• Registered: 2010-02-08
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Topic: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

Republicans oppose raising taxes. Many Republicans have actually signed a pledge to not raise taxes ever, for any reason. http://www.atr.org/taxpayer-protection-pledge-a2882#

What does that really mean, when you look at real numbers? I submit that it means they shouldn't be taken seriously when they whine about the deficit.

Many people think that balancing the budget is an easy task just requiring political will, something that would not affect them personally. Many members of Congress often give the impression that all we have to do is eliminate earmarks and pork barrel spending and that would be enough.

Is that true?

Recently the ranking Republican in the House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan, was honest enough to actually put forward a budget that would be balanced without raising any taxes. According to the CBO, under the Ryan plan federal debt as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) would rise from 61% this year to 100% in the year 2045 before falling to zero in 2080.

2080. That's a long time to wait. And what policy changes would have to be enacted? Ryan was honest and courageous enough to admit that the only way to eliminate the deficit without tax hikes was to cut Social Security and Medicare. Severely. In fact, by 2021 Medicare would have to be eliminated completely, replaced with vouchers that would steadily lose ground to annual costs (they would be indexed for only half the historical rate of price inflation in health care). Social Security would be privatized.

Workers would see their health benefits sharply reduced because Ryan would abolish the tax exclusion for health insurance.

Now, you may actually support some or all of these policy changes. But the reality is that the American public overwhelmingly likes and supports Social Security and Medicare. Any politician who dares even begin to speak seriously about cutting them is cut off at the knees. Bush tried very hard in 2005 to invest his re-election momentum into privatizing Social Security. He got nowhere. Clinton annihilated the GOP when they tried to cut Mediare in 1995, which in part was responsible for Speaker Gingrich's forced retirement.

Today the GOP is running from Ryan's budget as if it were the new Bubonic Plague. Yet they continue to call for a balance budget and no new taxes.

Which is why they should not be taken seriously.

--I cribbed/amended/etc. this post from the following column by conservative economist Bruce Bartlett: http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11/cut-sp … tlett.html

Last edited by jpn of Seattle (2010-02-15 22:07:32)

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  • Registered: 2009-11-03
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

"No new taxes" is a right wing  mantra repeated over and over that persuades people to vote against their best interests in the name of greed.  It has worked for the republicans for so long, that  now they can't bring themselves to let it go, no matter how unrealistic and misleading they know it is. It's all they have.

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  • Registered: 2009-11-05
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

Any politician with real conviction would increase taxes in this situation. There simply is no alternative.

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  • Registered: 2010-02-08
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

gommi wrote:

Any politician with real conviction would increase taxes in this situation. There simply is no alternative.

Yes, but the key is timing. Right now would be a terrible time to raise taxes, with the economy still struggling to get to its feet. A year from now, if unemployment is ratcheting down and economic growth appears stable, would be the ideal time to raise taxes, just like the Democrats did in 1993.

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  • Registered: 2009-12-03
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

I think they believe that the budget couold be lowered and the deficit reduced by cutting spending not raising taxes.

Withdraw our troops from EVERYWHERE in the world. At this point I could give two shits and a hand shake for the middle east or anywhere else.

Cut all foreign aid. EVEB TO HAITI. Its terrible what has happened there but since when is it the job of the US to bail out every tragedy in the world? We have enough problems and people going hungry in the US. Enough homeless in the US mto worry about. More in fact than in haiti. Yet for some reason I am supposed to care about this foreign soil?

http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_wel … less.shtml

On any given night in America, anywhere from 700,000 to 2 million people are homeless, according to estimates of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

And of course eliminate pork. Not that I beleive there are more than a few politicians who really WANT to do this even if most of them may CLAIM they do.

jpn wrote:

Yes, but the key is timing. Right now would be a terrible time to raise taxes, with the economy still struggling to get to its feet. A year from now, if unemployment is ratcheting down and economic growth appears stable, would be the ideal time to raise taxes, just like the Democrats did in 1993.

While I agree whole heaatedly with the first statement as I have said above. I would rather see spending cut FIRST then if funds still appear lower then needed to reduce the deficit then looking into a raise in taxes should be on the table.

There is nothing wrong with the world. Its the people. Get rid of them and it would be an alright place.

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  • Registered: 2009-11-05
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

It seems contradictory to sympathize with the homeless while advocating spending cuts, as the homeless depend on government support. In fact, is it really possible to reduce domestic spending at time when unemployment is so severe?

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  • Registered: 2009-11-11
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

How about not making sweeping generalizations on tax and budgetary policy?  Why can't  politicians realize that complex tax and budgetary issues can't be solved with simple posturing?

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  • Registered: 2009-12-03
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

I doubt they want to balance the budget but I do beleive they want to not raise taxes.

There is nothing wrong with the world. Its the people. Get rid of them and it would be an alright place.

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  • From: Arizona
  • Registered: 2009-11-25
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

neither party has any incentive to raise taxes...a vote for a tax hike kills their careers.

I don't mind raised taxes just place them properly, like on consumption...particularly consumption of resources that imported.  raised taxes should happened slowly and not shock the system

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  • Registered: 2009-11-30
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

neorealist wrote:

neither party has any incentive to raise taxes...a vote for a tax hike kills their careers.

I don't mind raised taxes just place them properly, like on consumption...particularly consumption of resources that imported.  raised taxes should happened slowly and not shock the system

Well, since the unreality we've entered since the Reagan years where we cut taxes for the rich so they can go to the casino of Wall Street, we can all force ourselves to pretend that those tax cuts are good for us. What? In the early 1990s Clinton proposed to raise taxes on the highest bracket by a few points and just like the Republicans said, the Apocalypse came. Oh, wait, no...there was a big boom and we ended the decade with surplus. But who got punished? The Democrats. Why on earth would they be afraid to do it again?

Hell is a place where there is no reason.

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  • Registered: 2010-02-08
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

Opmod wrote:

I doubt they want to balance the budget but I do beleive they want to not raise taxes.

Encourage birth control, condoms, safe sex. All the things conservative religious wing-nuts oppose...

Last edited by jpn of Seattle (2010-03-08 20:22:45)

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  • Registered: 2009-12-03
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

jpn of Seattle wrote:
Opmod wrote:

I doubt they want to balance the budget but I do beleive they want to not raise taxes.

Encourage birth control, condoms, safe sex. All the things conservative religious wing-nuts oppose...

What do any of those things have to do with my comment or even the thread?

There is nothing wrong with the world. Its the people. Get rid of them and it would be an alright place.

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  • Registered: 2010-02-08
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

Opmod wrote:

What do any of those things have to do with my comment or even the thread?

They refer to the slogan attached to every one of your posts. I assume the reason you attach it to every one of your posts is to get a reaction. Or that you're proud of it.

Or something.

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  • Registered: 2009-12-03
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Re: Do Republicans Really Want to Balance the Budget and Not Raise Taxes?

jpn of Seattle wrote:
Opmod wrote:

What do any of those things have to do with my comment or even the thread?

They refer to the slogan attached to every one of your posts. I assume the reason you attach it to every one of your posts is to get a reaction. Or that you're proud of it.

Or something.

Attached to my posts? I am cionfused, please explain.
The only thing attached to each of my posts is a smart arse signature meant to underline the fact that humanity is flawed fundamentally.

Last edited by Opmod (2010-03-10 20:36:23)

There is nothing wrong with the world. Its the people. Get rid of them and it would be an alright place.

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