Senate Budget Thoughts:
With the House attempting to pass a budget, without raising extra revenue, and without cuts to defense, whilst still balancing the budget in a decade, there will obviously be huge cuts to domestic spending.
I believe the Senate needs to go big, and provide a clear different view, to solving our budget issues...
That means adding revenue, and cutting into defense spending.
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Added Revenue:
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Cap Personal Federal Tax Deductions @ $25,000 and it brings in over a trillion over the next decade.
Cap Personal Federal Tax Deductions @ $50,000 and it brings in $750 billion over the next decade.
http://www.motherjones.com/...
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“The Congressional Budget Office found that a tax on carbon dioxide, starting at $20 per ton, could raise $1.25 trillion over the next decade.”
http://www.politico.com/...
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Robin Hood Tax: placing a 0.5% tax on stock transactions. I've seen estimates from $150Billion to over a trillion over the next decade.
http://www.motherjones.com/...
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A bill pushed by Sen. Ron Wyden(D) and then Sen. Judd Gregg(R) found they could save significantly, by closing specific corporate loopholes.
1) Taxing Overseas Profits of Multinational Corps: $580 billion
2) Ending Immediate Writeoffs of Equipment Purchases: $580 billion
3) Ending Domesitc Production Credit: $155 billion
http://abcnews.go.com/...
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Cuts/savings on budget:
Cut defense spending harder: “A whopping 80 percent of Insiders said the defense budget, over the next decade, could be reasonably reduced by more than $100 billion. The biggest faction of Insiders, 35 percent, supported cuts between $100 billion and $300 billion. "With the operation in Afghanistan winding down, the Pentagon could likely absorb another $100 to $300 billion with minimal pain," one Insider said.”
“To its enormous credit, the Simpson-Bowles Commission proposed serious cuts to security spending -- $1.3 trillion over a decade. Yet that recommendation was quickly forgotten, even by the Commission's many boosters.”
With the sequester only taking out $450 billion from defense, by just using the Simpson-Bowles cuts to defense, you are cutting another $850 billion.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
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Keep Social Security seperate, and remove the upper limit on FICA.
"To support the Social Security program, FICA taxes earned income up to $110,100 at a rate of 12.4 percent; the tax is divided equally between employers and employees."
If you remove the upper limit of $110k, and just keep the 12.4% taevenly divided), and change the age of Social Security to 68, Social Security is forever funded.
It's that easy.
http://www.motherjones.com/...
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Clearly, we aren't going to get all of these things, but as with all negotiations, each side has to start somewhere. Lets put out a budget that allows for clear differences.
The House has indicated that they are going to go big, will the Senate do the same????
PLEASE GO BIG!!!