Tax cut or the national deficit?

Gew, making the Bush tax cuts permanent would also cost us $800 BILLION over ten years. So you have to pay for that along with the Trillion. This is the hypocrisy of the Republican "Pledge to America", they want to cut spending, but spend more on tax cuts. The only way to pay down the debt is to cut spending, raise taxes, and cut entitlements. And, NO politician is going to do call for this during an election year.

Well we can cut out the perks that have been abused in congress and the senate for starters. Hey we pay our own gas and drive our own cars they can too. Now it may not sound like much but think of it this way, they get new car every two years right? say we'll call it an even $20,000 each car and say $3000 for gas per year and $1000 for maintenance (tires, oil, etc) that's appr. $25,000 a year each. There is say 2 congress reps and two senate per state (yes I know this varies per state but we're estimating) so we're looking at 200 [people about. that's $4,800,000 a year, will it save the budget no but it's a start. Now let's do that for all of the government employees who drive work vehicles not only at work but for personal use, that is thousands of employees, thousands! People from IRS to FRA to governors have government vehicles they drive for personal use. That is not including first class air travel, they can go coach or pay for their own upgrades.

I did a post on the cost of congress staffers and congressional salaries. For example my congress man has a paid staff that cost the taxpayers over $700,000 per year and then add his salary of $170,000 and you have a sizable chunk of money. Wee have over 500 congressmen and senators. cutting that would make a dent in the Federal Budget. As far as cutting taxes and paying for it, every time it, tax cuts, has been done the revenue to the government has increased. If you have $10,000 in taxable income you work 2 hours a week to pay your taxes. If you have $100,000 in taxable income you work 13 hours a week to pay your taxes. As your taxable income increases you spend more time working just to pay your taxes and at some point it is not worth working because more of you time is spent working to pay taxes that you take home. To me the answer is simple cut spending starting with cutting the Congressional staff by 50% and putting a freeze on all government salaries until they are in line with the private sector and reduce taxes across the board.

Great discussion! I'm afraid the sad truth is NO politician is willing to tell what I believe to be the "real" truth, which is in order to balance the budget and pay down the debt there are going to have to be lots of tough choices made. I've heard and read that many economists that know a heck of a lot more about these things than I ever will say a combination of increased revenue in the form of raising taxes and cuts are going to be needed. To do just one of those, there are going to be lots of angry constituents; to do both, there are going to be more angry constituents than any politician is going to risk, or at least that's what they think. We hear lots of talk about how the government has to cut spending but when specifics are mentioned there are always enough who will complain that particular program or service is essential to take it off the table. Therefore, there's not much left ON the table! We all know one man's pork is another man's treasure. Even the voters who go on and on about wasteful spending often feel the spending that benefits their own backyard somehow isn't really wasteful at all. Funny how that works, isn't it? The bottom line is our lawmakers don't give us nearly enough credit when it comes right down to it; at other tough times throughout our history the people of our great nation have been willing to band together and sacrifice and give up at least a little bit for the general good. It's been probably the last 25-30 years that we haven't been asked to play any real part in helping us get through tough times. I think that has made some of us lazy, greedy and a bit selfish. Sometimes it's necessary to compromise, to give up one thing in order to ensure something more important will be there for those who need it more and for the time when WE may need it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a firm believer in personal responsibility and that anyone who can work for a living should do so. I also know there are times when we may need a safety net despite our best efforts, sometimes an entire lifetime of best efforts. What we need are lawmakers who are willing to risk their own election or reelection by telling us the truth and laying it on the line. Tax cuts all around, especially for the very rich aren't going to help us balance the budget nor are they going to get the economy moving. Cutting spending alone isn't going to do it either and there are some things that really can't be cut without causing more harm than good. The one thing that really confuses me is how some can claim we can't give an extend in unemployment compensation for those who are out of work through no fault of their own and REALLY need those checks unless they're offset by cutting something else yet they have no problem with extending tax cuts for the wealthy at a cost of $800 billion without paying for them at all. That's some kind of magical math I must have missed in school! Annie

This country does not...repeat (with strong emphasis)- does not- have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. You can keep raising taxes, removing tax breaks, eliminating tax cust all uyou want, but it will do no good at all. We absolutely must get spending under control. What we need to do is strip the federal government back to it'sconstitutional limits. This is the only way we are ever going to restore our economy propperly. And by propperly I don't mean temporary prosperity, false prosperity or create more bubbles. This means eliminating many programs and agencies that people have started to rely on or mistakenly believe they are entitled to or believe they are propper federal government roles.

The real answer is both. Cut taxes, cut spending. Take a giant pair of scissors, cut up the bills and then throw a huge bonfire/celebration party where all of Congress gets drunk and spends the rest of the year hungover in their respective states. (Sarcasm)