For our liberal friends in the tailgate...what would your "Paul Ryan Deficit Reduction" plan be?

[SkinsHokieFan]

We have all seen Paul Ryan's 73 page document and is videos with graphs. Agree or disagree with him, it is a very bold, transformative plan which looks at very long term solutions to serious problems.

I want to know what the guys on the other side of the aisle would propose. This isn't a response to Ryan's plan, but if you were to come up with something like that, what would your ideas be

[greenspandan]

- 100% estate tax, as proposed by Thomas Paine (pull yourself up by your OWN bootstraps, trust fund kids, that's the american dream!).

- raise taxes on the rich.

that would pretty much solve all our debt problems, and with any luck get some of the more reactionary conservative states in the south to secede as well. 2 birds with one stone.

such a shame that the overprivileged in this country have duped middle class white america into believing their interests coincide.

[gbear]

I go back to the NYtimes article with the budget proposals from the debt commission. From memmory,

A) raise SS age 4 years

hold fed workers pay level for 2 years

C) let Bush tax cuts expire.

D) cut defense spending - and defund 1 or both wars

[zoony]

- 100% estate tax, as proposed by Thomas Paine (pull yourself up by your OWN bootstraps, trust fund kids, that's the american dream!).

Holy ****. That's not liberal, hell, thats not even communist. That's criminal.

[JMS]

Simple.... we hold down increasing spending until the economy is generating 300,000 new jobs a month. While curtailing the expensive Wars in the middle east. After that we cut military spending by say 10% and put a hireing freeze in place at the government.... Further reduce military spending over time, (As bush Sr, and Clinton did) until we are mearly outspending the next 10 largest militaries in the world combined, rather than our current outspending the rest of the world combined in defense spending.... Raise taxes from their historic lows currently by say 3-4%. Back to the draconian era of the Clinton administration where we actually were paying for governemnt spending rather than having china pay for it... Install a flat tax on corporations with no decudctions, say 3-4%... That should raise another couple of trillion over ten years...... Clamp down on foreign dumping products and offshoring... Go back to the "protectionist" days of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr; and all the presidents before them.

That will take care of 1/3rd to half the deficite... After that we Batton down the hatches and wait for the economy to grow ourselves out of the majority of the problem... probable take about 8 years... the same amount of time it took Bush to land us into this mess.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Holy ****. That's not liberal, hell, thats not even communist. That's criminal.

Those are the ideas I am looking for. I want to see "Dream solutions" with outside the box thinking.

[greenspandan]

Holy ****. That's not liberal, hell, thats not even communist. That's criminal.

how dare you denigrate one of our sacred, infallible founding fathers! (i'm being facetious, but thomas paine really was an incredible badass)

[JMS]

Agree or disagree with him, it is a very bold, transformative plan which looks at very long term solutions to serious problems.

Yes, Bold and Transformative; just not reasonable, rational, or realistic....

I have a JMS plan to cure my credit card problem... I'm going to usurp SkinsHokiFan's paycheck and apply it to my debt. That's bold and transformative like Ryan's plan is...

But like I said, not very realistic. Not really dealing with the problem... I can claim I have a plan though, can't I.

I mean seriously... cutting taxes on the uber rich again.... Haven't we already done that? Aren't the uber rich already paying historically low income taxes? Why does Ryan think they need another tax cut?

Also Ryan adding a few hundred billion in spending to cut Obama care.. seriously? I thought he was trying to cut the deficit?...

What a brilliant move to dissolve medicare and medicaid and roll back social security... That's a non starter right there... It's the republican trifecta wish list... It ensured that anything Ryan proposed would be dead on arrival... not like Ryan made one ounce of cuts to GOP darling pet policies.... He just recommended they cut all the democrat programs. While increasing spending on the GOP pet programs.

[zoony]

how dare you denigrate one of our sacred, infallible founding fathers! (i'm being facetious, but thomas paine really was an incredible badass)

let's be honest though... in the global economy a 100% estate tax would create a low pressure system over the entire country with the amount of money being sent to offshore accounts overnight.

Anyways, I think any budget solution should be long term. I don't think any kind of shock to the system right now would be reasonable or prudent.

