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The First Childish Negotiating Tactic Award

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June 26, 2011 – Comments (2)

I would like to offer my first "Childish Negotiating Tactic Award" to Eric Cantor and Jon Kyl for their impressive performance in budget negotiations with Joe Biden this week. There's something to standing up for principal but when your "no tax" stance bring the country closer to financial armageddon I have to wonder if sanity has escaped Washington for good. 

It seems to me that the deficit commission Obama set up last year concluded that you can't have anything close to a balanced budget without some form of increased tax revenue. I'm OK with the tax cuts expiring for everyone but the fact of the matter is the wealthy will have to pay a higher rate at the very least.

According to the CBO in 2010 tax revenues as a percentage of GDP were 14.9%, far below the long-term trend of ~19%-20%. My fancy calculator tells me that a 20% rate of tax revenue to GDP would have resulted in a ~$500 billion deficit instead of $1.3 trillion. Sounds good to me.

The big question I have is "Why would ANYTHING be off the table in the deficit debate?" We should be talking about taxes, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, discretionary spending, and anything else we spend money on. I would be peeved if the Democrats said Medicaid was off the table and I'm equally as peeved that Republicans have taken the stance that taxes are off the table. EVERYTHING IS ON THE TABLE. 

What do you think Fools?

Travis Hoium 

2 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On June 26, 2011 at 4:34 PM, dbjella (< 20) wrote:

Why not see if we can cut first?  We have always proved we can increase taxes or come up with new fees, but when in the last 30 years have we cut spending?

Prove to the American people that spending cuts can be achieved and then talk about raising taxes. 

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#2) On June 26, 2011 at 10:29 PM, Bkeepr100 (< 20) wrote:

If you are in a deep hole and are not a prospector, you quit digging.  It is time for a smaller less intrusive government that lives within the amount collected.

A wise founding Father said, " Gentlemen, the power to tax is the power to distroy."

The government's actions since New (Raw) Deal, War on (Wealth)Poverty, and the latest 2 year, over the top spending spree is costing us jobs, family businesses such as farms and other small shops. It is time to stop the government from spending so much.

Show me that there are real cuts to non essential programs, not just window dressing. For every dollar of spending kept, there needs to be two dollars in cuts. Spread the pain around and stop the Nanny state from rewarding those that cry the most.  Make programs such as Food Stamps stand on their own instead of burying it in the Agricutural budget and them blaming the farmers for the cost of the food stamps.

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