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Alan Simpson Slams Fellow Republicans For Unwillingness To Compromise

Tax reform, not simply higher marginal rates, on the existing bucket of worms that passes as the FIT code, is probably worth considering even if it means a BIT more revenue. To offer tax increases now in exchange for phantom or future cuts in spending is insane. If an honest offer should ever appear from the demorats, to cut CURRENT federal spending, then the republicants should consider a SMALL increase, say $10 of REAL spending cuts gets $1 in more taxes.
 
It's dependent on what value those who pay your salary get in return for that pay.

So how about a teacher that has a masters, 15 years of experience and makes 50k a year and teaches 40 kids math. Is that good value or bad value? How about the engineer that ensures a bridge built meets safety specifications that used over it's life by say a couple million drivers?

It's easy to figure the value of something that is sold on the market, like if someone makes 40 sandwhiches which are sold for 5 bucks a pop. It's a little more difficult when you're talking about potential defects that are avoided or the value of 40 10th graders having that "aha" moment in a trig class.
 
its a faux crisis...because 6% of our national budget going to paying the interest on our debt...is not a crisis.

It will be when interest rates get back to reality. But never fear, perhaps you will have a kind Chinese owner...
 
So say the SEC officials that make sure that markets are transparent add no value? Compare unregulated markets to regulated markets and there's a much higher premium for borrowing and raising capital expected to offset the lack of transparency. That seems to add value to me to markets in general.

How about Department of tranportation and their maintaining of infrastructure? The engineers for them don't add value or make the economy grow? How about teachers? Jeeze....you think literacy and education might of played a part in building the economy.

Of course...none of them add anything to you?

It's still overhead, and I've already said some overhead is worth more than other overhead. If you are talking about the SEC regulators who missed Bernie Madoff in spite of the warnings, or the DOT program administrators that allowed the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, I remain unimpressed. I am also not impressed with the success of the Department of Energy, which was created to reduce our reliance on foreign energy at a time when said reliance was only a fraction of what it is now. And what has the Department of Education done for us lately? How about HUD?
 
It's still overhead, and I've already said some overhead is worth more than other overhead. If you are talking about the SEC regulators who missed Bernie Madoff in spite of the warnings, or the DOT program administrators that allowed the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, I remain unimpressed. I am also not impressed with the success of the Department of Energy, which was created to reduce our reliance on foreign energy at a time when said reliance was only a fraction of what it is now. And what has the Department of Education done for us lately? How about HUD?

I'm sure you still have enough confidence to invest/drive over bridges etc. If you're argument is that you're productive only if infaliable then nobody on earth is a productive member of society.
 
I'm sure you still have enough confidence to invest/drive over bridges etc. If you're argument is that you're productive only if infaliable then nobody on earth is a productive member of society.

Some of us are more productive than others.
 
its a faux crisis...because 6% of our national budget going to paying the interest on our debt...is not a crisis.

Trillions of dollars in debt is a crisis. Too bad you're too big of a partisan hack to see it.Governments should not spend more than they collect.
 
Trillions of dollars in debt is a crisis. Too bad you're too big of a partisan hack to see it.Governments should not spend more than they collect.

yeah, for Ireland or Greece. Not for the USA.

its only 6% of our annual budget in interest. big deal.
 
I absolutely agree with him...

Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) lashed out at members of his party on Sunday, slamming them for their unwillingness to compromise on proposed tax increases.



Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) lashed out at members of his party on Sunday, slamming them for their unwillingness to compromise on proposed tax increases.
In his characteristically colorful style, Simpson told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that Republicans' rigid opposition to new tax revenues has hampered productivity and diminished the chances of reaching an agreement with Democrats on debt reduction.


Simpson continued: "If you want to be a purist, go somewhere on a mountaintop and praise the east or something. But if you want to be in politics, you learn to compromise. And you learn to compromise on the issue without compromising yourself. Show me a guy who won’t compromise and I’ll show you a guy with rock for brains."

Alan Simpson Slams Fellow Republicans For Unwillingness To Compromise

The tax rates proposed by Alan Simpson in his work on the Presidents Debt Reduction Committee that he co-chaired with Democrat Erskin Bowles:

The Zero Plan in the Bowles-Simpson “Chairmen's Mark” would:

Eliminate all tax expenditures—for both income and payroll taxes—except for the child credit, the earned income tax credit, foreign tax credits, a few less common preferences (retain reduced preferences for mortgage interest, employer-sponsered health insurance and reitrement savings in the third variant listed above).
Eliminate the alternative minimum tax (AMT).
Eliminate the phaseout of personal exemptions and the limitation of itemized deductions.
Replace the current six-bracket individual tax rate schedule with a three-bracket schedule with rates of 9, 15, and 24 percent (12, 20, and 27 percent in the third variant listed above).
Tax capital gains and dividends as ordinary income.
Index tax parameters using the chained Consumer Price Index.
Increase the Social Security wage base by 2 percent per year more than the growth in the average wage (making the FICA cap $140,100 in 2015).
Phase in an increase in the federal excise tax on gasoline of 15 cents per gallon (13.5 cents per gallon on average in 2015).
Eliminate corporate tax expenditures and reduce the corporate tax rate to 26 percent (27 percent in the third variant listed above).

...

The third variant would retain tax benefits for mortgage interest, employer-sponsored health insurance, and retirement saving, but restructure them and reduce their costs to 80 percent of their current levels. It would set higher tax rates to make up the revenue lost by those changes and the changes would apply only to income taxes.

Specifically this option would:

Convert the mortgage interest deduction to a 15 percent refundable interest credit.
Replace the exclusion from income of employer-sponsored health insurance with flat credits of $1,058 for single coverage and $2,433 for family coverage offered by employers.
Reduce the limits on contributions to employer-sponsored qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts to 43 percent of their current level.
Cap the amount of tax-free accruals within both defined benefit and defined contribution retirement accounts.
Replace the current six-bracket individual tax rate schedule with a three-bracket schedule with rates of 12 percent, 20 percent, and 27 percent.


Republicans not compromising? Boehner offered Obama $800 Bn in tax increases and Obama tried to change the deal at the last minute. Let me know when Democrats agree to get serious about entitlement reform.
 
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