Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Deficit Reduction Act: A Modest Proposal

We've got to reduce the federal deficit. If interest rates rise even one percent we will be adding $0.14 trillion to the cost of running government. The following is a modest proposal.

First: Reinstate the tax on those whose incomes are over $0.5 million a year. We should address this issue clear of the Bush tax cut extension in which we gave away $100 billion.

Second: Make the tax rate on the income of derivative managers an income tax and not a capital gains tax. This is a tremendous give away to Wall Street who has bought a sizable majority of Congress.

Third: Royalties paid by companies to foreign potentates are currently allowed to offset against the corporate tax under the foreign tax credit. Exxon pays nearly nothing on its billions of earnings because of this credit. We have lost close to a trillion dollars in revenues over the past ten years.

Fourth: Eliminate the requirement that Medicare pay a claim within 2 weeks of a bill being rendered. Fraud has cost Medicare $100 billion in the last five years-particularly in South Florida.

Fifth: Eliminate cold war defense weapons from the Defense Department budget (do we need another nuclear sub, stealth bombers?) $100 million could be cut and no one would know the difference except Boeing and shipbuilders.

Does anyone in Congress have the guts to take on even one of these issues?

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