Posted on 03/14/2007 9:11:13 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are proposing a five-year fiscal plan that seeks to match President Bush's pledge to balance the budget by 2012, but also force a major debate on tax overhaul after the 2008 elections.
Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, in a budget resolution he is drafting, projects that the government's annual deficit will narrow from about $215 billion in 2008 to just $13 billion in 2011, after which there will be a $132 billion surplus in 2012.
Revenue numbers are crucial to these calculations by the North Dakota Democrat, who will outline his plan in greater detail when it comes before his committee today. His revenues are about 3%, or more than $400 billion, higher than Mr. Bush's five-year budget as scored by the Congressional Budget Office. But when compared with the more optimistic projections of Mr. Bush's budget, the difference is less or about 1%, Mr. Conrad said.
Within these totals, the chairman isn't prejudging the fate of Bush tax breaks expiring in 2010 and affecting income-tax rates for wages, capital gains and dividends. Some could be extended if offsets are found to stay within the budget framework, Mr. Conrad said, and he seemed most intent on setting the stage for a larger debate on tax policy, most likely in the next Congress when a new administration will be in power.
Rather than attempt a permanent solution to the alternative minimum tax -- an increasing burden on middle-class families -- the budget assumes only a two-year patch so the issue will have to be addressed again in the context of the expiring income-tax rate provisions in 2010.
At the same time, Mr. Conrad is promoting his own tax agenda focused on improved collections and tackling offshore tax havens, a "rapidly developing problem" for the Treasury, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The existing taxation structure is not about and has never been about revenue. It is about social engineering and redistribution of wealth. I wish there was a Republican of note how had the guts to say this loudly and often.
There was... Steve Forbes.
Thanks. I should have been more specific. I want Republicans in Congress to step up to the plate and tell the truth about the tax code.
Typical. The solution is right in front of myopic idiots like Conrad. Just reform the tax system and you'll have more revenue than you can possibly dream of, and there won't be any tax "havens."
DUH!
I'd like to seem them try this with the new universal healthcare nonsense they're pushing... Or is that just election speech?
The local Marxists, er, pardon me, ''Democrats'' are proposing the same planning structure as their predecessors did in the late & unlamented Soviet Union: the Five-Year Plan.
What irony, eh?
The local Marxists, er, pardon me, ''Democrats'' are proposing the same planning structure as their predecessors did in the late & unlamented Soviet Union: the Five-Year Plan.
What irony, eh?
My apologies for the double post...(sigh).
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