I would cut military spending gradually. I would begin with a focus on the two wars, with the focus on reserve troops. Seeing as they all have day jobs, getting laid off from the military won't effect the economy much. Ending two wars would decrease drastically spending on military consumables.

From there, I would work on a 20 year plan to bring down the size of our military by 20%. I would continue to spend money on top tier projects, but just a whole lot less of them. Maintain our technological superiority but with a lot less volume

Simultaneously, I would continue to explore opportunities in Healthcare.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

1.) Raise the retirement age 4 years . This would apply for people 45 and younger.

2.) 2-3% tax increase for those making $250,000 or more.(Basically just letting the Bush tax cuts expire)

3.)A millioniares tax. (in other words, anybody's whose networth is over a million would have thier taxes raised by 4-5%)

4.)Increasing taxes on corporations who offshore.

5.)Slash the defense budget by 20%.

I could probably come up with more but that's just off the top of my head.

[AsburySkinsFan]

I go back to the NYtimes article with the budget proposals from the debt commission. From memmory,

A) raise SS age 4 years

hold fed workers pay level for 2 years

C) let Bush tax cuts expire.

D) cut defense spending - and defund 1 or both wars

That's about right.

[ABQCOWBOY]

That's about right.

You can't just defund the Wars unless you are willing to open up reserves in this country IMO.

[AsburySkinsFan]

You can't just defund the Wars unless you are willing to open up reserves in this country IMO.

Possibly, here's the kicker with defunding the wars....unemployed soldiers.

[renaissance]

where's that thread about how often do you really know what you're talking about?

[greenspandan]

- kill the tax-exempt status of churches

- promote an enormous work-from-home program to drastically reduce traffic congestion, oil consumption, asset depreciation (automobiles), pollution, etc.

- form a task force to consolidate or eliminate redundant and overlapping defense contracts.

- attach 3% luxury tax to boats and cars that cost more than $95,000, as well as other "nickle and dime" hassles for the rich when they spend it on personal opulance (private jets, etc.)

[AsburySkinsFan]

where's that thread about how often do you really know what you're talking about?

LoL! Too true, and I'm guilty here too.

[War Paint]

Holy ****. That's not liberal, hell, thats not even communist. That's criminal.

For real. I was so shocked that I wasn't sure if I read that right. WTF?

[ABQCOWBOY]

Possibly, here's the kicker with defunding the wars....unemployed soldiers.

That's a true statement but, if you opened up reserves, that would create a huge job market. One problem might fix the other.

[Bang]

I'm not a liberal, but I'll play along. ..

may as well open the thread up to all,, see what everyone thinks.

Means testing for SS

Tax the rich accordingly as everyone else

Cut tax rates on corporations and offer major tax incentives for companies who maintain their operations, manufacturing, and at least 85 to 90% of their employees in the US

I'd even think about subsidizing goods made by companies falling in the guidelines to keep prices down while we re-invest in our own manufacturing.

Legalize and tax marijuana

Eliminate the thinking of how government funding is handled.. ie, if we don't spend X this year, we won't get X next year.. welll, if you didn't need X this year, you won't next year either. Get rid of waste, even if it means a short term burden while hiring new auditors and bolstering anti-fraud agencies with COMPETENT people.

Crack down HARD on any contractor who rips off the government, and aggressively audit those accounts to keep them in line. Prosecute offenders aggressively.

Crack down HARD on tax dodgers and cheats. Penitentiary type hard.

Sin taxes. Raise taxes on sweets, sodas, alcohol, chips, fast food etc.

I would immediately invest as much effort and capital as can be spared in finding viable alternative energy sources, preferably something we can create here. That is an absolute MUST.

and a lifetime 100% tax cut to

~Bang

[Beans]

Not a liberal by any means, but the most feasible solution for deficit reduction is to reasonably increase taxes on the rich. Unfortunately, they control/are Congress, so....

[Destino]

Holy ****. That's not liberal, hell, thats not even communist. That's criminal.

Eliminating generational wealth is not a good idea. He needs to research the role it plays in American upward mobility.

