Coburn proposes $9 trillion deficit cut measure

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press


http://i.imgur.com/b9TS8.jpg

WASHINGTON – One of the Senate's staunchest budget-cutters unveiled Monday a massive plan to cut the nation's deficit by $9 trillion over the coming decade. The plan by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is laced with politically perilous proposals like raising to 70 the age at which people can claim their full Social Security benefits.

It would cut farm subsidies, Medicare, student aid, housing subsidies for the poor, and funding for community development grants. Coburn even takes on the powerful veterans' lobby by proposing that some veterans pay more for medical care and prescription drugs.

Coburn was a member of President Barack Obama's fiscal commission and voted for its plan to cut the budget by about $4 trillion over a decade. He recently dropped out of the closely watched "Gang of Six" senators seeking a bipartisan agreement to rein in deficits and break through the partisanship engulfing official Washington over the deficit.

His re-entry into the deficit debate comes as Obama and lawmakers struggle over increasing the so-called debt limit and avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

Coburn's $9 trillion savings figure doesn't include another $2.4 trillion in cuts to Social Security that are funneled back into the program. In addition to raising the retirement age gradually, he would peg future benefits to a less-generous measure of inflation and curb benefit increases even more for the top 40 percent of earners.

Coburn would also eliminate $1 trillion in tax breaks over the coming decade, earning him an immediate rebuke from the Club for Growth, an anti-tax organization with which Coburn has had a running feud. He would curb the deductions homeowners take on mortgage interest and would ease taxpayers into higher tax brackets more quickly by using a smaller measure of inflation to adjust the brackets.

"I have no doubt that both parties will criticize portions of this plan, and I welcome that debate," Coburn told reporters. "But it's not a legitimate criticism until you have a plan of your own."

[Godfather]

"I have no doubt that both parties will criticize portions of this plan, and I welcome that debate," - That's what's needed. Gotta sit down a figure that shit out

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Pretty fascinating stuff

[Loser]

If he could pass it, I would vote for him.

[Muddy]

I think the farmers really need the subsidies though?

[Loser]

I live in a farming community, and they're all rich bastards.

[Muddy]

They're also usually one failed crop away from total failure...

[Loser]

Well, maybe if they didn't own 4 houses, 10 cars, etc..

Seriously, I have yet to meet one single poor farmer, outside myself and my garden :lol:

[Muddy]

I dont think the average farmer is a high roller around these parts...

[Loser]

They sure as shit are by me, then again, they are all corn and soy farmers.

Asshat next to me owns 3-4 houses on various lakes/rivers, drives a new vette, etc....

[DemonGeminiX]

You can't cut veterans' benefits. They put their lives on the line for our freedom.

[Loser]

There's some in there I don't agree with, but a lot of them NEED to be done.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

You can't cut veterans' benefits. They put their lives on the line for our freedom.

It only says some veterans, not all....I'm assuming he means that vets that are well off should be paying more for their own care, just like rich people shouldn't be collecting Social Security.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I think the farmers really need the subsidies though?

When I was in high school in Vermont, there were some really good years for milk production, but the dairy farmers all bitched that if they all sent their milk to market, it would drive the price down and they wouldn't make enough money on it. So the Feds paid the farmers instead to pour the milk down the drain to help keep the price artificially high.

No more farm subsidies.

[Shady]

I'm split on this issue.

Alpha: I think its an absolutely horrible idea. Cutting subsidies to the poor and cutting student aid is crazy. It'll only make the lower class even lower. Without student aid they will end up working dead end jobs. Slums will grow in every city.

Beta: On the other hand its turning the States into a Darwinist state where the strong make it to the top and the weak get scrubbed out. I've always been a fan of that kind of ideology.

[Loser]

Screw that, cut subsidies to the poor. AFTER the economy creates millions of new jobs.

[FBD]

the only way to cure a morphine addiction is to stop fcuking injecting the shit!!!

fug farm subsidies, and paying people to do jack shit only makes them more inclined to do jack shit!

