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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (217007)	2/8/2007 5:47:55 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

What you describe is certainly what dems will try to avoid. You correctly stated the risks and its not sufficient to look back and say, but Clinton raised taxes and the economy boomed.....times are different now. A huge chunk of people are moving toward retirement and will in theory spend less frivolously. Clinton's economy was structured around diff. spending models and a higher savings rate, much of which went into the stock market. Retirees will be liquidating investments. It may require that the very top get taxed more heavily than they were even under Clinton's 2% marginal tax increase. It doesn't seem to me that another 1 or 2 percent from that group would throw the economy into recession or lead to deflation. When I said painful, I was thinking of that top group. Have you ever re-figured your taxes by adding a percent at a time just to that portion of your income that is taxed at the highest marginal rate? You might be surprised at how relatively painless a couple of notches up really is. We're really going to have only two choices. One is to cut SS monthly checks and/or put a cap on what medicare will pay per person. Or substantially raise taxes. I guess a third choice would be some combination of the two. Whatever spending cuts are still feasible just won't generate much to cover the coming shortfall. When Republicans cut taxes and started an expensive war, they squandered the surpluses that could have been piled up to ease the economic dislocations that will come about as the boomers retire, get sick, and die.