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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (577838)	7/24/2010 4:34:57 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Respond to of 1575614

Erskine Bowles and Judd Gregg Call for Massive, $26.7 Trillion Tax Hike From Ryan Ellis on Thursday, July 22, 2010 5:29 PM The Obama Debt Commission's Democrat Co-chairman Erskine Bowles and prominent GOP Senator Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) today called for a massive, $26.7 trillion tax increase on the American people. In an interview today with ABC News, Gregg said the following: “Everything has to be on the table – there’s no question about that,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said on ABC/Washington Post’s “Top Line” today. “Erskine Bowles, one of the co-chairmen of the commission, has suggested a 75-25 split -- 75 percent of the savings being in spending, and 25 percent in revenues... “I think it's likely that there will have to be a revenue component, but it should be significantly, dramatically -- and a 3-1 ratio is pretty dramatic -- dramatically less than the initiatives in the spending side of the ledger.” So, Bowles wants $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. Gregg agrees with this ratio. If that sounds familiar, it should--it's the same ratio that President Reagan was snookered into in 1982's famous TEFRA deal. Reagan reportedly called that fake spending cuts/real tax hikes "deal" the biggest mistake of his presidency. What's the "it" that would be solved by these tax hikes? According to the Fiscal Commission website, the charter of the Commission includes the following: The objective of the Commission is to identify to the President policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run....the Commission shall propose recommendations to the President that meaningfully improve the long-run fiscal outlook, including changes to address the growth of entitlement spending and the gap between the projected revenues and expenditures of the Federal Government. Bowles and Gregg can only be talking about cutting $3 in promised Social Security and Medicare benefits in exchange for $1 in tax increases. In other words, 1/4 of the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare would be paid for with tax hikes. So how big is that? According to the 2009 Social Security and Medicare Actuaries' Report, the long-run insolvency of the Social Security and Medicare systems is $106.8 trillion (with a "t") over the infinite horizon. To close this gap with one-quarter tax hikes is, therefore, to raise taxes by $26.7 trillion. Of course, this number is undoubtedly higher since the Obama Administration is sitting on (read: hiding) the 2010 version of the report (it's nearly six months overdue). Higher taxes are not the answer. Even if the 2001 and 2003 tax relief was made permanent, the AMT patched forever, and all other expiring tax relief was extended indefinitely, CBO has said that tax revenues will come in at their historical average. It's spending, and spending alone, which is causing any fiscal imbalance. Raising taxes will simply result in a worse fiscal picture as the politicians spend all the money and create yet more unfunded promises. Spending is 100% of the problem, and should be 100% of the solution. Every elected GOP member of the commission has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. “It's been clear from the beginning that the purpose of this Commission was to put GOP fingerprints on a tax hike, likely a VAT," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “Gregg seems to be giving them all ten fingers.” “The true agenda of this commission has always been to hide the ball on a tax hike until after the November elections – hence the December reporting date. Gregg’s gaffe today tips their hand,” concluded Norquist. Read more: atr.org === Question: Why is this tax hike so necessary now? "Each year the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds report on the current and projected financial status of the two programs. This message summarizes our 2009 Annual Reports. The financial condition of the Social Security and Medicare programs remains challenging. Projected long run program costs are not sustainable under current program parameters. Social Security's annual surpluses of tax income over expenditures are expected to fall sharply this year and to stay about constant in 2010 because of the economic recession, and to rise only briefly before declining and turning to cash flow deficits beginning in 2016 that grow as the baby boom generation retires. The deficits will be made up by redeeming trust fund assets until reserves are exhausted in 2037, at which point tax income would be sufficient to pay about three fourths of scheduled benefits through 2083. Medicare's financial status is much worse. As was true in 2008, Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is expected to pay out more in hospital benefits and other expenditures this year than it receives in taxes and other dedicated revenues. The difference will be made up by redeeming trust fund assets. Growing annual deficits are projected to exhaust HI reserves in 2017, after which the percentage of scheduled benefits payable from tax income would decline from 81 percent in 2017 to about 50 percent in 2035 and 30 percent in 2080. In addition, the Medicare Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund that pays for physician services and the prescription drug benefit will continue to require general revenue financing and charges on beneficiaries that grow substantially faster than the economy and beneficiary incomes over time."