Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt
I think it is important to have these graphics in mind when we talk about seizing the initiative on budget. I believe the various commissions that made recommendations had these graphics in mind. I believe BHO had these in mind when he made the decision to go after health care costs. I believe that as long as hospital ERs must take anyone Medicaid will be the single biggest red ink pool in our economy. I believe that SS OA&S can be self sustaining with modest tweaking, but Medicare is a different story [and why I so opposed single payer]. I believe that we can manage the budget in the long run if we can deal with med costs. I believe that even if we deal with med costs we must increase revenue. I think the method for increasing revenue is to go to consumption, VAT, and transaction taxes as a replacement for income and estate taxes while retaining excise and “sin” taxes, and tariffs where appropriate. Again, a very small [less than one half of one per cent] transaction tax on every transaction raises huge amounts of money because there are so many transactions, and so much more transactional volume than net income volume. One side effect of the transaction tax is that it would kill day trading, and that would not break my heart, either.
The commissions, and the Select Committee, did/do not have the luxury of immediately moving to consumption and transaction taxation, so in their reality, individual and corporate preferences/loopholes must be closed and nothing less than return to Clinton rates on everyone will make a dent. And they must find as much to cut as they can, but my optimism is exceeded by my dubiety in that respect. They seem to have about $200B/yr in cuts in mind, both Ds and Rs, so that is about it. I hasten to add that personal deductions [tax expenditures, or preferences, or loopholes] do leave @ $1 trillion/yr. in the pockets of homeowners and donors. We will not get rid of the entire mortgage deduction and the charitable deduction this month, either, and I do not know that we should.
And as to health care, I would not propose to let the needy who cannot pay the bill go without care, either. So I see the problem and don’t think I can solve it under present constraints, including ones I impose on myself.
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All Things in Moderation 
Thanks for the visual Mark. I agree M/M are the biggest problems, largely because of the rise in health care costs. I don't understand your opposition to single payer especially in light of the fact that you would not forbid health care even to the indigent. I like your suggestions regarding taxes for the most part but just don't see how we get there when Republicans are now pushing a regressive flat tax. Health care, health care, health care. Brent made the point that in reality a lot of the stagnation in wages is because of the rising cost of employee benefits. Do you see anything or anyone politically on the horizon that would deal with these issues? I know I don't.
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mark, great food for thought, and I hope to come back to this over the weekend. My question is why you advocate doing away with estate tax. I've been thinking for some time that estate tax is a baby elephant in the room, and I have some pretty strong feelings about it. But that's the problem, "feelings." I need to update my facts before discussing or committing to a position.
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Okie, I would not be for eliminating or even reducing the impact of the estate tax within the current system. If we are reforming within the current system of taxation it is an entirely different question than starting from scratch, for me. But if we are to go to a replacement system that does not depend on self reporting, but rather on automated collection at the transfer points of cash, we will not need a gift and estate tax structure or a corporate income tax or a personal income tax to raise sufficient revenue. We will not need deductions or tax credits. The VAT portion of what I am imagining is arguably regressive, but the financial transfer fees portion is progressive.
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LMS, if we had a track record of actually paying for m/m out of revenue rather than out of debt financing i would have looked at single payer without a jaundiced eye. However, we kid ourselves about m/m and tear holes in our silly budget with it. How much bigger hole could we make with single payer?There is no magic to single payer. Other countries that have universal health care that have economies that are near rivals of ours – Germany and Japan – do not have single payer and they are efficient and sound. Better than socialized med in England, and at least as good as single payer in Canada.Thinking we could do single payer after looking at medicaid alone seems like pie in the sky to me.
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