Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger
I have a slightly different take on the debt ceiling discussion started by Mike Appleton earlier. The Debt ceiling issue is on every cable and broadcast TV channel and on just about every website and blog including here on Prof. Turley’s blog. The debt limit and its feared default has controlled the airwaves for weeks now, and it isn’t going to end soon if the news reports are to believed. The Democrats want increased revenue and the Republicans want cuts only to spending in order to convince both sides to do something that was done about 19 times during the preceding administration without much fanfare from either side. No matter who you support there is an easy solution to the problem and the majority of Americans agree with it. The Hill
A very easy solution to the U.S. Debt problem is to simply tax the wealthy and corporations at 1960 levels and according to one source, the debt would be erased within a decade. “Some numbers — from an Institute for Policy Studies report released this past spring — can help us better visualize just how monumental this political failure has been. If corporations and households taking in $1 million or more in income each year were now paying taxes at the same annual rates as they did back in 1961, the IPS researchers found, the federal treasury would be collecting an extra $716 billion a year. In other words, if the federal government started taxing the wealthy and their corporations at the same rates in effect a half-century ago, the federal debt to investors would almost totally vanish over the next decade.” Our Future
The Center for American Progress has provided additional evidence that corporations in the United States are taxed at a low rate when compared to other nations. I know we keep hearing about that corporations are over taxed and if we keep taxing them they will move their jobs out of the country. Here is a link to a series of charts that proves that US corporations are paying lower taxes than some would admit to. American Progress.org
‘ “Conservatives like to claim that our budget deficits are purely a “spending problem.” Said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “We don’t have this problem because we tax too little. We have it because we spent too much.” ‘ It’s a popular talking point, but it simply isn’t true. Deficits do not stem from spending levels alone. They are the product of a mismatch between spending and revenue. And when revenue is as low as ours is, you end up with big deficits.” American Progress
Now, it may sound trite or sarcastic, but the facts are clear that our so-called debt problems would be solved very easily without any draconian cuts to socially important programs important to the Left, and without deep cuts to the military budget that the Right wants to avoid. So why is it so difficult to reach this seemingly obvious solution? Why do the wealthy and Corporations have such a tight wrap on the DC regulars on both sides of the aisle? Could the answer be that both the wealthy and large Corporations have the funds to buy or at least ‘rent” Congress and convince Senators and Representatives to look the other way on tax increases?
It couldn’t be the money, could it? And all this time I thought that Gordon Gecko was a fictional character!
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger.
Remember who controls spending: Congress.
You need 60 votes in the senate and half the votes in Congress to control spending.
So when did the Republicans have this kind of control to run up the debt?
Running up the debt has been very much a bipartisan effort.
bdaman:
solution to debt crisis is quite simple. just get the government out of the economy.
SwM
This is common for republican administrations in recent decades. Run up the debt so that democrats can’t enact social programs when they take over. Republicans declared war on the majority of citizens in this country a long time ago. This is simply part of their slash and burn campaign. It plays well in the south and with certain personality types.
Oh and look how sneaky he is. A ploy to change the gun laws in this country.
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/01/08/is-it-time-to-ban-all-automatic-weapons/#comment-252372
Bdaman 1, July 26, 2011 at 10:06 am
A gunrunning sting gone fatally wrong
Phoenix — They came from all over the country, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, brought here in a bold new effort to shut down the flow of U.S. guns to Mexican drug cartels. It was called Operation Fast and Furious, after a popular movie about street car racing.
But from the beginning, much of the fury was inside the agency itself.
On his first day undercover, John Dodson, who had been an ATF agent for seven years in Virginia, sat in a Chevy Impala with Olindo Casa, an 18-year veteran from Chicago. They watched a suspected gun trafficker buy 10 semiautomatic rifles from a Phoenix gun store and followed him to the house of another suspected trafficker. All of their training told them to seize the guns.
The agents called their superior and asked for the order to “take him.” The answer came back swiftly, instructing them to stay in the car. The message was clear: Let the guns go.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-anti-gunrunning-effort-turns-fatally-wrong/2011/07/14/gIQAH5d6YI_story.html
That’s complete BS. The fault lies squarely with those who created the huge debt (Republicans) and who refuse to answer for their irresponsibility.
The economy was so severely damaged by Bush’s financial crisis that it will take years to come back if it ever does.
People get tired of hearing the same old crap true or not, It’s all Bush’s Fault. This maybe true but Obama has made it 10 times worse. Failed Healthcare and Stimulus would be your two prime examples.
Like Obama you keep looking in the rear view mirror. Watch out your about to run into the back of the dump truck.
@rcampbell — “No one who suggests supporting the absurd Republican plan of requiring ONLY the middle class to pay for the debts the GOP ran up deserves any respect.”
Let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good rant.
Who Pays Income Taxes and how much?
Tax Year 2008
Top 1% (AGI threshold = $380,354) pays 38.02%
Top 5% ($159,619) pays 58.72%
Top 10% ($113,799) pays 69.94%
Top 25% ($67,280) pays 86.34%
Top 50% ($33,048) pays 97.30%
Bottom 50% (<$33,048) pays 2.7%
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service
bdaman That is your party’s opinion. I think the tea party wants to burn the house down to make Obama look bad. It has always been their goal.
Obama is doing a fine job of that on his own. Instead of partying like it’s 1999 and wanting to be the next Tiger Woods maybe it would be different.
I need to call my tea bagger congressman, Pete Sessions, this morning. He is more concerned about holding fundraisers in strip clubs than whether or not a senior is getting a social security check. See his wife filed for divorce.
No worries we go to lazarus get digiovannis sauce and Mantias pizza with cheddar cheese. And dont worry bout pamela desiree or lee or or or the gettine 3 square meals:))
The economy was so severely damaged by Bush’s financial crisis that it will take years to come back if it ever does.
THE WORM GETS UP EARLY AND HAD SOME GREAT NEWS TO REPORT:))
Bdaman
That’s complete BS. The fault lies squarely with those who created the huge debt (Republicans) and who refuse to answer for their irresponsibility. No one who suggests supporting the absurd Republican plan of requiring ONLY the middle class to pay for the debts the GOP ran up deserves any respect.
You gotta get up earlier to get the worm, Bdaman.
@swarthmore mom, depends on whether they desrire for compromise trumps their hatred of an awful economy and 3 years of failed plans. I’m thinking it’ll be the latter.
bdaman That is your party’s opinion. I think the tea party wants to burn the house down to make Obama look bad. It has always been their goal.
If the Social Security checks quit going out, the impact will be huge.
It would be no one’s fault but Obama’s
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/the-disaster-we-know/ If the Social Security checks quit going out, the impact will be huge.
YES I AM. FOR I MET J U S T I C E!!!
And for all the Walker Bashers
Wisconsin’s New Jobs Account for More than Half of Nation’s Net Gain for June
While Nation Sputters on Jobs, Wisconsin Economy Begins to Hum
http://maciverinstitute.com/2011/07/wisconsin-job-gains-account-for-more-than-half-of-nation%E2%80%99s-net-numbers-for-june/
Under our Stimulus Plan unemployment will not rise above 8 percent.
Are You Better Off Today Than Jan. 20, 2009?
A slim 15% claim to be “getting ahead financially,” half what it was in 2006. Fully 27% say they’re falling behind financially. That’s up 6 points since February.
A significant majority (54%) says they’ve been forced to change their lifestyle significantly as a result of the economic times — and 60% of them are angry, up from 44%…