Re: "I wouldn't agree to any new major tax increases such as a National Sales tax without a Balanced Budget Amendment period."
I wouldn't either.
(And I wouldn't want both a national sales tax *and* an income tax because that would allow taxes to rise too silently.)
But, I DISAGREE with the headline the editors wrote for that WSJ article: 'Voters Back Tough Steps to Reduce Budget Deficit'....
To me it seemed like just the OPPOSITE. Nearly every piece of evidence they gave seemed to say that voters HAVE NOT yet come around to backing 'tough steps'.
All the quotes seemed to suggest that the voters, (not to mention the politicians!), still live in Never-Never Land, and want to have their cake and eat it too, not really prepared for making tough choices about cutting spending AT ALL:
...But the leadership of both parties have steadfastly resisted offering solutions.
..."Folks want to cut the deficit, but they say, 'Don't touch my Social Security. Don't touch my Medicare. Don't cut defense spending, and don't raise my taxes,"' said Rep. Gary C. Peters (D, Mich.), another member of the House budget-cutting task force.
...57% found cuts to national security and defense weapons systems unacceptable.
...Only only 36% supported raising the retirement age to 70 to reduce Social Security costs.
... Even fewer supported raising the eligibility age for Medicare.
But:
...74% said it would be acceptable to change Medicare to provide larger subsidies for low-income seniors, while cutting subsidies for the more affluent.
...64% would accept capping Medicare and Medicaid payments to health-care providers,
...58% backed subjecting incomes over $107,000 to Social Security taxes.
Etc. |