[JMS]

Means testing for SS

That scares the snott out of me... 50% of all seniors rely on social security to keep their heads above the poverty line. I just don't see cutting the roles of social security as reasonable. I mean after all folks who are wealthy don't typically get back anywhere near what they put in today. hacking them off completely seems to me criminal..

Also how long can you justify taking 14% of a guys paycheck after you exclude him from the benifits of the program.

I'd even think about subsidizing US goods to keep costs down while we re-invest in our own manufacturing.

I think that would violate our trade agreements with folks. I would defintely revisit our trade agreements but I wouldnt subsidize our own products. I would modify our open trade policy to a balanced trade policy like everybody else in the world pursues. China want's to sell 100 billion a month here, they need to buy 100 billion of our stuff. I mean isn't that the definition of the word trade... an exchange of goods? We get their products and they get our cash isn't trade... it's more a purchase or a sale.

I thought most of your suggestions were good.

---------- Post added April-8th-2011 at 12:33 PM ----------

Not a liberal by any means, but the most feasible solution for deficit reduction is to reasonably increase taxes on the rich. Unfortunately, they control/are Congress, so....

The rich are congress... 237 millionaires serve in congress..

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-5553408-503544.html

[ABQCOWBOY]

That scares the snott out of me... 50% of all seniors rely on social security to keep their heads above the poverty line. I just don't see cutting the roles of social security as reasonable. I mean after all folks who are wealthy don't typically get back anywhere near what they put in today. hacking them off completely seems to me criminal..

I think that this would probably be a stepped approach, much like it is now proposed in Ryan's Bill. Say 55 is the cut off. It would screw those of us who are relatively close but it's the only way I see that kind of plan working.

[Bang]

That scares the snott out of me... 50% of all seniors rely on social security to keep their heads above the poverty line. I just don't see cutting the roles of social security as reasonable. I mean after all folks who are wealthy don't typically get back anywhere near what they put in today. hacking them off completely seems to me criminal..

Also how long can you justify taking 14% of a guys paycheck after you exclude him from the benifits of the program.

I agree, and if we did means testing, i would want to make damn sure that those with need got theirs.

People retiring on 70k and up per year,, no need for it. (I use this figure because that's what my dear ol' mom is doing.. she's perfectly secure, and taking the money anyway.)

I would justify it by suggesting it wasn't supposed to be a retirement fund in the first place, but to be a just-in-case fund if you had catastrophic problems. (Now, I don't know if that is 100% true, but it's the way I've always understood it's original intent. I may be completely wrong.).. like car insurance. You don't get any of that back either unless you need it.

I think that would violate our trade agreements with folks. I would defintely revisit our trade agreements but I wouldnt subsidize our own products. I would modify our open trade policy to a balanced trade policy like everybody else in the world pursues. China want's to sell 100 billion a month here, they need to buy 100 billion of our stuff. I mean isn't that the definition of the word trade... an exchange of goods? We get their products and they get our cash isn't trade... it's more a purchase or a sale.

I thought most of your suggestions were good.

I agree, trade agreements need to be addressed, but the fact is that we need to address one of the largest commodities that we've lost and that is workforce jobs.. we've been priced out of the market, and that needs to change. Other places have enticed our companies away, and we need to get them back.

~Bang

[ABQCOWBOY]

I agree, and if we did means testing, i would want to make damn sure that those with need got theirs.

People retiring on 70k and up per year,, no need for it. (I use this figure because that's what my dear ol' mom is doing.. she's perfectly secure, and taking the money anyway.)

I would justify it by suggesting it wasn't supposed to be a retirement fund in the first place, but to be a just-in-case fund if you had catastrophic problems. (Now, I don't know if that is 100% true, but it's the way I've always understood it's original intent. I may be completely wrong.).. like car insurance. You don't get any of that back either unless you need it.

Social Security is one of the best funded programs this Country has ever come up with if left alone. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen. If we want to fix Social Security, I think what is needed is legislation that makes it illegal to tap into Social Security funds. This measure would also help the Government to balance the budget eventually because it would limit their ability to spend beyond their means. This is what I think should be done to save Social Security.