The Glade 4.0

The co-chairmen of President Obama's debt and deficit commission offered an ominous assessment of the nation's fiscal future here Sunday, calling current budgetary trends a cancer "that will destroy the country from within" unless checked by tough action in Washington.

The commission leaders said that, at present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. "The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans -- the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries," Simpson said.

"We can't grow our way out of this," Bowles said. "We could have decades of double-digit growth and not grow our way out of this enormous debt problem. We can't tax our way out. . . . The reality is we've got to do exactly what you all do every day as governors. We've got to cut spending or increase revenues or do some combination of that."

I was intrigued by this line in the Washington Post story on the budget commission....I am intrigued because as far as I know, it isn't true. It isn't true according to the CBO's YTD revenue estimates, which place revenues at around $1.5 trillion and outlays on those programs at about $850 billion. It also isn't true according to their annual estimates, where those three programs absorb about 10.5% of GDP, while revenues are around 15% of GDP. Even in these deficit-laden times, it isn't even sort-of true; at best, they're off by a third. It might be true for some given month, for all I know, but that would only be because taxes tend to come in unevenly (big spikes on April 15th, as well as the three periods when Quarterly Estimateds are due), and some spending is also done in fits and spurts. It's a transient effect which shouldn't interest anyone except the Treasury's debt planners.

Eventually, it will be true, but not any time soon. I don't know who got this mangled, the reporter or the heads of the budget commission. But I sure hope it's the former, because if it's the latter . . . well, we're in even bigger trouble than I thought.

Leans conservative/libertarian, but mostly centrist.

(Preemptive note: Khross thinks she's just another Keynesian idiot.)

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Looks like the quoted comment by Simpson is wrong:

"Never," DFK!. You forgot a word there in your post, and it's "never."

Bush's idiot tax cuts are about to expire as well, which will also increase our revenue considerably.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Not just a little, but a lot. I'm thinking double it. They have profited handsomely from low tax rates and lax regulation. They took trillions of dollars from people they look down their nose at, profited from that money, and then watched it all get pissed away, laughing all the way to the bank.

So yes, let the tax cuts expire (OHNOZ!! 36% top marginal tax rate!!! OHNOZ!!!!), and let them start bearing some of the burden.

The people, my ***.

The rich already account for 95% of the total tax revenue generated by the Federal Government. So, tell me how they aren't paying they're fair share?

Correct. They are not paying a fair share of their income. While they might pay the largest percentage in terms of raw dollars, they also benefit the most from the social contract. Our top marginal tax rate is far too low.

Correct. They are not paying a fair share of their income. While they might pay the largest percentage in terms of raw dollars, they also benefit the most from the social contract. Our top marginal tax rate is far too low.

edit - Elmo, in the 50's, the top marginal was even higher, and we were very prosperous. As it got lower, our economy got worse. Interesting that you would make my case for me.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

traditional Kaynesian economics

(Europe was still recovering from being bombed the **** up).