[Teh One Who Knocks]

the only way to cure a morphine addiction is to stop fcuking injecting the shit!!!

fug farm subsidies, and paying people to do jack shit only makes them more inclined to do jack shit!

Not just farm subsidies, but everything. I'm so tired of all the BS in Washington. Get rid of all the subsidies and close all the tax loopholes and just lower the tax rates.

[Muddy]

It sounds great Lance, but I think people would riot in the streets if they cut off all the aid. honestly.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Fuck 'em....I am absolutely sick of busting my ass for a living while the government keeps giving more and more to lazy people who expect it...using my tax money to do it.

[Muddy]

Im not ready for a class war...

[Teh One Who Knocks]

There already is a class war going on my friend...

[Acid Trip]

Fuck 'em....I am absolutely sick of busting my ass for a living while the government keeps giving more and more to lazy people who expect it...using my tax money to do it.

Amen. :+1:

Of all the people I've talked to (Democrats/Republicans/Independents/Libertarians) NOBODY is against fixing the tax code. Remove all the deductions, tax credits, etc but lower the overall tax rate. I also propose that everyone pay some (minimum of 5%) of their income to the federal government.

0 - 25,000 = 5%
25,000 - 75,000 = 10%
75,000 - 250,000 = 15%
250,000 - 1,000,000 = 20%
1,000,000 - ????? = 35%

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Amen. :+1:

Of all the people I've talked to (Democrats/Republicans/Independents/Libertarians) NOBODY is against fixing the tax code. Remove all the deductions, tax credits, etc but lower the overall tax rate. I also propose that everyone pay some (minimum of 5%) of their income to the federal government.

0 - 25,000 = 5%
25,000 - 75,000 = 10%
75,000 - 250,000 = 15%
250,000 - 1,000,000 = 20%
1,000,000 - ????? = 35%

Exactly...although I could see having a 0% tax rate for people earning less than, say $10,000/year

The government would make so much more money if they just overhauled and simplified the tax code. There should only be one deduction that stays and that's the personal exemption deduction (and the deduction for dependents), but after that, there should be nothing. That way you could lower the individual tax rates across the board, cut down on fraudulent tax returns, and most importantly, increase the tax revenue coming into the Treasury.

[Muddy]

There already is a class war going on my friend...

You see what happened down in New Orleans when those people went a day or two without food?

There ain't no war yet... A few little battles maybe.. But a war, No.

[Acid Trip]

You see what happened down in New Orleans when those people went a day or two without food?

There ain't no war yet... A few little battles maybe.. But a war, No.

Get rid of food stamps and there would be 40 million people that rise up overnight. I'd call it cutting the umbilical cord but I'm sure I'd be lambasted as racist and a hater of the poor for even suggesting such a thing.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I think the farmers really need the subsidies though?

WTF are you talking about. How is that any different then paying out welfare. You are either profitable or not, if not change the business. And all the subsides for fucking corn that we don't need....are you fucking kidding me, they subsidize these farmers to not grow corn even.

[FBD]

WTF are you talking about. How is that any different then paying out welfare. You are either profitable or not, if not change the business. And all the subsides for fucking corn that we don't need....are you fucking kidding me, they subsidize these farmers to not grow corn even.

Surprisingly enough, look at what corn prices are doing given how much of it is used for ethanol. Glaring example of market distortion due to government meddling.

---------
Financial Times -- "U.S. ethanol refiners are consuming more domestic corn than livestock and poultry farmers for the first time, underscoring how a government-supported biofuels industry has contributed to surging grain demand.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that in the year to August 31 ethanol producers will have consumed 5.05 billion bushels of corn, or more than 40% of last year’s harvest. Animal feed and residual demand accounted for 5 billion bushels."

MP (http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/07/ethanol-now-consumes-more-than-50-of-us.html#links): As the chart above illustrates, this also "underscores how a government-supported biofuels industry has contributed to surging, record-high corn prices."