Senate budget proposal: GO BIG!!!!

[oregonMakr]

Senate Budget Thoughts:

With the House attempting to pass a budget, without raising extra revenue, and without cuts to defense, whilst still balancing the budget in a decade, there will obviously be huge cuts to domestic spending.

I believe the Senate needs to go big, and provide a clear different view, to solving our budget issues...

That means adding revenue, and cutting into defense spending.

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Added Revenue:

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Cap Personal Federal Tax Deductions @ $25,000 and it brings in over a trillion over the next decade.
Cap Personal Federal Tax Deductions @ $50,000 and it brings in $750 billion over the next decade.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/11/effect-rich-50000-deduction-cap

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“The Congressional Budget Office found that a tax on carbon dioxide, starting at $20 per ton, could raise $1.25 trillion over the next decade.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80177.html

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Robin Hood Tax: placing a 0.5% tax on stock transactions. I've seen estimates from $150Billion to over a trillion over the next decade.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/06/robin-hood-tax-comes-america

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A bill pushed by Sen. Ron Wyden(D) and then Sen. Judd Gregg(R) found they could save significantly, by closing specific corporate loopholes.

1) Taxing Overseas Profits of Multinational Corps: $580 billion
2) Ending Immediate Writeoffs of Equipment Purchases: $580 billion
3) Ending Domesitc Production Credit: $155 billion

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/closing-corporate-tax-loopholes-easy-sounds/story?id=17928780

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Cuts/savings on budget:

Cut defense spending harder: “A whopping 80 percent of Insiders said the defense budget, over the next decade, could be reasonably reduced by more than $100 billion. The biggest faction of Insiders, 35 percent, supported cuts between $100 billion and $300 billion. "With the operation in Afghanistan winding down, the Pentagon could likely absorb another $100 [billion] to $300 billion with minimal pain," one Insider said.”

“To its enormous credit, the Simpson-Bowles Commission proposed serious cuts to security spending -- $1.3 trillion over a decade. Yet that recommendation was quickly forgotten, even by the Commission's many boosters.”

With the sequester only taking out $450 billion from defense, by just using the Simpson-Bowles cuts to defense, you are cutting another $850 billion.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/insiders-go-ahead-slash-the-defense-budget-20130121

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-callahan/what-fiscal-crisis-obamas_b_2277179.html

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Keep Social Security seperate, and remove the upper limit on FICA.

"To support the Social Security program, FICA taxes earned income up to $110,100 at a rate of 12.4 percent; the tax is divided equally between employers and employees."

If you remove the upper limit of $110k, and just keep the 12.4% ta evenly divided), and change the age of Social Security to 68, Social Security is forever funded.

It's that easy.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/06/fixing-social-security

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Clearly, we aren't going to get all of these things, but as with all negotiations, each side has to start somewhere. Lets put out a budget that allows for clear differences.

The House has indicated that they are going to go big, will the Senate do the same????

PLEASE GO BIG!!!

[safeinOhio]

1. We could do it in a few years by

taxing wealth, not income. Go ahead and guess who would pay more.

[oregonMakr]

2. I don't disagree...

But I think it's a non-starter, even with dems. Both sides would probably argue that people of significant wealth, would just leave the US.

I believe all of these proposals are negotiable positions to begin from...

[Filibuster Harry]

3. I like some of the ideas. But there won't be a cap on personal federal deductions because it

could hurt housing and charitable contributions. That's why i laughed at Romney's proposal because he really wasn't going to cap his Sch A deductions at $ 25,000 or pick a number because he gave away up to $ 4
million; I found out later his proposal was going to limit your Sch A deductions to $ 25,000 but also allow ALL charitable donations. They will not remove the upper limit because it will not only affect employees but the employer matching it. Now i can see increasing it from $ 113,700 (2013) to say $ 120,000 (2014) to $ 130,000 etc. (bigger increases). But you are correct in that the senate should come up with something bigger and different.