Budget talks: This is getting nasty

Carlton, point taken, but these people make me sick with what they're trying to do to this country. They deserve contempt for trying to turn us into a Third World country, not an iota of respect.

We are talking about people who want the country to default as a twisted matter of "principle" -- as if destroying the US economy and creating untold levels of pain on millions is some kind of moral victory or parlor game. So you'll have to excuse me if I show these folks the same respect they're showing respected and knowledgeable economists and the American people.

That much aside, Paul Krugman goes yard as usual here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opinion/15krugman.html?_r=3&smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

 

Uh, no. Wrong.

 

There's already been a lot of compromise from the democrats on entitlement cuts.

 

What's odd is a poll showed only 26 percent of Republican voters were staunch "no raising taxes" folks. The rest realize cuts will have to be combined with tax increases to get debt under control. Yet the tea fringe is acting like it's got a majority of voters on its side.

 

For the most part, you don't even have to "raise" taxes. You just have to get rid of some exemptions. A column that was linked on here mentioned the mortgage interest deduction as an example. I'm not a fan of completely getting rid of the mortgage interest deduction. I'm not 100 percent on board with that particular cut, but it is a good example of increasing tax revenue without necessarily increasing taxes.

 

I've been a strong believer that we should have a flat tax and exemptions should be eliminated.

Let's just say, for argument's sake, it's 25 percent. If you make $32K, you pay in $8K. If you make $320K, you pay in $80K.

Obama should have never extended Bush's tax cuts. He should have changed the number where it kicked in from $250K to $1 million. I think if he had done that, he would have gotten a lot more support.

 

Wrong, wrong, wrong . . . too many of the no-compromise crowd are willing to drive everything off a cliff, to prove a point . . . and the no-compromise crowd is the no-new-taxes, cut-non-military spending t**b*gg*r crowd.

 

I think there are a lot of republicans who want defense spending cut and want to troops home from the Middle East.

 

A lot of these get derided as being teabaggers. They are acolytes of one Ron Paul.

 

I would be content if they accepted Simpson Bowles recommendations and moved on.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/deficit-commission-co-chairs-simpson-and-bowles-release-eye-popping-recommendations.php

 

The faith Teabag Nation has in the proposition that anything and everything ever done by the government is a complete waste of time and must be "drowned in the bathtub," is astounding in itself.

 

100 percent true.
With the tea party, it's a principle.
With politicians, it's about getting re-elected.