsustainable spending and deficit trends. This is, simply put, the greatest economic challenge of our era.
Americans can rest assured that there are at least two serious budget cutters in Washington: Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, co-chairmen of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Their draft budget-balancing plan, issued Nov. 10, gores so many oxen and butchers so many sacred cows that the Chicago Board of Trade would be well-advised to suspend trading on cattle futures.
Say this much for Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson: They understand that Washington's fiscal policy is putting us on a path to economic disaster. The co-chairmen of the president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform know that unless we want to follow the likes of Greece or France, we need to get to work.
The chairmen of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission tipped their hand Wednesday, releasing a stark, sweeping proposal to rein in federal debts and deficits with cuts to spending programs, Social Security and Medicaid benefits and an increase in the retirement age over the next four decades from 65 to 68.
Did you know that federal government spending and revenues in 1968 as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) were almost identical to the levels in 2008? The surprising fact is that for the past 50 years (until the last two years) federal spending and tax revenues have been remarkably constant as a percentage of GDP, as can be seen in the accompanying chart.
Will the Republicans really reduce spending if they gain control of Congress? The Republicans have promised to cut spending rather than increase taxes. Their first test may come as early as Dec. 1, when the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (better known as President Obama's deficit-reduction commission) is due to report. The betting is that the commission will recommend a ratio of something close to $3 of spending reduction for each $1 of tax increase. Does this make any sense, and will the Republicans buy into it?
