Book of the Month

Gang of Six Plan-Hits Hard on Middle Class and Poor, Easy on Rich

by NCD 7/19/2011 - 3:09 pm

Gang of six: Contributors include Senate Minority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

The plan is heavy on cuts to Social Security, cuts the SS COLA, Medicare, Medicaid,  it cuts taxes on the rich (the alternative minimum tax which hits primarily incomes over $150K would be eliminated,).  This is estimated to give a $1.5 trillion loss in revenue over 10 years. No specifics on how 'tax reform' will raise '$1 trillion' in revenue over 10 years, probably more GOP fantasy 'tax cuts lead to more revenue' BS.  Cuts discretionary spending over 10 years, cuts income tax rates in general which would seem to benefit mostly those with higher income, from the PDF::

•Reform, not eliminate ('not eliminate! this should reassure you!), tax expenditures for health, charitable giving, homeownership, and retirement, and retain support (???) for low-income workers and families....(how low, to qualify for 'support'?)

• Shift to the chained-CPI (a more accurate measure of inflation) government-wide starting in 2012, along with the following specifications for Social Security:

Dramatically cut discretionary spending:

• Cut nonsecurity and security discretionary spending over 10 years. (are they kidding, this would hit every program for students, the poor, middle class, and inspection/regulation of business/environment/food/drugs/Wall Street etc.)

• Permanently repeal the $1.7 trillion Alternative Minimum Tax.

• Tax reform must be projected to stimulate economic growth, leading to increased
revenue. (translation: cut taxes on wealthy and big corporations and don't worry if it doesn't work to stimulate growth)


• Tax reform must be estimated to provide $1 trillion in additional revenue to meet plan targets....('tax reform'? How to 'reform' is not specified, my guess is tax reform will CUT taxes AND revenue, up to or more than the entitlement cuts)

From Washington Insider:

* Reform spending through the tax code to eliminate investment distortions and tax gaming (Congress will shut down the casino on Wall Street??).

* Change the debate about taxes in America from rate levels and carve outs to competitiveness, fairness and growth. (...= cut tax rates on the rich, assume it will trickle down)

Obama has said the plan shows there is 'hope' for a bipartisan deal.

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We suck.

The US Treasury Department is a wholly owned franchise of Goldman Sachs.  Criminals prosper while debtors and the unemployed and the middle class are victimized and blamed for crashing a Ponzi scheme run by establishment financial institutions.

by Dan Kervick 7/19/2011 - 8:22 pm

It sucks. With any luck it's get shit canned.

by cmaukonen 7/19/2011 - 8:45 pm

Agree. Looks like a pile of Crappo (R-Idaho).

by NCD 7/19/2011 - 10:06 pm (re: cmaukonen)

I hope Progressive organizations will use some of their funds to hire enough GOTV people to transport every Senior Citizen in the country to the polls to vote against any candidate that votes to cut benefits to current social security and medicare / medicaid recipients.  That may seem, to some, like a 'reasonable' solution to this crisis, but in real, human terms, it is a complete disgrace and a betrayal of millions of Americans who paid into a system that has now undercut their financial stability when they need assistance the most.   

by MrSmith1 7/19/2011 - 11:14 pm

If this country can afford to spend $2-3 trillion on a war for which the only objective was to get the War President re-elected, and can also afford another trillion or two to bail out the billionaire gamesters of Wall Street, we can afford to keep Social Security as a safety net for all retired workers.

by NCD 7/20/2011 - 12:10 am (re: MrSmith1)

safety net for all retired workers.

 

It is evident that you have misconstrued as a feature, what is in reality a bug.

I draw your attention to the phrase "retired workers"

Every worker who "retires" (as opposed to those who heroically die with their boots on, so to speak) is a dead weight on the economy.

Only members of the "ownership society" (remember that?) retire.

Workers who draw enough in their social security pensions (what you naively call the "safety net") to enable  them to discontinue attendance upon daily wage slavery are slackers--hence, the proper verb for them is not "retire" but "slack off".

