I know I am a little late to this party. That's what happens when an event happens before a blog even exists. But, this will be a huge issue again at the end of the next year. I am speaking, of course, about the national debt limit. Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) recently wrote an opinion piece for Politico about the need to have a balanced approach to reducing the national deficit. I agree with him. But, how do we go about doing such a thing during a time of political and economic turmoil?
First, the government must reduce spending. However, I do not believe we should do it on the backs of senior citizens. Some Republican members of the House and Senate want to do away with both Social Security and Medicare. All Americans who pay payroll taxes should be outraged by this. Would you be apoplectic if you paid off your 30 year mortgage and the bank decided to take your home from you? The same thing would happen if those who are in charge decide to do away with Social Security and Medicare. Wanna know why its called an entitlement? We paid for it, we are entitled to it. Everyone who has worked legally in the U.S., with a few exceptions, has paid into Social Security and Medicare since their first paycheck. Talk about not getting any benefit from your taxes.
Our leaders need to finally stand up and act like the responsible people they should be. Cutting spending without producing more revenues will not do the trick. To do away with the deficit, Congress would have to cut spending by so much that over 100,000 government and non-government employees would lose their jobs. The effect that would have on the economy could be catastrophic, especially when the official unemployment rate is 9+% (higher in reality). The first thing I would do is end our occupation of both Iraq and Afghanistan. We've been spending billions of dollars a month funding these wars/occupations, and we've been in those countries for a decade. It is not an issue of cutting and running. It is time for their governments to effectively govern themselves without the U.S. propping them up. Second, as I talked about in my first post, tax reform is desperately needed. Corporate tax rates need to be reduced so that companies will hire more people, individual tax rates for the rich need to be raised so that they are on par with the percentage that the rest of us are paying, and tax loopholes need to be closed. Trickle down economics do not work. The amount of billionaires that this country has produced has risen precipitously, while the average wage in America has laid stagnant for well over a decade and unemployment is at its highest rate since the 70's. All of that means the rich are getting richer while the middle class and poor are getting poorer.
Next, medical costs need to be reigned in. Since I am not in the healthcare field, I don't know how to do that. A majority of politicians aren't in the healthcare field, either. They need to listen to the doctors and administrators who know what they are talking about, and come up with a plan that works everyone. Medicare can be fully funded by the payroll taxes we already pay if a solution can be hashed out. Can this be done with the current crop of lawmakers? Doubtful. Medicare fraud is another huge problem that we don't hear much about. Major enforcement efforts need to be made to combat those who are stealing money right from our pockets.
There are many more ways to cut the deficit, and many ways to cut spending without hurting the public. Subsidies (aka corporate welfare) to giant companies comes to mind. But, I've written enough. The U.S. and the world do not need another political circus like the one we just had over raising the deficit ceiling. S&P cut our credit rating (shadily or not) because of the inability of our lawmakers to make a deal. The stock market freaked out. If another ratings company does this, interest rates will skyrocket. Then, we all will pay dearly for our lawmakers' misdeeds. We need to elect people who will work with each other, not grandstand on illogical political and social views.
