Of the $4 Trillion if DEBT and not deficit; $1.2 Trillion is contained in the sequester cuts that have timidly been pushed off for another two months.
Congress is not doing its job, yet.
If Congress is to do the business of the country the filibuster and the Hastert Rule has to be ended in ways that cause the people first ahead of politics.
We have a lot of work to do and now because Congress has been so been so very dysfunctional.
The good news is the two layers of tax cuts of the highest incomes have been ended. That is a good beginning. But, the tax base of the USA has to be expanded. There are many Americans maintaining their lives on low incomes. There are many Americans unable to effectively parent their children or entertain the idea of marriage and family because they work several jobs to make ends meet. The dynamic of the Three Job Lifestyle has to stop. The unions cannot take no for an answer. It is time to move the nation forward to a stronger tax base. The real benefit is it will increase the quality of life for Americans and drive our economy to higher levels of productivity.
Removing the highest Bush Tax Cuts will bring about a 'push down' dynamic that will bring costs to USA consumers under control. Basically, how much money does any one person need in a lifetime. While that is a liberal concept, it is also a concept of democracy and freedom. This country affords the wealthy the ability to be so and there is ultimately a price to pay for that privilege, the least of which is a national defense where some of young adults lose their lives for the love and PROMISES of this country.
The issues of money have to be over. We need to address the Simpson-Bowles Presidential Committee findings and we need to move forward on stabilizing this country's solvency. We need complete tax reform. The tax structure of the past served a purpose, but, it is antiquated to today's priorities.
We need to review the entitlements and move them into a safety zone. I would suggest any changes to the entitlements have a sundown provision to review the changes in five years and ten years. OR. When the economy ticks up and/or the tax base widens, there should be automatic returns to the current standards of our entitlements.
I do not believe in changing entitlements following The Great Recession. Buckling under to political pressure of the SLICK Right Wing while there is still recessive residuals in the economy is gross negligence of the people of this nation. It is throwing them over a different cliff; a personal cliff; for the agenda of political demands. Basically, I believe the attacks of the Slick Right Wing of the entitlements following the Great Recession is opportunistic and an attack on the citizens of this country.
To be completely honest the attacks on the entitlements by the Right Wing during a delicate time in our country still recovering from Right Wing Spending policies of the past administration is complete rhetoric. I do not understand why legislators see the entitlements as a way to solve the nation's National Debt. The entitlements are THE BASE of the USA economy. It is the minimalist of circulating monies, but, it does demand the USA Treasury be healthy and not so in debt there has to be dissolution of the entitlements. I sincerely believe it is insane to attack the entitlements, but, it is equally insane to run the USA into debt to collapse. There has to be a threshold in the USA Treasury that is RECOGNIZED as dangerous. Dangerous to the USA which also is dangerous to the global economy.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Congressional Budget Office (click here) on Tuesday said Senate-passed legislation to avert the "fiscal cliff" would add nearly $4 trillion to federal deficits over a decade, largely because it would extend low tax rates for almost all Americans.
The congressional scorekeeper's analysis was released as a number of Republicans in the House of Representatives voiced opposition to the bill, and considered amending it with deeper spending cuts.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and others complained the bill's spending cuts would do little to curb trillion-dollar deficits.
Senate-passed plan extends decade-old Bush-era tax rates for individuals earning up to $400,000 and couples earning up to $450,000 - nearly 99 percent of U.S. taxpayers.
But the non-partisan CBO compared the Senate plan's revenue and expenditure changes to laws that are currently in force, which call for $600 billion in tax hikes and automatic spending cuts in 2013 alone - effectively a dive off the fiscal cliff..
We need to do a lot in this nation that has nothing to do with money, but, has a lot do to with quality of life for Americans. New Americans. The clock is running on the President's Executive Order for some of our most talented and moral Americans.
The babies born here to parents brave enough to come here and risk their lives to achieve something called The American Dream. We have invested heavily in these babies and we need to keep them here. Their parents were willing to sacrifice their lives to bring about a better reality for them. While the terrible name of Illegal Alien is applied to their parents and to them, they were never terrible people.