Appropriately rendered, then, your  phrase should read "enablement for all slackers"

I hope you have found this little explication useful.  Go and err no more.

by jollyroger 7/20/2011 - 1:12 am (re: NCD)

The slackers are members of our 'Owenership Society'.

by NCD 7/20/2011 - 2:03 pm (re: jollyroger)

I fear you have been victimized by a typo.

The "owners" (aka ruling class, aka "Kapital") of whom you speak are frequently to be observed piling up their loot, murmuring under their breath the incantation first enunciated by that profound societal observer Damon Wayans:  "Mo' money, mo' money".

Thus "stackers".

by jollyroger 7/20/2011 - 7:32 pm (re: NCD)

It's Amazon's typo, check the link, it's an appropriate change to the book title by some unknown Amazon employee. The well known Wall Street author wrote the book in praise of Bush economic policy, in 2004.

by NCD 7/20/2011 - 7:57 pm (re: jollyroger)

Actually, I think jr was referring to stackers vs. slackers and might not have noticed Owen's ship.

by Verified Atheist 7/20/2011 - 9:09 pm (re: NCD)

We slack and they stack, makes sense!

by NCD 7/20/2011 - 10:11 pm (re: Verified Atheist)

completely o/t, but I've been laying in wait for Verified A ever since I saw this article about magnetic lines as visual cues for humans...

We have an ongoing issue anent the magnet thingee

by jollyroger 7/21/2011 - 1:16 am (re: Verified Atheist)

I'm not surprised that it exists, given the navigation abilities of animals as simple as monarch butterflies, but it's still pretty neat that we (probably) have discovered such a gene. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

by Verified Atheist 7/21/2011 - 5:27 am (re: jollyroger)

WHAT?

 

by Richard Day 7/20/2011 - 12:54 pm

...perhaps most telling of all, a Senate GOP Leadership Aide told Politico, "Background guidance: The President killed any chance of its success by 1) Embracing it. 2) Hailing the fact that it increases taxes. 3) Saying it mirrors his own plan."

Link, apparently the plan is going nowhere...

by NCD 7/20/2011 - 3:52 pm (re: Richard Day)

Dean Baker at CEPR:

 

"The budget plan produced by the Senate’s “Gang of Six” offers the
promise of huge tax breaks for some of the wealthiest people in the
country, while lowering Social Security benefits for retirees and the
disabled.  Despite claiming that they will "reform" Social Security on a
"separate track, isolated from deficit reduction," the plan includes
cuts to Social Security that would be felt in less than six months, as
the plan calls for a new inflation formula that will reduce benefits by
0.3 percentage points a year compared with currently scheduled benefits.
The plan also calls for a process that is likely to reduce benefits
further for future retirees.......It is striking that the Gang of Six chose to respond to the crisis created by the collapse of the housing bubble by developing a plan that will give even more money to top Wall Street executives and traders."

by NCD 7/20/2011 - 5:36 pm (re: Richard Day)

I have a serious question for anyone who wants to answer.  I just finished reading Bernie Sanders' piece over at Huffpo.  His assessment of the Gang of Six plan is harsh, too.  My question:  Would it be worse if the Gang of Six plan were adopted or if the US fails to raise the debt ceiling?  As a follow up question, what does August 3rd and beyond look like to the average American?  Paint us a picture.

by kyle flynn 7/21/2011 - 1:16 am

My feeling is that if we fail to raise the debt ceiling, measures will be taken to extend the date. If we adopt the Gang of Six plan, the rich win again.

by Donal 7/21/2011 - 8:53 am (re: kyle flynn)

Thanks NCD. My stomach churns when I think about the debt limit deals being cultivated by the Senate and White House.

I was asked by a commenter over at FDL how I felt about the "Cut, Cap, and Balance" bill passed in the House. My impulse, from the beginning, was to see that proposal as worse than anything under consideration in in the Senate/White House. Yet when I read the bill, I'm not sure sure. Looks to me like it specifically exempts Social Security and Medicare from required cuts to the budget. And if I read it right, it does not include an equivalent exemption for war spending.

I'm sharing it here, in hopes you and/or other dagbloggers will help me vet the thing.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr2560eh/pdf/BILLS-112hr2560eh.pdf

 

by Watt Childress 7/22/2011 - 12:58 am

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