Here is how I think Kerry should start on the deficit.

Call on everyone who made a campaign contribution to any party to make a like contribution to reduction of the deficit. This would be huge in dollars and good press for the Democrats. It would be a call to service to all of America to help us recover from this horrific four years.

I would do it and I have talked to several others who said they would. Maybe Republicans wouldn't but then we can claim the high road and emphasize their continued self-interest over the good of the whole.

All he has to do is fund and empower the IRS, the SEC, the FTC, and the EPA. These agencies have been significantly weakened and compromised by Bush, and the result is wealthy people and corporations are cheating and buying their way out of paying their fair share.

Partisan Republican shills attacking Kerry and honest swing voters often ask, "Where is Kerry going to get the money for his programs? If he is only going to raise taxes on those making over $200K/yr., that will not increase revenue enough to fund his proposals." Even factcheck.org has raised this concern.

I do not have any inside line into Kerry's plans, but I can speculate and come up with a few ways he could dramatically increase federal revenues while keeping his promise not to raise taxes of people making less than $200K/yr.

The two ways I can think of are collection of current tax receivables (Bush has been very negligent here) and changes in corporate tax code (nothing in the promise about not raising taxes on corporations, only about not raising taxes on PEOPLE earning less than $200K.)

The first tactic, ENFORCEMENT and COLLECTION of the current tax receivables is a no brainier because Bush has been deliberately dropping the ball and covering it up on this one. Bush has gutted and severely constrained the IRS. By under funding the agency, he has sharply limited their ability to perform audits. They are short on manpower, computer equipment, funding, and resources in general.

The result of this dis-empowering of the IRS is that they cannot investigate cases of massive personal and corporate tax fraud. When they do perform audits, they are forced to go after low-income tax payers who cannot afford accountants and attorneys to fight the audits. This fact alone is a tragic injustice. They are auditing only people who are too poor to contest the audits, because they do not have the resources to respond to a rich person trying to buy their way out of paying their fair share of taxes! Low-income taxpayers are not typically the ones who cheat and underpay taxes by large dollar amounts.

By simply investing in a major revamp to the IRS and enabling them to go after wealth tax evaders, the government could collect billions of dollars in additional revenue without raising ANYONE'S taxes. It would simply be a matter of collecting taxes that are owed under the current tax structure but are being avoided or evaded by wealthy taxpayers with slick accountants and tax attorneys.

Further, Bush is also gutting, under funding, and dis-empowering the SEC and the FTC. Again, by simply investing in the infrastructures and empowering these agencies to go after fraud and corruption, much revenue could be captured that our government is currently being cheated out of.

Kerry has already alluded to “closing corporate tax loopholes that reward sending jobs overseas”. This is a very broad statement, but there is much potential for additional revenue here. By closing dozens of other corporate tax loopholes and neutralizing corporate tax avoidance, billions could be collected, again without raising taxes on ANYONE, even those earning over $200K/yr.

Another potential source of revenue is another agency that should be acting for our protection, but has been gutted, under funded, and dis-empowered by the Bush Administration: the EPA. By restoring regulations on polluters back to their pre-2000 status, and aggressively enforcing fines for non-compliance, monies could be collected without raising taxes and our air and water would be cleaner as well.

I think the Kerry campaign is going to finish with about $140 M in contributions. Even if you add all the other 527s and committees that received contributions, there may have been, at best, less than $500M in contributions. The budget deficit is about $420 Billion or about 1,000 times the total contributions.

patriotism.

The spending side must be addressed, especially discretionary spending. * has not vetoed one bill in four years. He has allowed every bit of pork and special interest favors to his supporters to pass by his veto pen. Contrast this to BC who was willing to close down the government checkbook on more than one occasion to control excess spending.

There is no doubt that the economic seas are going to get rougher for Kerry after he is elected. He will be faced with sweeping out *'s smelly barn for much of his early presidency. But it has to be done.

He realizes this, which is why he is already curtailing some of his more ambitions spending proposals.

The twin deficits must be addressed. It is morally and fiscally irresponsible not to do so.

Four words: Pay as you go.