Posted on 09/11/2010 8:41:55 PM PDT by Bigtigermike
From Andrew Romano's great new profile of a Mitch Daniels he portrays as pragmatic and principled (kind of oxymoronic, but one of Daniels' principles appears to be pragmatism).
To wit, his suggestions:
Let’s raise the retirement age, he says. Let’s reduce Social Security for the rich. And let’s reconsider our military commitments, too.
When I ask about taxes—in 2005 Daniels proposed a hike on the $100,000-plus crowd, which his own party promptly torpedoed—he refuses to revert to Republican talking points.
“At some stage there could well be a tax increase,” he says with a sigh. “They say we can’t have grown-up conversations anymore. I think we can.”
(Excerpt) Read more at gop12.com ...
Maybe we can just LOAD UP a bus and take it off a cliff?
= D
It’s not that we tax too little, but that we spend too much. In my house, we spend based on our income. The government, taxes based on what it spends. Can you imagine going to your boss and telling him that he needs to give you more of his money since you can’t be responsible with yours?
We need a through cleansing of the GOP. Nov ‘10 would be just the beginning.
Why do we constantly hear about the need to change Social Security but never hear about the need to cut the moochers’ and spongers’ off their government freebies and handouts?
Before politicians gut and/or change Social Security they should take all the able bodied baby machines, crack ho’s and crack sellers, pimps, immigrants, ALL ILLEGALS, and other moochers off public benefits, food stamps and medical care and kick them out of taxpayer paid housing.
These people pull down more than most retirees on Social Security and many (most) have never worked a day in their lives and make no effort at all to support themselves.
Social Security may need some reconfiguring but that should not be the first step toward reigning in costs. It should take place after the spongers and moochers are taken off the taxpayers’ backs.
At least retirees on Social Security have worked and paid something into the system.
CUT SPENDING !!
CUT SPENDING !!
CUT SPENDING !!
CUT SPENDING !!
That's a myth. A complete myth. The government first taxes whatever it can get away with and then thinks what to do with it. Once they have the money, they will find a need for it. For example at the end of Clinton's term we had a "surplus". What really is a surplus ? It's simply what the govt had overtaxed. Since the govt had more money than they needed, were they going to return it ? Hell no. If algore was elected, he would have identified "underfunded" programs to spend the money on, and then raised taxes on top of that.
And today they have gone two steps further. They are on a spending binge like never before without regard to what they have or what they can get in the short term through taxation. The little clip below from the immortal BBC show 'Yes Minister', summarizes it perfectly. One of the characters is the chief bureaucrat who explains to the PM what taxation is about.
Daniels is a real piece of sh|+.
He has certainly flushed himself out of any presidential talk, Lancey sighed.
I am sorry to say I have seen FReepers post that tax cuts must be “funded” first before they would endorse them.
That is ridiculous.
It is even more bizarre that Daniels and others refuse to admit that tax cuts increase revenue to the federal government. You would think this would make them happy.
If there were any truth to there views, how did the US not become a super jugernaut when tax rates were in excess of 70% prior to Reagan?
We should have been rolling in the dough throuhgout hte 1970s.
Well he could have Brokeback Mountain with Tim Pawlenty as they snuggle up on global warming.
...and yet another potential Palin primary race opponent trips on his shoelaces and falls on his face with his shorts at has ankles before he can even find the starting line...
These days I think we refer to them as the ruling class.
“Since 2005, Daniels has slashed Indiana’s budget by $440 million and more than halved its rate of spending growth”
Huh? How can he slash the budget and still have ANY spending growth?
This is typical Republican moderate milquetoast s—t! More moving the goalposts to the Left. Whatever happened to bold conservative ideas such as eliminating the Dept of Education, ending welfare, reforming the tax code, and reducing foreign commitments? Now’s the time for bold, decisive action and not more of the same old Republican crap that’ll just sustain socialism.
To actually cut spending and stop the looting many federal departments and programs must be completely abolished. Not kept on a life line for a decade with the promise that they'll be finally ended ten years down the road. I say give these programs and departments six months to clean up the loose ends an then goodbye! Fire the employees and tear down the buildings if you must, to finally put a stake through the heart of these looter programs and organizations.
Why don’t we collect the billion dollars in taxes owed by government workers, and play hardball in pursuing all the tax evasion cases with UBS (in addition to cutting spending and slashing government agencies) instead of killing even more jobs with tax hikes, Mitch?
To me “cut spending” can (and should) include all the options you mentioned. But the bottom line is just that, the bottom line, so CUT SPENDING !!
I like the guy..
First and foremost, HE IS A REALIST...
And if you had lived through Gov. O’Bannon’s corrupt reign, you would understand exactly what I mean by that.
You just cannot take away many of the handouts Democrats have procured without massive civil unrest, which would be even more harmful to the economy. Greece anyone?
You have to wean them off of them slowly, like you would a heroin addict, a little bit at a time, and as the economy can absorb the workers.
Idiots. All of them. You don’t get more revenue by raising taxes anyhow. The rich will only pay so much before they find ways of moving their cash around to avoid the penalties (or just cheat like the current Secretary of the Treasury). If you want more revenue, you need more tax-payers. You get more tax-payers when people start making more money-i.e. move into the income levels where people actually have to pay taxes.
He’s done as a national candidate. Finished.
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