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Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
#352111 07/20/11 03:52 AM
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INANE Offline OP
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I have to say that I'm rather excited and shocked about the recently unveiled budget plan from the "Gang of Six."

Details here and here With support for it from Obama

Excited is actually the wrong word but I'm behind this plan. Mainly because it calls for real cuts in the budget and real tax reform (lower rates with removal of many deductions/loopholes). Not perfect but more than I would have thought Democrats would go along with. Anyone holding out for the perfect bill will die disappointed. It's slightly worrisome that the plan is more of an outline and the individual committees would figure out the details but again, I don't know how we could possibly expect better from our government.

Just curious what others think about it.

Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
INANE #352112 07/20/11 04:19 AM
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Gee, Ben, you sure like to live dangerously. Remember Micah?

Seriously, though, I'm with you on this one, as much as I can be. I'm just still annoyed that all the "hope" we were supposed to have for everything has now been reduced to the "hope" that they'll agree on anything that might get something to happen.


Always call the place you live a house. When you're old, everyone else will call it a home.
Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
INANE #352118 07/20/11 07:27 AM
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It will be interesting to see if a deal gets done or if partisan politics from either/both sides kill the plan.

Personally, in the long run I think you guys are in for higher taxes. Big deficit holes are easy to dig, but not so easy to fill in. Canada went through this 20 years ago.


Fred

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Blujays1: Spending Fred's money one bottle at a time, no two... Oh crap!
Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
INANE #352129 07/20/11 03:02 PM
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Trouble is, whatever the final bill is, they will still have to get a majority vote from the House of Representatives that is Republican dominated and where the "Tea Party" group sits. It isn't over yet.

Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
casey01 #352143 07/20/11 05:26 PM
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Yes, casey01, you are on target. Substitute "cult fringe" for "Tea Party" and you'll see that Senator Harkin said the same thing today:

"The sad thing is America no longer has a two-party system," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said at a press conference Wednesday. "One of our two parties has morphed into kind of a cult driven by a singular fixation and obsession: preserving tax breaks for the wealthy at all costs ..."

"The fight is not between Democrats and Republicans, it's Republicans and their cult fringe, as I refer to them out there. You'll find all sorts of Republicans who are willing to let this country go down the tubes on their ideological ideal."


Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.
Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
INANE #352147 07/20/11 07:22 PM
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Originally Posted By: INANE
... Not perfect but more than I would have thought Democrats would go along with.

One of the most interesting things about politics is how each side in a two-party system can be so convinced it is right and that the other side is just so totally wrong, misguided, and even dangerous. More on that in a minute.

I try not to cheerlead too much in politics, because I realize that a lot of it is disingenuous BS. I have to step back once in a while and take a breath so I don't get too wrapped up in it. It can be infuriating. I don't know how some people do it. Their tolerance for BS is higher than mine, I guess.

That said, this Robert Reich column from 7-17-2011 rang true to me.

Even more so, this Paul Krugman column from 7-14-2011 has some really spot-on perspective, I think.


Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.
Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
medic8r #352148 07/20/11 07:38 PM
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As always, the devil will be in the fine details, especially once this thing goes to committee. Committee is where the real ugly "sausage-making" takes place (witness the bad-faith negotiations over the health care bill), and there's a lot here that will be pretty difficult to get through Congress.

Getting rid of the mortgage interest deduction (even partially) and taxing health benefits both make absolute sense policy-wise. The interest deduction on mortgages was a key fuel for the housing bubble, and is incredibly regressive. Likewise, taxing health benefits *might* stem the growth in unnecessary health expenditures, and allow wages to grow again. That being said, it's a hard sell on Democrats, especially House Dems if the Tea-Party crowd won't play nice.

One hopes that the bill will specifically get rid of the moronic loophole that lets Wall Street types tax their income as capital gains, seeing as how so much of what Wall Street does is not much more than legalized gambling, trying to create money out of thin air. I'll believe it when I see it...as Sen. Durbin said of the bankers on Capitol Hill "it's like they own the place"

Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
fhw #352154 07/20/11 09:07 PM
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Two party system.... I hate it. Long gone are the days of voting FOR someone, and it's been replaced by voting AGAINST someone.

George Washington summed it up best for me.....

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & repose in the absolute power of an Individual: and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty." — George Washington, September 19, 1796

Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
michael_d #352157 07/20/11 09:19 PM
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Originally Posted By: michael_d
Two party system.... I hate it. Long gone are the days of voting FOR someone, and it's been replaced by voting AGAINST someone.


The last time I remember people actually voting FOR someone, was when Carter ran for president; and you can see where that got us.

Re: Gang of Six Budget Plan, try to keep it civil
CatBrat #352158 07/20/11 09:44 PM
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My sister #2 of 5 was one of Carter's advisers. She quit, without a notice. Don't feel bad about your choice, my sister's IQ is north of 180.

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