This is exactly why Obama's oft-repeated call for "shared sacrifice" is such a lie and falls flat. There is no sharing. He is adamant about not cutting programs for his constituencies. He is quite willing to cut medicare and social security for people who actually held jobs and paid into them their whole lives. And he's willing to raise taxes on the same sort of people. Ironically, obama's class hatred rhetoric has awakened the productive class from their slumber. They are tired of paying for slothful, intrusive government and for the sullen welfare crowd who refuse to get an education or work and can only demand more, when they're not rioting.
He was willing to cut medicare and SS in a naive attempt to get some concessions from republicans. The "productive class"... aka the "job creators"? lol.
IRS Tax Receipts: Top 1-percent Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) break (TY 2008) [3,4] $380,354 So, in other words, you could take 100 % of the top tier's income and it would take you 16 years to pay off our existing debt - not to mention the forward debt curve published on whitehouse.gov's website. Up their tax rates by 20 %, it will take 80 years. Tax revenue is shit compared to spending. Honestly, that is a bullshit vacuous false arguement designed by the left to foment class warfare - raising taxes will not help the debt crisis. And what about the 50% of adult Americans that pay NO federal income tax ?
Remember, this is about a lot more than balancing the budget. It is also about the size and scope of Government. Should we have a Dept of Energy that has failed to achieve its goals. Same question for Education. Energy was created in 1976 by Jimmy Carter as a knee jerk reaction to the energy crisis of the 70s. We of course now import more of our energy needs than back then. Education was created in 1979 again by Carter as payback to teacher's unions for their support. It was supposed to "to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access." OK, take some time and breathe deeply because if you read this, you are either laughing your ass off or crying. Both are appropriate. Hopefully, you get the idea that this is more than a budget balancing excercise. Feel free to add other Depts. that could be cut or reduced drastically. Seneca ps-anyone wonder why a lot of people think Carter was the worst 20th century President?
That's precisely why the debt ceiling debate was so depressing and infuriating to many. The republicans gave away the store before they even started negotiating. The starting point should have been eliminating a half dozen agencies next year. And freezing spending at current levels, not shaving a tiny bit off the baked in growth. Would the democrats have reacted any worse? As it was they accused republicans of terrorism, extortion, trying to kill people and carjacking obama who had the baby(the economy) in the back seat. Of course, I would have also proposed major Pentagon cuts and immediate pullouts from Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, among other places we don't need to be. Like Ron Paul said, if you are going to talk about cutting programs like SS and medicare, which people depend on and into which they paid their whole working lives, you need to cut the nonessential stuff first.