by Tyler_JC » Wed 14 Jan 2009, 02:18:27
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FairMaiden', 'I') don't get it - in the video they said they would have to double the tax rate to 42% to fix this mess? Hello! I pay over 40% tax! What is the big deal? So you can't afford a 3000 sqft house with 2 cars and all the needless "stuff" to fill it. We can only afford a t/home with one car...if everyone in America did that, why couldn't they meet their obligations and start paying down the debt? Why are Americans so reluctant to do what is right for themselves and their future??
I don't see why they can't just cut programs. They are assuming that everyone is going to stay in place. Eliminate program D and you save 7 trillion...make the hard choices.
There is so much room for conservation and increased frugality that its mind boggling. If things start to hurt, I'll bet that starts kicking in.
If everyone's taxes double, the extra money isn't spent on goods and services by the taxpayer.
All of the people employed by that extra spending suddenly lose their jobs.
Now all of the people employed by those peoples' spending lose their jobs...and so on.
It becomes a dangerous self-reinforcing spiral.
As for eliminating Part D, how would you like to sell that to the American people? Part D gives cheaper drugs so that seniors can afford to both eat and pay their medical bills. If you want to take away the only thing keeping a large number of these people alive, you're going to run up against a rather large and powerful lobby, The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).
If there's one thing you can't afford to do in this country as a politician, it's making the AARP angry. Seniors vote in large numbers and unlike the rest of us, they actually show up to the polls.
I agree with you that we need to make some cuts to our benefits to seniors if we hope to keep the budget in the black by the 2020s, but it's extremely hard to do in a political context.