Well the good feeling that we were getting from DC last week was dashed this week as Obama pulled a Cantor and walked out of deficit reduction talks. It was a show of just how far Obama has fallen off of the wagon with concern to his calm, cool demeanor over the last 2 and half years.
It was the fourth meeting in as many days and there has not been much progress made, mostly because the President and Democrats refuse to see the light that the American people are not willing to just accept tax increase without serious spending cuts. Which in every poll put out in the last week has shown that Americans want what the Republicans are offering, massive spending cuts, and what the democrats want in tax increases.
Of course as is the norm with the American population, they want tax increase on everyone but themselves. And they want spending cuts on all the programs that they personally do not see a use for. So maybe my last bit of writing on the good news was a bit naive. Because nothing can be done if people are too stubborn to give up their own favorite Government entitlement. To solve this issue it is going to take a much broader approach to the problem.
The Republicans are in the driver seat, they will get to decide how this goes. The only thing the President and the Democrats in the senate can do is either pass what is passed in the house or look like the fools to the American people when we default on our loans. So with this in mind the Republicans should do the following.
First the Republicans should pass a bill that is short term, and would require a vote to be taken ever 4 months to raise the debt ceiling as well as cut the the same amount from the budget. So if it is 500 billion increase in the debt ceiling it is to be accompanied by 500 billion in spending cuts. This is a good compromise for everyone that is agreement that we need to raise the debt ceiling and spending cuts. It also means that everything has to be on the table, we cannot protect one Government entitlement over another. This means that the Liberals will have to swallow cuts to social security and medicare/medicaid and Conservatives will have to swallow the cuts made to defense. It has to be done, it cannot be put off any longer.
Second the Republicans should include in the bill a balance budget amendment that states that congress cannot vote for increases in spending over 2% from the previous years income. Meaning that if in 2011 the IRS collects 2.4 trillion dollars the 2012 spending bill cannot be more than 2.448 trillion dollars. There is no reason that Government spending should be 25% of our GDP and that is what it is currently.
Third the Republicans in the house should put for a bill that will eliminate the tax deductions that can be taken at tax time and lower the corporate tax rate to 20%. This will make it more competitive to do business in the US, as well as be a back door tax increase with the removal of deductions that corporations and individuals can take. This would be a great compromise in raising taxes but keeping to the pledge of not raising taxes while in congress. Most people will not associate the removal of deductions as a tax increase, so it would be a win win for everyone involved.
If the Republicans did those three things it would then force Obama to put aside the partisan politics and accept the deal, he does not want this in the news come next summer. Plus he would then be able to say he won a great victory for the country and to his base he could say that he raised taxes on the wealthiest Americans do to the removal of deductions from the tax code.
The question is, will any of them have the political oomph to do such a thing?
Jack Simms is a comment writer and opinionated commentator at a political forum called Partisan divide.
Come visit for on topic discussions in daily political news that affects all our lives.
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