[Vision2020] If you have debt, you need to raise money to pay it off.

Joe Campbell philosopher.joe at gmail.com
Thu Apr 14 07:00:11 PDT 2011


Sorry but this makes too much sense to ever work.

On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 6:31 AM, Art Deco <deco at moscow.com> wrote:

>   [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>
> ------------------------------
>  April 13, 2011
>  Raise America’s Taxes By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
>
> President Obama in his speech on Wednesday confronted a topic that is
> harder to address seriously in public than sex or flatulence: America needs
> higher taxes.
>
> That ugly truth looms over today’s budget battles, but politicians have
> mostly preferred to run from reality. Mr. Obama’s speech was excellent not
> only for its content but also because he didn’t insult our intelligence.
>
> There is no single reason for today’s budget mess, but it’s worth
> remembering that the last time our budget was in the black was in the
> Clinton administration. That’s a broad hint that one sensible way to
> overcome our difficulties would be to revert to tax rates more or less as
> they were under President Clinton. That single step would solve
> three-quarters of the deficit for the next five years or so.
>
> Paradoxically, nothing makes the need for a tax increase more clear than
> the Republican budget proposal crafted by Representative Paul Ryan. The
> Republicans propose slashing spending far more than the public would
> probably accept — even dismantling Medicare — and rely on economic
> assumptions that are not merely rosy, but preposterous.
>
> Yet even so, the Republican plan shows continuing budget deficits until the
> 2030s. In short, we can’t plausibly slash our way back to solid fiscal
> ground. We need more revenue.
>
> Kudos to Mr. Obama for boldly stating that truth in his speech — even if he
> did focus only on taxes for the very wealthiest. I also thought he was right
> to say that we need spending cuts — including in our defense budget. Mr.
> Obama didn’t say so, but the United States accounts for almost as much
> military spending as the entire rest of the world put together.
>
> As I see it, there are three fallacies common in today’s budget
> discussions:
>
>  • *Republicans are the party of responsible financial stewardship,
> struggling to put America on a sound footing.*
>
>  In truth, both parties have been wildly irresponsible, but in cycles.
> Democrats were more irresponsible in the 1960s, the two parties both seemed
> care-free in the ’70s and ’80s, and since then the Republicans have been
> staggeringly reckless.
>
> After the Clinton administration began paying down America’s debt,
> Republicans passed the Bush tax cuts, waded into a trillion-dollar war in
> Iraq, and approved an unfunded prescription medicine benefit — all by
> borrowing from China. Then-Vice President Dick Cheney scoffed that “deficits
> don’t matter <http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml>.”
>
> This borrow-and-spend Republican history makes it galling when Republicans
> now assert that deficits are the only thing that matter — and call for
> drastic spending cuts, two-thirds of which would harm low-income and
> moderate-income Americans<http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3458>,
> according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. To pay for tax cuts
> heaped largely on the wealthiest Americans, Republicans in effect would gut
> Medicare and slash jobs programs, family planning and college scholarships.
> Instead of spreading opportunity, federal policy would cap it.
>
>  • *Low tax rates are essential to create incentives for economic growth:
> a tax increase would stifle the economy.*
>
>  It’s true that, in general, higher taxes tend to reduce incentives. But
> this seems a weak effect, often overwhelmed by other factors.
>
> Were Americans really lazier in the 1950s, when marginal tax rates peaked<http://www.ntu.org/tax-basics/history-of-federal-individual-1.html>at more than 90 percent? Are people in high-tax states like Massachusetts
> more lackadaisical than folks in a state like Florida that has no personal
> income tax at all?
>
> Tax increases can also send a message of prudence that stimulates economic
> growth. The Clinton tax increase of 1993 was followed by a golden period of
> high growth, while the Bush tax cuts were followed by an anemic economy.
>
>  • *We can’t afford Medicare.*
>
>  It’s true that America faces a basic problem with rapidly rising health
> care costs. But the Republican plan does nothing serious to address health
> care spending, other than stop paying bills. Indeed, Medicare is cheaper to
> administer than private health insurance (2 percent to 6 percent
> administrative costs, depending on who does the math, compared with about 12
> percent for private plans). So the Republican plan might add to health care
> spending rather than curb it.
>
> The real challenge is to control health care inflation. Nobody is certain
> how to do that, but the Obama health care law is testing some plausible
> ideas. These include rigorous research on which procedures work and which
> don’t. Why pay for surgery on enlarged prostates if certain kinds of
> patients turn out to be better with no treatment at all?
>
> Ever since Walter Mondale publicly committed hara-kiri in 1984 by telling
> voters that he would raise their taxes, politicians have run from fiscal
> reality. As baby boomers age and require Social Security and Medicare,
> escapism will no longer suffice. We need to have a frank national discussion
> of painful steps ahead, and since I’m not a politician, let me be perfectly
> clear: raise my taxes!
> ___________________________________________
> Wayne A. Fox
> 1009 Karen Lane
> PO Box 9421
> Moscow, ID  83843
>
> waf at moscow.com
> 208 882-7975
>
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