Itemized sources of US deficit via CBO
President Obama is scheduled to speak at the White House in an hour on his new deficit reduction plan:
Mr. Obama will call for $1.5 trillion in tax increases, primarily on the wealthy, through a combination of closing loopholes and limiting the amount that high earners can deduct. The proposal also includes $580 billion in adjustments to health and entitlement programs, including $248 billion to Medicare and $72 billion to Medicaid. Administration officials said that the Medicare cuts would not come from an increase in the Medicare eligibility age. Senior administration officials who briefed reporters on some of the details of Mr. Obama’s proposal said that the plan also counts a savings of $1.1 trillion from the ending of the American combat mission in Iraq and the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
Republicans, who have been feigning hysteria over deficits ever since Obama took office, are now switching gears and pretending to be outraged by the idea that Paris Hilton might have to pay slightly more in taxes. Already the usual suspects led by the dreamy manly Paul Ryan have been on the attack. Which brings up a good question: Do scumbags like Ryan know they’re scumbags and just not care, or have they managed to convince themselves that stealing from the middle class and poor to give to the billionaire class is somehow noble?
Somehow, I’m betting the Rethugs don’t like the plan and are unwilling to pass it. The article mentions they’re already preparing criticism with their “class warfare” canard (I think a lot of what’s already been done on behalf of the wealthy could be considered class warfare).
I vote for this option.
Why penalise the rich, when the working classes are so much easier to beat up?
Someday I hope to be wealthy enough to buy a politician. I don’t need a major one, maybe a mayor or a state representative.
Life sure seems so much easier when you own a politician.
I’d like to think that they have repeated the “job creators” lie so many times that they actually believe it’s true. They’d be deluded fools, but not actively evil. However, I’m pretty sure they’re actively evil. You can’t be that deluded & still remember to walk upright & breathe regularly.
Living so long in Texas has convinced me that we are doomed by these actively-evil people, even if they’re not an actual majority. They’re loud enough that the saner, softer-spoken people are drowned out & cowed into silence. It’s depressing to have small children in a state like this.
I can see it now on Faux News – OMG, OMG…if they raise taxes on the rich, then they won’t have the ability to hire anyone, and will have to fire all their workers…
Except, of course, that isn’t how hiring and firing works. I understand why Faux News doesn’t confront the lie about how lower taxes creates jobs, but where the heck are the rest of the media outlets?
As someone responsible for hiring and firing in a large corporation, I absolutely guarantee that our tax levels have pretty much nothing to do with hiring and firing. Yes, if you dig down into details, it may affect where we hire, but it’s not like corporations are on the verge of sending work to India or the Philipines because of a few percent of taxes…they already sent all that work out there a decade ago.
I hire for 3 reasons: 1) to handle new work that increases corporate income, 2) to backfill a resource that has left, or 3) to handle work that is a loss but having the resource keep the loss lower. Notice that taxes have no part of that process.
What happens with unexpected revenue such as lower taxes? It’s just profit. No corporation has ever hired someone because of increase profits. Heck, in this age, very few corporations even share increased profits with their resources anymore…raises are based on impacts to attrition, not what is fair and reasonable (current PR is to call it “market-based compensation”…which is a joke since I know corporate HR departments talk to the corporate HR departments of our competitors).