CNN:Schumer calls Bowles-Simpson 'trap' for middle class

[Pacific Justice IBDD]

http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/09/news/schumer-bowles-simpson/index.html

[Link]

Then I'll put Schumer on ignore.

[Senator Snowstalker]

He's right.

[Governor Maxwell]

Simpson-Bowles is terrible, but Schumer probably dislikes it for the opposite reasons I do.

[Californian Tony]

Finally someone speaks out against it! For Pete's sake, if Obama is reelected and democrats make gains in Congress, and this crap ends up being implemented, I think it'd be time to lose any hopes about the Democratic Party.

[Senator Sbane]

Simpson Bowles is a good starting point. Instead of lowering the top rate down to 23%, lower it less while lowering it more for the middle and working class.

[© Tweed the Younger]

Charles Schumer is a trap

[Zioneer]

He's right.

[Governor Maxwell]

I am not a class warfare guy, but the 15 cent per gallon Gasoline Tax would've disproportional hit the poor while cutting corporate tax rates would've put our tax code into a complete tops turvy, where we most definitely need simplification.

[DC Al Fine]

I am not a class warfare guy, but the 15 cent per gallon Gasoline Tax would've disproportional hit the poor while cutting corporate tax rates would've put our tax code into a complete tops turvy, where we most definitely need simplification.

[anvi]

Haven't looked at this board for a while so only peeked at this thread today.  Schumer is wrong.  If you lower top marginal rates to amounts higher than where the effective rates are now, plus cut out deductions and loopholes, you are actually raising net revenues.  That's precisely why McConnell is calling the Simpson-Bowles plan a tax hike--because it is.  Except that the "job-killing" part of the charge is not entirely fair, since cutting out deductions and loopholes incentivizes businesses to invest their remaining revenue toward market opportunities instead of wrapping them around the tax code, and it also significantly marginalizes the lobbying establishment.  But the revenue-raising part is essential--you just can't deal with a $16 trillion debt and continuing spending commitments in the face of health care cost inflation and not raise revenues.  Anything else risks economic damage in the form of steadily increasing interest rates and less confidence in the long run that would hurt the economy much more than the effectively upwardly adjusted tax rates.  And, just in case the middle class thinks they can get off scott free, if they want to keep their social insurance programs, they have to kick in more money too. 

[Jacobtm]

Schumer is right.

We are not going to default.

Our economy needs more stimulus.

We have reached a new equilibrium with a large chunk of society unemployed. The private sector is sitting on more cash than it has in recent memory, yet they are not hiring.

It is the perfect opportunity for government spending to make a difference, especially with borrowing rates essentially at zero %.

We need massive upgrades to our infrastructure, we could easily start there.

Defecit reduction right now would just throw us back into a recession.