VB Dems

Fiscally Responsible Democrat

4 Responses to “Fiscally Responsible Democrat”

1. beachmom Says:
   June 17th, 2010 at 6:47 am

   That’s all well and good but unless we are willing to deal with a bloated defense budget and the entitlement programs, and also willing to raise taxes, we are not being serious about lowering the deficit.

   Sen. Warner’s cuts aren’t nothing but they’re just a drop in the bucket.

2. OpenMinded Says:
   June 17th, 2010 at 6:53 am

   Sweet. All we need is for the other 975 senators to do something similar and they’ll have paid for the stimulus monstrosity.

   Seriously? What do you mean there aren’t 975 other senators?

3. David Campbell Says:
   June 17th, 2010 at 8:37 am

   Defense Secretary Robert Gates has proposed cutting $10 billion in Pentagon waste. That’s a start. President Obama has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill that includes repeal of DADT because it contains wasteful defense spending that the Pentagon doesn’t even want.

   One big cause of the deficit was the unbudgeted invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. We are still on track to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. Withdrawal from Afghanistan is scheduled to begin in July 2011.

   Another big cause of the deficit was the Bush tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire on schedule at the end of this year. President Obama and Congressional Democrats plan to extend middle class tax cuts while allowing tax cuts to revert to pre-Bush levels for individuals making more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000 in taxable income.

   The CBO estimates that the health reform law will reduce the deficit by more than $143 billion over the next 10 years and more than $1 trillion in the next 10 years.

   President Obama created a bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to look at other ways to reduce the deficit. My suggestion: Social Security could be made solvent for decades by eliminating the $106,800 taxable income cap and applying the flat tax rate equally to all income.

   Deficit reduction is a long term problem. The economic recession is a short term problem and one of the biggest causes of the deficit. Income is down, so tax revenues are down. Companies and consumers aren’t spending money. The federal government is the only entity that can spend money to jump-start the economy. The stimulus bill is absolutely necessary as short-term spending. As the economy improves, income and tax revenues will rise.

   Putting all these elements together, I am optimistic that significant deficit reduction can be achieved.

4. LittleDavid Says:
   June 17th, 2010 at 9:23 am

   I think the Warner proposals are a good start on the long slog needed to balance the budget. Does it solve the whole problem by itself? Nope, but at least it gets us headed in the right direction.

   I agree with David that some of our deficit problems will be solved when the economy improves (I’m an optimist and think it will happen, I know from personal experience I am almost certainly going to end up paying more taxes this year then last).

   I could quibble about how we go about reducing the deficit. But I would think that improvements of eliminating waste and improving efficiency are something we all can agree on. It is a step forward and I am going to applaud steps towards progress. We have to learn to crawl before we learn to even walk let alone sprint. The balanced budget we obtained back during the Clinton years did not come about with one massive piece of legislation, it was more like taking out the chisel and slowly carving away at the huge rock one piece at a time.

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