Two Old White Guys Do Good!Two guys who I have never heard of became my heroes this week by betraying their parties to present something….”gasp” together from their position as Co-Chairman of The Presidents (yes that President) bi-partisan debt reduction commission. Bi-Partisan has become a sad joke with members of the world’s most deliberative bosy (the U.S. Senate) not even speaking across party lines. Taking a page from that great American leader Dick Cheney, “your either with us or against us”. Brilliant! The republicans of course blame Obama, Pelosi and Reid for shoving legislation down their throat. The idea that the election two years ago gave them a mandate to do so is forgotten in the miasma of the new mandate from this election.
And that is OK. Elections do indeed have consequences. But somehow the idea that our two parties cannot work together on anything is pathetic and debilitating to a democracy. Now the talking heads on FOX have explained to me that this election was about over spending, gays in the military, the sanctity of marriage, Obama Care, progressivism, BIG government, taxation, blah, blah, blah. The election was about two things, jobs and the economy. And although no one could have done any better in turning that around, it has become Obama’s recession and we can all wring our liberal hands about how unfair that is but we all need to grow up. It is Obama’s recession because he was captain of the ship who took over after the storm hit but it was still his job to convince the crew that he could steer back on course. He blew that. But I doubt seriously that anyone could have done better.
So forgetting about all the social issues related to related politics, the self righteous over spending Republicans, having been given religion by the Tea Party wing of their party found a new passion for not mortgaging our children’s future! The hypocrisy of this cannot be avoided since they have dominated the White House for 20 of the last 32 years and had control of both houses as well for the first 6 years of the Bush administration and presided over the hugest deficits in history. But now it is different. So they got elected saying they are going to cut, cut, CUT, spending, spittle flying from their mouths at the lectern. And they are more than willing to tell you WHAT they will cut. NPR FUNDING! Well that’s about 100 bucks. When pressed for cuts to the entitlement programs and military programs they talk about cutting waste. When talking about medicare cuts they talk about plaintiff’s lawyers. They nibble at the crust and refuse to tell us the truth.
What is the truth? The truth is that we have all enjoyed government benefits and tax relief. Our social security and medicare systems are broke. We cannot afford the benefits and support being paid to our parents but God forbid anyone ever speak the truth. We also cannot afford to fund a BIG bulky military and justify it by “the war on terror”. I am not suggesting that we gut the military but the way we are spending money related to the threats we face is obscene, short sighted and apparently unproductive. The war on terror is almost as effective as the war on drugs. Almost. Sigh. So God bless these guys, a republican and a Democrat. Here is what they laid out for us with my first blush reaction:
Increase the Social Security retirement age by one month every two years after it reaches 67 under current law. It would reach 68 around 2050 and 69 around 2075. Hate it but we probably have to do this right now and not phase it in.
-Lower cost-of-living increases. Hate it. This will put a lot of pressure on older people on fixed incomes who did not save enough and count on government as primary support.
-Gradually raise the threshold on the amount of income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. I do not know exactly what this means. Speak English.
-Give retirees the choice of collecting half their benefits early and the other half at a later age. I do not understand what this does for deficit reduction so…don’t understand it.
TAXES
-Overhaul individual income taxes and corporate taxes. For individuals and families, eliminate a host of popular tax credits and deductions, including the child tax credit and the mortgage interest deduction. Significantly reduce income tax rates, with the top rate dropping to 23 percent from 35 percent. This does not go far enough. Tax code must be scrapped. Give it a sunset date 5 years from now so businesses and individuals can plan and not be penalized too badly for their past reliance on loop holes. This is a very minor start. DO MORE HERE!
-Reduce the corporate income tax rate to 26 percent from 35 percent, and stop taxing the overseas profits of U.S.-based multinational corporations. I do not get how this helps but if it pleases big business and their lobbyists perhaps it is supposed to stimulate jobs, economic activity and income.
-Increase the gas tax by 15 cents a gallon to fund transportation programs. Yes. Our gas price is held artificially low by the way we subsidize the industry and fail to tax it. It costs a lot to drive but we do not want to pay it. It is a start.
DOMESTIC SPENDING
-Freeze Defense Department salaries and bonuses for three years, and noncombat military pay at 2011 levels for three years. Double Defense Secretary Robert Gates' proposed cuts in defense contracting. Reduce overseas bases by one-third, cut spending for base support and integrate children in military families into local schools. YES.
-Eliminate noncompetitive spending bills known as "earmarks." YES although I truly believe this is ONLY a political issue. The spending is already authorized by our big bloated government, this is just the pigs at the trough divvying up the corn cobs but why not make it a public process?
-End grants to large and medium-sized hub airports; require airports to fund a larger portion of the cost of aviation security. Makes sense. Free market, capitalism and all that.
-Cut funding for the public broadcasting. Fine. I like NPR, have no use for PBS but I should pay for what I use.
Reduce congressional and White House budgets by 15 percent, freeze federal compensation at non
defense agencies for three years, cut the federal work force by 10 percent, eliminate 250,000 non-
defense contractors and end money for commercial space flight. YES. Oh and lets add one, eliminate congresses health care system.
HEALTH CARE
-Limit or eliminate altogether the tax-free status of employer-provided health benefits, providing incentives for people to enroll into cost-conscious insurance plans. This should be part of simplifying the tax code. Why do we use the tax code to encourage or discourage behavior. Every Libertarian, Tea Party Patriot and Republican should revolt against tax benefits for anyone or anything. Let individuals decide. Let the market decide. Will it be painful? Absolutely.
-Limit annual cost increases for Medicare and Medicaid, the giant health federal care programs, to no more than 1 percent above the growth rate of the economy. This would be accomplished by rewarding quality instead of sheer volume, demanding rebates from drug companies that want to participate in Medicare and raising cost-sharing for Medicare recipients while limiting their out-of-pocket costs. Good luck, but I applaud the effort. This is the only touchy feely part of this thing.
-Cap jury awards in malpractice cases. I do not believe this has anything to do with health care costs at this point. As a lawyer with many friends who are plaintiff lawyers and defense lawyers, tort reform has already worked. In Missouri there is no industry in this business anymore and even southern Illinois has been cleaned up a lot. Why not do it but once again, shouldn’t my Tea party Patriots and States rights people be up in arms about this invasion on State’s rights? Maybe Mississippi is happy with having law suits be 1/3 of its State economy.
Boy there is a lot of stuff that I hate there. But is has to be shared suffering. This all looks like a great start to me. I hate a lot of it but I am not that crazy about being a grown up and this is all grown up stuff. So here is to Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Maybe we can all do something good together. Now that would be hopey changie stuff I could get behind.
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