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eridani

(51,907 posts)
Fri Sep 7, 2012, 07:03 PM Sep 2012

7 Ways to End the Deficit (Without Throwing Grandma Under the Bus)

http://www.nationofchange.org/7-ways-end-deficit-without-throwing-grandma-under-bus-1347023703

These seven simple steps would raise close to $550 billion a year. They would quickly erase the fiscal deficit and return the country to a healthy budget surplus. There would be hundreds of billions left to invest in key sectors that could make the country more secure, more green, and more equitable: care jobs, green jobs, infrastructure jobs.

In other words, this plan could help erase the nation’s dangerous social and environmental deficits.

Many groups—from Jobs with Justice to National People’s Action to the AFL-CIO—are organizing to counter a push by the Right to use the deficit crisis to shred social programs and our nation’s safety net. Let’s up the ante and spread the message. America is not broke. We have plenty of resources to rebuild shared prosperity in the U.S.

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SickOfTheOnePct

(7,290 posts)
1. All good ideas
Fri Sep 7, 2012, 07:17 PM
Sep 2012

But I must be missing something. How is raising $550 billion a year going to erase an almost $1 trillion per year deficit, let alone lead to a surplus?

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
2. Social Security had nothing to do with the Deficit so I hope Democrats will make this very
Fri Sep 7, 2012, 07:17 PM
Sep 2012

clear in the debate. It should not even be mentioned in the same sentence as the Deficit.

Those are pretty good suggestions.

As Dean Baker said re SS btw, without doing anything right now, it is good for another 25 years and even after that, still doing nothing, it can pay out at least 80% of all of its obligations.

But to make it good for the next 75 years, all they have to do is

1) CREATE JOBS and ...
2) Raise the cap

The numbers Baker is using are coming from a period when there is high unemployment also, so when the economy turns around, that would extend the period for SS being able to handle its obligations.

And end the tax holiday. A better way to stimulate the economy is to raise benefits for those on SS.

Anyone who connects SS to the Deficit is a liar. There simply is no other word for them.

tokenlib

(4,186 posts)
3. Agree, and the President needs to define what he meant last night by "Strengthen Social Security"
Fri Sep 7, 2012, 07:21 PM
Sep 2012

The GOP has made the definition of "strengthen" highly questionable. He campaigned in 2008 on "raising the cap", and it is time to go back to it.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
6. Yes, I think we know what 'strengthen' SS means. That made me very nervous, also the mention of
Sat Sep 8, 2012, 12:51 AM
Sep 2012

Simpson/Bowles, two people who should never be allowed anywhere near SS. One of them called retirees 'greedy old geezers' for taking the benefits they paid for, airc.

The goal posts on this issue have a way of being moved all over the field.

If we ask now, we are told to 'wait until after the election' only to be told later that we should have asked before the election as we would not be so disappointed because the President never promised no cuts, he promised to 'strengthen SS and we just didn't hear what he said, but heard what we wanted to hear.

Sounds like the most important part of this election are the Congressional races. With a strong progressive Congress Simpson/Bowles would be irrelevant. We can only work hard to try to get such a Congress and hope for the best.

SickOfTheOnePct

(7,290 posts)
4. The SS holiday is good for lower income levels
Fri Sep 7, 2012, 07:21 PM
Sep 2012

That additional 2% goes right back into the economy, and it has no effect on the health of SS.

Freddie

(9,232 posts)
5. Keep the holiday and raise the cap
Fri Sep 7, 2012, 07:46 PM
Sep 2012

So the max contribution is the same as it was in 2010. Just takes longer to get there. That way more $ goes in and technically they're not "raising taxes" until you earn over $110000. For those people my heart bleeds. And it's not a "tax increase" just a reset to the previous level with a different way of getting there that helps the middle class.

pampango

(24,692 posts)
7. Great suggestions for ending the deficit with progressive policies.
Sat Sep 8, 2012, 05:32 AM
Sep 2012

"These three policy changes would go a long way toward making our society more equal, and that means better health, too. There is a terrific body of global evidence, a lot of it compiled by British researchers Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, that more equal societies are much healthier. People at all income levels live longer; they are more fulfilled; and there is less violence. The United States, a relatively equal society as recently as the 1970s, is now off the charts in terms of wealth and income inequality. It doesn’t have to be that way. Just as we created a more just and vibrant economy and a strong middle class through fair taxes between 1940 and 1980, we can do it again through progressive taxation."

Jeff In Milwaukee

(13,992 posts)
9. Let me add one: How to Raise Taxes on the Middle Class
Sat Sep 8, 2012, 06:44 AM
Sep 2012

Get them better jobs. Somebody earning $60k per year is going to pay more than somebody earning $40k, who is paying more than somebody earning $20k.

And the diabolical side benefit? These people will pay more taxes and THANK YOU for helping them get a better job.

MWAHAHAHA!

limpyhobbler

(8,244 posts)
11. Saw Ed Rendell on Colbert Report last night.
Sat Sep 8, 2012, 03:14 PM
Sep 2012

He said Medicare was never meant to cover people for 20 years and we haven't been honest with our supporters about that, and we need to start being honest about some of the changes that need to be made. And he also said repukes will need to get honest about the need to raise taxes.

As if those two things are equal at all. Any tax hike on the rich will be easily reversed in a few years. But changes to Medicare, like raising the retirement age, will stick.

But that's the new party line it seems, that both sides have to give up something. Even though it's not even close to a fair trade. The Grand Bargain is back with a vengence.

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