Wanted: Magic Deficit Dust

Source - Washington Examiner

Americans want Congress to bring the $1.4 trillion federal deficit under control -- but they don't want anyone touching their Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, entitlement programs that account for 40% of all spending. Nor, according to a new Bloomberg National Poll, do they favor drastic cuts in domestic or defense spending.  And one more thing.  Don't raise their taxes.

The public doesn't oppose all sacrifices -- as long as someone else is doing the sacrificing. Like the rich. Otherwise, the polling results are very bad news for anyone who expects public opinion to push Congress into making serious moves to balance the budget. Judging by the poll results, the electorate lives in a Cinderella world where Congressmen can sprinkle magic fairy dust on the federal budget and make the deficits shrink.

I share the middle-class anxiety about Social Security and Medicare cuts. I have paid payroll taxes all my life, and I've based my lifestyle and saving rate on the assumption that the money promised to me in that annual Social Security mailing will be honored. I'm counting on the two programs to account for roughly a third of my retirement income. Yes, I want to preserve the middle-class entitlements. Yes, I oppose raising tax rates. And, yes, I consider myself a deficit hawk.

Does that make me a hypocrite, as many progressive pundits insinuate? No, because I think it is possible to balance the budget without significantly cutting middle-class entitlements, or even entitlements for the poor.

As someone who gave up on becoming "rich" long ago, I do not believe that taxing the well-to-do is the solution. For one reason, we won't squeeze as much money out of them as people think. Rich people have too many ways to convert taxable income into non-taxable income. For another, the rich include don't all clip coupons; they include the entrepreneurs and small businessmen who create a majority of our country's new jobs.

What I would support is eviscerating the $1 trillion in tax exemptions, deductions, credits and other loopholes in our tax code, most of which happen to favor the wealthy, as well as the $100 billion or more funneled to corporate welfare.  We could get a long way toward a balanced budget by targeting wealthy people who got wealthy by feeding at the government trough, and still reduce tax rates.  Let's just be clear though: It's the feeding at the government trough part that I resent, not the being rich part.

Continue reading at the Washington Examiner...

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Brand new PHOTOS from yesterday's Greek riots - 27 total...

Petrol Bombs, Molotov Cocktails, Setting The Police On Fire...

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Comments

[DailyBail]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2010/12/wanted-magic-deficit-dust-cutting-debt-without-fiscal-pain

source...

[DailyBail]

Debt Woes No Drag for Europe Stocks as Strategists Say 2011 Will Beat 2010

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-10/debt-woes-no-drag-for-europe-stocks-as-strategists-say-2011-will-beat-2010.html

[DailyBail]

At least 19 countries will be absent from today’s ceremony bestowing the Nobel Peace Prize on Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in the wake of his government’s campaign to portray the award as a western effort to undermine its authority.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-09/nobel-no-shows-for-award-to-dissident-reveal-chinese-influence.html

[DailyBail]

Most Asian stocks fell after Ireland’s credit rating was cut and amid speculation Chinese policy makers would raise interest rates to slow inflation in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-10/most-asian-stocks-fall-on-ireland-rating-cut-china-interest-rate-concerns.html

[TR]

This is not about right or wrong, left or right or the math. What happens when 80 million (OLD CODGERS) baby boomers get pissed off? Rule #1: BE CAREFUL WHO YOU PISS OFF!!! I,m sure this will end well. Always enjoy TDB.

[John S]

We could cut federal employment by 50 percent or give them all a 50 percent pay cut. (Compared to my 80 percent pay cut since mid-2008, I consider that generous.) Almost every department of the executive branch could be closed. For example, we have more federal employees in the Agriculture Dept. than we have working farmers left in the U.S.

