For whatever reason, I'm encouraged by the report recently issued by the "National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform." In case you missed it, this report outlines steps which can be taken to bring the deficit under control. Included is tax reform, cuts to defence as well as social security. (This assumes the deficit needs to be brought under control right now, but that's a different discussion).
What encourages me is that this is the first time I've heard something from a government agency that makes sense in terms of creating a sustainable government spending structure. There is pain for everybody: entitlements will be affected, mortgage interest will not be deductible, capital gains taxes will be taxed as regular income, the the defence budget is reduced, etc.
But this plan also lays out markers for both parties showing that it can be done. I would like to think that this goes a step further and establishes a benchmark for determining if people who talk about reducing the deficit are serious or not.
While I am encouraged to see something logical being proposed, I am not optimistic that it will get anywhere. First, 14 of the 18 commission members must vote "yes" to send it out to the House/Senate for votes there. Second, the talk in Washington right now is all about the Bush Tax Cuts [tm], which will push this proposal right off the front page and somewhere into section C.
And that will probably be the only solace I can take from what this commission has put together. Namely, over the next 12 to 18 months, when we are embroiled in partisan debates over trivia, heated rhetoric and slander about socialist ObamaCare and this spring's government shut down, I can always refer back to this propsal as the way out.
2 comments:
I'm pleased to see you are pleased. What I have read of it, left little to be happy about. At least the bit that was leaked. Making income taxes more flat is stupid and has always resulted in hurting our economy relative to more progressive taxes.
I think the pain for everyone doesn't make sense when some areas of our government are over-funded already (defense) and some are under-funded. But, obviously that is a product of my values.
Not a product of my value, but a product of reality is my opinion (my recognition of fact), that the only thing we can possibly do to get the budget under control is cut defense spending. We need to go from spending more than the next 8 countries combine to spending more than the next four countries combines. That would do the trick and still leave us ridiculously dominant in conventional war.
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