Taking on debt reduction

With Obama and Paul 'don't call me Rex' Ryan's competing debt reductions plans making all the news we thought we'd throw our hat into the ring to try to cut 3 trillion from the national debt

 

I will say that Obama's message was right although I agree with Brooks that he will have to ask the middle class for shared sacrifice, it can't all be on the back of the rich and a tax rate approaching 40% is ridiculous. The issue is that many people in that tax bracket don't pay anywhere near that because of the write-offs.

 

The Righetti fix would include the following

 

• Lower the overall tax-rate for individuals
• Lower the overall tax-rate for businesses
• Introduce a consumption tax on consumer goods.
• Get rid of all write-offs for charity and other such contributions If you want to give to charity then give to charity out of the    goodness of your heart.
• Make the tax code much more simple.. The fact that the average person has no idea is ridiculous
• don't allow for any overseas tax shelters for personal money.
• rewrite the corporate tax code to avoid the scheming done with creativity by firms with huge tax departments to lower liability.. Sort of like a AMT for corporations
• lower corporate tax rate BUT get rid of tax holidays for people like EXXON for drilling in the gulf
• make all US corporations pay a fair percentage based on overall business done in this country not allowing for them to funnel money to places with lower tax rates.
• tax dividends at the same rate as income
• increase Medicare and Social Security to 70 gradually
• increase the maximum threshold on taxable SS income substantially
• get rid of idiotic rules that don't allow the US Government to use it's purchasing power to negotiate pricing for entitlement programs.   Why VA plans get better rates than Medicare/Medicaid is idiotic
• have anybody who collects welfare work.. Whether it's cleaning sidewalks, filing paperwork, working in food kitchens.. Have them do something
• allow for insurance to be sold across state borders
• cut the defense budget. the total US defense budget is equal to that of the next 20 countries combined
• decrease the size of federal government workforce by 20%.. I am convinced there is a ton of redundancy
• increase minimum wage every-year as a function of consumer pricing index
• find ways to cut back on foreign aid, especially military aid
• get rid of farm subsidies.
• tax marijuana
• tax sugar.

On a local level,

• combine municipalities
• put caps on property taxes..
• Phase out tax abatements on property.
• eliminate 20% of the local workforce (maybe through the combination of municipalities)