[Kenneth C. Brooks]

Look I am sure that U.S. citizens won't mind cutting medicare and social security if there were a commensurate reduction in the taxes levied therefor. What we will not put up with is cuttning services and maintaining taxes. That is called theft. Moreover, it is a taking pursuant to the Fifth Amendment. When services are cut and monies collected to pay for services already rendered then the comenty being taken will never be used for the individual from whom it was taken. That is prohibited by the Fifth Amendment takings clause for taking property without just compensation. The income tax is levied soley for the purposes of maintaining the government. It is not to be used the maintain the government's debt to the private sector. Why, you might aske. Because the government has the right to insulate itself from debt obligations. When the government acts to adhere to debt obligations it cannot do so by taxing people. This is simple, very simple constitutional law. Now if the creditors get upset about the government not wanting to pay its dept . . . well that is why we have the military. Remember, the Treaty of Paris in 1789 was ratified by the UK only upon the inclusion of the contracts clause. That is hotitlities ceased, because the government agreed to make good on private debt. What no one realizes is that the corollary must also be true. The government can renege on its debt and this could be the basis for hostilities, i.e., WAR!. So quite your belly-aching about the U.S. citizens demanding from their instutions that which the institutions were created. As an U.S. citizen we have a right to make such demands of our government. What you simply must understand . . . and it is patently obvious why this choice is left out of the media, is that the U.S. government can decide to renege of some of its debt to make ends meet. Remember that the international bankers have no God given right to U.S. tax money. It is a privilege that we allow them to use our money. We have plenty of sophisticated weaponry and quite an angry populace in the military to back-up the government's ability to renege on its debt. I suggest that you people sit down and take a deep breath.

[DOGISMYTH]

Thanks Ken....I guess you like to be heard since your article is printed thrice.

"The income tax is levied soley for the purposes of maintaining the government." WRONG. Please get a clue. The FICA is used exclusively to pay the interest on debt....to the Federal Reserve. The money eventually leaves the USA to an agency within the UN which dispenses funds for war and other crimes against humanity. Regardless, the title to this country is lost and has been since 1933. The last bastion of debt/bankruptcy proceedings in 1933 gave way to the rights (title) of human beings. Thus your labor and your progency labors have already been secured as payment for federal debt. This is one reason berth certificates were issued and other numbers (SSN) to maintain you as a security, and ultimately traded on international markets as a bond.

The only magic dust remaining is for Americans to pull together regardless of our differences and bring our own justice. We hold the power. The government does not need to default. The people can refuse to pay taxes and fees and to stop cooperating with the regulatory demands. Yes, chaos may ensue. But hopefully the anger and energy of those seeking justice is leveled at those that have committed treason to this country. And that would damn near include every government official we can get our hands on.

Justice will never be served by an current governmental institution. They are all corrupt and serve another master. They are serving their fascist masters here and abroad. Unfortunately, we must fight again to regain our rights as human beings and to restored some semblance of a fair and just society.

[DailyBail]

Almost every department of the executive branch could be closed. For example, we have more federal employees in the Agriculture Dept. than we have working farmers left in the U.S.

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@john s...i agree with this...

[Howard T. Lewis III]

Dump the Fed. Stop trying to save the British Empire. The Rothchild experiment ended in woe. Do not delight in destroying the earth. Free the land and tell Monsanto that out-of-work people are going to clear their GMO shit off the earth and replace it with wholesome goodness and then follow through. Honest people become victims by default in this economy. Volunteerism is not rewarded and altruism is scorned and mocked while no good deed goes unpunished. When you try to please the queen or Benny the Rat or the Rothchilds by returning their fiat bullshit scrip with the blood and sweat of humanity you are servicing the Devil. Stop now. Bring the troops home. TAKE BACK THE GOVERNMENT. And tell your Congressperson to stop mewling and sucking. Go bust the S&B's for felony racketeering, 150,000 counts, at least.

[DailyBail]

nice job howard...

[S. Gompers]

Excellent Howard, and beware of S 510.

[Sagebrush]

Yep, what Howard says.
Also might want to include putting five hundred or so of those corrupt or incompetant idiots in Washington D.C. on the unemployed list. They will do more good for the country there then they do in the congress or the addministration.