Deficit targets: Social Security, mortgage breaks

[tank]

Deficit targets: Social Security, mortgage breaks - Yahoo! News

No one is expecting quick action on any of the plan's pieces. Proposed cuts to [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]Social [COLOR=#366388 ! important]Security [/COLOR][COLOR=#366388 ! important]and [/COLOR][COLOR=#366388 ! important]Medicare[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] are making liberals recoil. And conservative Republicans are having difficulty with options suggested for raising taxes. The plan also calls for cuts in farm subsidies, foreign aid and the Pentagon's budget.
The document was released by former Democrat Erskine Bowles, a former Clinton White House chief of staff, and Republican Alan Simpson, a former senator from Wyoming.
Acknowledging the controversy involved, Simpson quipped to reporters: "We'll both be in a witness protection program when this is all over, so look us up." Said Bowles: "This is a starting point."
Controversial or not, Bowles said serious action was demanded. He declared, "This debt is like a cancer that will truly destroy this country from within if we don't fix it

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Deficit targets: Social Security, mortgage breaks

The Debt Commission Report

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)

Thursday, November 11th at 5:00AM EST

As you wake up this morning, there is a lot of talk about the leaked report of the Debt Commission. Keep in mind that this is not the final report, but a draft passed out by the co-chairs.

What you need to know is pretty straight forward.

Yes, the plan ends the deficit. It does so with lots and lots of spending cuts across the board. There are actually some good suggestions in the plan, but there is one inescapable fact — the proposal has buried in it one trillion dollars in tax increases.

Some of what are defined as tax increases are, in fact, closing loopholes in the tax code that lobbyists have inserted on behalf of clients. But also included is getting rid of the home mortgage deduction. That would amount to a massive, massive tax increase on the middle class.

The reforms suggested for social security are out and out garbage. It is not means tested. It is not “lock boxed”. Payments are cut. Retirement is increased.

This proposal is dead on arrival.

But there is another point that must be made — even were all the proposals, plans, and points adopted it would do no good. Why?

Because until Washington admits that it has exceeded the powers given to it under the constitution the same problems will continue to occur over and over.

The Leviathan knows no bounds and, left to itself to check its own growth it will continue growing. Until we are willing to admit that Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives limited powers to Congress, we are wasting our time.