Simple, Effective, Relatively Painless Ways to End Federal Deficit! (unemployment, Iraq, generation)

[calvinbama]

First off, end tax deduction for mortgage interest.
Second, end all federal subsidies to extraction and agricultural industries.
Third, tax all capital gains as regular income rather than 15%.
Fourth, cut military spending 10% across the board, end military ops in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond peacekeeping and stabilization

I think these will affect the richest Americans who are most able to pay higher taxes, it will limit corporate welfare payments that go to rich CEO's, will tax the wealthiest in a more fair way, and will cut wasteful military spending doing missions that don't help the American taxpayer.

This is just a start, and I haven't calculated the fiscal impact, but they will fix the lions share of the current federal deficit.

Any thoughts?

[Winter_Sucks]

I don't agree 100%, but you are in the ballpark and moving in the right direction. It's all posturing right now. The GOP is in damage protection mode after getting defeated because of their vote for privatizing Medicare. They think they can score political points on the debt ceiling vote.

[calvinbama]

That's all either party wants to do is "score political points". Effective governing is the best way to score political points with intelligent people. I'm afraid that by the time I'm 30, 1/2 of the federal budget will go to paying interest on the vote buying both parties have been attempting for a decade. Bush and his medicare package, obama's extended extended unemployment assistance, mcconnell"s tax breaks for the wealthy. The hard working taxpayer gets screwed and those in my generation who work hard and are successful will end up footing the bill.

I think these suggestions here are fair, legitimate, politically feasible, and totally necessary. They avoid perverse economic incentives and would probably save close to a trillion dollars a year

[rbohm]

Originally Posted by calvinbama

First off, end tax deduction for mortgage interest.
Second, end all federal subsidies to extraction and agricultural industries.
Third, tax all capital gains as regular income rather than 15%.
Fourth, cut military spending 10% across the board, end military ops in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond peacekeeping and stabilization

I think these will affect the richest Americans who are most able to pay higher taxes, it will limit corporate welfare payments that go to rich CEO's, will tax the wealthiest in a more fair way, and will cut wasteful military spending doing missions that don't help the American taxpayer.

This is just a start, and I haven't calculated the fiscal impact, but they will fix the lions share of the current federal deficit.

Any thoughts?

i agree with much of what you have posted here, however i think we need to cut ALL government spending 10-15% across the board.

as for raising the capital gains tax, that is not a good idea. higher capital gains taxes discourage investments, and that reduces the tax base, which reduces revenues to the government. we need to encourage investment in the economy.

we also need to eliminate much of the regulations that cost business money, not all of them, but a substantial majority of them.

[Backspace]

Originally Posted by calvinbama

First off, end tax deduction for mortgage interest.
Second, end all federal subsidies to extraction and agricultural industries.
Third, tax all capital gains as regular income rather than 15%.
Fourth, cut military spending 10% across the board, end military ops in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond peacekeeping and stabilization

I think these will affect the richest Americans who are most able to pay higher taxes, it will limit corporate welfare payments that go to rich CEO's, will tax the wealthiest in a more fair way, and will cut wasteful military spending doing missions that don't help the American taxpayer.

This is just a start, and I haven't calculated the fiscal impact, but they will fix the lions share of the current federal deficit.

Any thoughts?

Wait let me guess, you don't own a home or property, you don't have any capital gains income and you don't think the war in Libya is the same as Iraq and Afghanistan... am I close?

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by calvinbama

First off, end tax deduction for mortgage interest.
Second, end all federal subsidies to extraction and agricultural industries.
Third, tax all capital gains as regular income rather than 15%.
Fourth, cut military spending 10% across the board, end military ops in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond peacekeeping and stabilization

I think these will affect the richest Americans who are most able to pay higher taxes, it will limit corporate welfare payments that go to rich CEO's, will tax the wealthiest in a more fair way, and will cut wasteful military spending doing missions that don't help the American taxpayer.

This is just a start, and I haven't calculated the fiscal impact, but they will fix the lions share of the current federal deficit.

Any thoughts?

First off, deport all the illegals and close the border. That would solve a lot of our problems.

So I take it you support illegal criminals over hard working americans? Nice....

[Roadking2003]

Originally Posted by calvinbama

Any thoughts?

Yes. We don't need to increase anybody's taxes.

We just need to make huge cuts in federal spending.

Military, FEMA, DEA, ATF, etc, etc.

Yes, it's easy, but no politician will ever do it. They prefer to raise taxes like they have for the past 100 years.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by calvinbama

it will limit corporate welfare payments that go to rich CEO's,

The CEO isn't going to take a pay cut, you'll pay more for the product and lose your job if that increase drives the product above the competitors price.

[Joke Insurance]

For someone who wants to learn about what is going on with the federal deficit and why we are in a recession, where would I start? And most of this stuff that you guys are talking about would fall under economics, real estate and banking, I'd assume?

As for suggestions on how to trim the federal deficit, what about closing our bases in Germany and Japan, along with ending the flow of money to Egypt and Pakistan?

[calvinbama]

I own 2 houses that I paid cash for, and derive a significant portion of my income from capital gains, probably 20%. I think beyond personal benefit when it comes to public policy though. Why should hard work be taxed higher than investment earnings? What makes investment earnings deserve a lower tax rate than other income? I've never heard that justification. Especially considering it is the upper levels of income that are generally going to make money from capital gains. I'm not gonna fight tooth and nail for something that isn't justified.

I think we should definitely get rid of the bases built to protect other countries. Of course we still need a few strategic bases, but we have to think critically about this instead of having a presence in every country on earth. We spend more than the next ten countries combined on military. Add Israel to that list. We use dollars as a foreign policy instrument which is understandable in some cases, but not on the current scale and not to a wealthy country like Israel.


No I don't think the war in Libya is the same as Iraq and Afghanistan. Its primarily a NATO engagement, but I don't think we should be shouldering more of the fighting than the combined European forces.

coalman, the government definitely shouldn't be subsidizing a product that is already profitable, depletable, and causes many negative externalities.