re: #68 prononymous

Screw that. Raise taxes on the top 50%, progressively. And close the loopholes that allow some rich people to qualify for food stamps and corporations to pay negative taxes.

We could also save money in various ways. As a nation we spend an inordinate amount on healthcare. Instead of different programs for children, elderly, etc plus private insurance, we should just wrap it all into a single payer plan. We could significantly reduce military expenditures and still remain militarily competitive with anyone in the world. We should have some sort of oversight office that tracks the spending of various government departments and can somehow hold them accountable for waste. And so on.

You do realize that we’re spending about $20K per person on the poor, right now. For a family of four, that comes to more than the median family income. And yet, all this spending is sacrosanct. Taxes must go up, up, and then up to cover it. And then up some more. Meanwhile, the proposed cuts are smoke and mirrors. We’ll get out of Iraq. If we do. But that doesn’t cut the baseline spending.

We’ll cut payments to doctors for medicare and medicaid. Except we won’t really, because even at the current rates, providers are losing money, and they won’t be able to sustain taking the kinds of losses the proposed, lower fee schedule would impose on them.

There’s been no itemized proposal from the Dems, listing what they would cut, cutting enough to matter, and cutting now rather than down the road in some future Congress, which would not in any case be bound by any such promises.

Yes, taxes must be raised. We’re in too deep a hole to get out of it without extra revenue. But raising them on the top few percent alone is neither just, nor sufficient to the needs of the day. Here, Obama has half a point—-we do need more revenue.

But we won’t get it by taxing corporate jets.