Make cuts in programs that aren't part of the budget. This is the kind of wisdom we're getting from the Cat Food Commmission.
The new plan by panel co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, to be unveiled Wednesday, faces an uphill slog because of proposals to raise the Social Security retirement age and lower cost-of-living increases, cut Medicare costs, curtail a huge assortment of tax breaks, like the deduction for mortgage interest, and almost double the federal tax on a gallon of gasoline.
I suppose it's better than the original -- caps on medical malpractice awards, for example, would have reduced the federal deficit exactly how? Eliminating pork? Good luck with that one.
My favorite -- lowering the income tax rate. That's really going to help.
This is going nowhere, but the real gem in this is Erskine Bowles, co-chair with Alan "310 million tits" Simpson.
"Our goal in this whole process has been really simple," Bowles said. "It's basically been to start an adult conversation here in Washington about the dangers of this debt and the deficits we are running."
Two big problems with that: first, you need some adults involved, and those are in short supply in Washington, and second, you need to offer something that has a positive impact on the budget. It would be helpful to start with something that actually involves the budget, which is not Social Security.
Congratulations, Mr. President -- you really picked a couple of winners here.
2 comments:
Leaving aside the question of whether cutting Social Security benefits has any effect on the deficit, someone should note that Social Security has been undergoing benefits cust for years, ever since the government decided to re-structure the basic costs tracked for cost-of-living statistics in the first place, setting aside various items necessary for most people and concentrating the figures on easily trackable but not representative costs. The result is that the government's "official" cost of living figures don't match the cost of living changes we strugglers have to deal with month after month. I can't remember the exact figures, but there is a fairly wide difference between "official" cost of living increases and actual increases of the cost of living already, thanks to the re-writing of the c-o-l basket of expenses.
You have to understand that Social Security has been a major target of the right since it was created. No one expected better from Bowles and Simpson, and Jan Schakowsky, who's also a member of the commission, has already said it's DOA.
Their main goal was to get it on the table, and Fox and the other right-wing cheerleaders are going to be milking it for all it's worth and probably more.
The one positive note on this is that maybe someone will take an honest look at Social Security and get some real information out there-- but given the conventional wisdom of the Villagers that SS is in desperate straits, I'm not holding my breath.
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