What R-word?
The Revenue R-word.
If the R's (Republicans) were really serious about solving our National Debt -- they'd be using that verboten R-word too.
Washington, We Have a Revenue Problem
by David Callahan, Robert Hiltonsmith, prospect.org -- April 9, 2012
The United States has a revenue problem. Taxes at all levels of government are too low to balance budgets and, more important, to ensure America’s future prosperity and cope with an aging population. While many political and policy leaders argue that future revenues should reflect “historic norms,” this is a flawed assumption on which to base long-term fiscal planning.
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Public Expectations of Government [pg 2]
What’s also different about today is that Americans have expansive expectations of government. Although polls show that the public distrusts government, and believes that much public spending is wasteful, Americans strongly back the most expensive programs, Social Security and Medicare. Majorities of the public oppose drastic cuts to these programs. Medicaid, commonly seen as less popular, also commands strong support when Americans understand how large a share of spending on this program goes to support seniors in nursing homes.
The public is enthusiastic about other areas of government spending as well. Large majorities support spending on education, veterans, food safety, air-traffic control, parks, and space exploration. In general, Americans also favor a strong military and national-security establishment. The areas of government that the public dislikes, most notably foreign aid, account for a very small fraction of government spending.
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But since the R's rarely if ever use the R-word, except for derisively -- how can the R's also claim they are representing what the people really want?
The People want Social Security. The People want Medicare. And pretty soon, the People will want Affordable Care too ... once given the opportunity.
The American People (most of us) are willing to pay our "fair share" in Taxes (aka Revenues) -- so why are the R's so dead-set against it?
It's our patriotic duty to support our Government this way. Afterall it's in the Constitution, which instructs us to actually raise these R-word Revenues ... to support and build the kind of Society, we would like to see.
So why are the R's so dead-set against it? The very mention of, let alone any serious discussion to, raise additional Revenues to fund, and invest in, and otherwise try to solve some our nations problems?
Well, this retired Colonel attempts to explain the R's-phobia of even mentioning the R-word.
We Have a Revenue Problem
by Richard Klass, Colonel, USAF (ret.); HuffingtonPost.com -- March 18, 2013
A ritual refrain of the GOP is that we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. [...] So deep is this embedded in GOP lore that House Budget Chairman, Paul Ryan (WI) presented a budget for FY14 that purported to balance the budget in ten years solely with spending cuts [would add $4 trillion to the debt over the next decade].
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So why will the GOP not admit that we also have a revenue problem? For some it is the Grover Norquist pledge not to raise taxes. For Ryan and the Tea Party wing of the GOP, it seems to be a desire to reduce the size and reach of the federal government. But this denial seems most of all to be a matter of self-interest. If more revenue is to be raised, it is surely not going to come from low-income groups likely to bear the brunt of spending cuts. And while some revenue and some spending cuts will come from middle-income groups, this cohort has seen a decade of stagnant incomes despite high productivity gains while the income gap between them and the upper income cohort has widened at an increasing rate. So, the needed additional revenues must come largely from the upper income groups a strong segment of the GOP base. And there are many provisions in the tax code that give the upper income folks advantages hard to justify such as the cap on income subject to the social security tax, the "carried interest" provision and the lower tax rate on capital gains. If revenues are on the table, which they must be if a budget deal is forthcoming, these and other tax breaks that give upper income groups special advantages are a prime target.
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So the next time some Republican obstinately refuses to even discuss
Revenues -- as if
those sections of the Constitution, were somehow magically deleted -- quietly ask them the same questions poised by the good Colonel:
Why are the R's Refusing to Raise Revenues, for the sole Reason of providing Refuge to the Rich ... ???
IOW, What's in it for them? ... Holding fast to their unrealistic Revenue-Phobia?
Average, everyday Americans should want to know ... Exactly WHY raising Revenues is now forbidden by most in the Republican Party?
( R's who supposedly care so much about paying off ALL our debts, the bulk of which were incurred during the last decade, under their R-watch? )