The so called Illegal Aliens work hard and often in jobs with very poor pay and working conditions. Don't tell me about these people, I don't want to hear it. Wall Street profits and the USA food policies have benefited heavily on the backs of these people. These folks pay taxes and they never complain about it. They simply do their part, work their jobs and oddly for as impoverished as they start out they don't stay there and are among the most moral of people in this country. They believe in the USA. They hold this country dear to them.
We need to address the Climate Crisis. It is not an option. I have a suggestion. In every relief program including the most recent disaster, Superstorm Sandy, there needs to be provisions within the bill to address carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. While carbon dioxide is the primary driver to our Climate Crisis, methane is on the rise. It is on the rise from economic industries, but, also as part of the negative feedback loop within the Climate Crisis. We sincerely need to worry about both CO2 and Methane. Methane on Earth was stored in protected frozen landscapes such as the Permafrost and underwater beds. In the North Atlantic, off Norway, there have been beds of frozen methane maintained for millennium that are now being released due to a warming ocean.
You know, melting starts when temperatures change in incremental ways, it doesn't wait for the human understanding of boiling water. So, to try to explain the concepts involved in human induced global warming / anthropogenic planetary warming would be a mess. If anyone believes understanding economic movements is difficult they can't even begin to do the math involved in knowing what is occurring with our planet's troposphere.
But, basically, the best way to legislate monies to disaster areas is to also include measures to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions as a requirement to THE NATION, not just the area effected. Lord knows, the storms land where they land, they don't choose the most dense emission areas to cause damage. Would be interesting if that was the case for many reasons, but, that is not the case.
By Michael McCarthy
Environmental Editor
Monday, 22 February 2010
Atmospheric levels of methane, (click here) the greenhouse gas which is much more powerful than carbon dioxide, have risen significantly for the last three years running, scientists will disclose today – leading to fears that a major global-warming "feedback" is beginning to kick in....
We have come a long way to recovering this nation. Oddly enough all the problems we face that are not economic in definition such as the Climate Crisis are very much economic issues as well.
I fully expect the new tax structure to work to recover the economy. Besides the obvious of expanding the purchase power of the Middle Class it will also push down on the wealthy to continue to excoriate the cost of living into unreasonable levels. With an increase in taxes to the highest levels of income in the USA it will once again give incentive to investment into the economy, entrepreneurial investments and bring new technologies on board to growth of wealth.
One of the things I wanted to review on "It's Sunday Night" is the Obama Administration successful launch of Green Chemistry. It is a wonder and benevolent way for the priorities of the youngest of tax paying generations to spawn their futures. It is only one of the focus of the Obama Economy. There are others and I will feature it one of these weeks. We need to focus on the future generations as a means of economic growth. They have great ideas. They have huge commitments to the future. They are ready to lead into the future and it is time. It past time to pay attention to their ideas and desire for a fantastic future for themselves and their children.
We need gun control. The number of guns on the street are hideous. It is pushing the country into examining the institution of Marshall Law. We simply can't have citizens breaking the laws that currently exist to allow guns to get into the hands of criminals and emotionally and mentally challenged. There also needs to be a clear understanding there are weapons within the USA civilian populous that simply should not be there. We need gun control legislation. I find the idea there are Boards of Education and Mayors actually putting armed officers at schools following the Sandy Hook murders a horror all itself.
I can't say this enough. There is NOTHING that can be done to enhance the response of First Responders. In both cases, the Colorado Movie Theater murders and the Sandy Hook Elementary School murders, the First Responders where practically transported to where they were needed in light speed. I don't know how anyone can improve that.
ALSO and not separately, the gunman in both cases were heavily armed with an automatic weapon and high powered hand guns. They were prepared to kill and kill in large numbers. The Colorado gunman had tear gas grenades. Adding an armed officer(s) to a school for the sole purpose of stopping gunmen so armed MAY BE a deterrent to some, but, to those this determined, it is simply another hurdle to overcome. The Sandy Hook gunman shot his way into the school. There were measures to stop him. It didn't work. He had a way of overcoming that safety measure. In the case of the Colorado gunman, he used tear gas bombs to disarm any people in the theater that might be armed to stop him. He over came that hurdle in his decisions to kill.
Until later.
