Posted on 12/06/2012 10:26:40 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Senator responds
This week, a letter writer criticized what he felt is my position on taxing the rich, reducing the debt and protecting the safety net. Let me set the record straight.
I do believe the wealthy should pay their fair share. I voted for a bill raising taxes on those making more than $250,000 and protecting middle-income families from income tax increases this summer. That bill is being held up in the House of Representatives by the Speaker.
I support closing tax loopholes, limiting deductions and elimination of some of the carve-outs and giveaways in our tax code — but only if those changes improve the progressivity of the tax code. We cannot put the burden of the deficit on the middle class.
Any attempt to cut our nation’s debt must also protect the safety net for our nation’s seniors and the most vulnerable.
Social security is not a driver of our debt and need not be part of debt reduction talks. We should, however, empanel a bipartisan commission to look at options for extending the program’s viability beyond its projected 20-year solvency.
And there are small changes we can make now, such as making those who can afford it pay more, which will help protect and sustain Medicare and Medicaid without cutting benefits to beneficiaries.
I am a progressive, and I voted for the Simpson-Bowles proposal because progressives need to be at the table for negotiations about the debt. If we don’t engage in these talks in a productive way, changes to the programs we care most about will be dictated to us rather than shaped by us.
Instead of just saying no or proposing a laundry list of laudable but unreachable tax alternatives, as the letter writer did, we must work together to find a long-term, balanced solution to our nation’s debt.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
Dicky needs to explain himself. Tax just the over $250K rich?
What about those bastards making over $180K - I’ve personally witnessed some of them at the mall buying expensive suits and driving off in nice cars.
Truly, they should also go after those SOB’s making more than $138K. Yeah, they have no conscious - they have the unmitigated gall to have homes in the suburbs.
The more I think about it, hammer those self centered old white guys making $84K a year. Saw one the other day talking about taking his family to Disneyland - driving there in his SUV!
But wait... those rich folks making $38K. They’re pond scum. They are so selfish they actually try to save money and buy things - without the goverment’s assistance. It’s insane I know!
Signed, Barak Obama.
Thin-skinned is right. Don't you just love how they like to throw out the term "Progressive". That is their new word of the day.
“Social security is not a driver of our debt and need not be part of debt reduction talks.”
That is an outright lie. Social Security trust fund has been empty for years and it has nothing but IOUs which has to be paid back from the general fund.
So it is a driver of the debt and needs to be a part of the one-sided reduction talks.
!
Sen. Durbin can run in 2014, and that race has a conservative republican candidate, Chad Koppie, a member of the Kane Co. Regional Board of Schools. In the 1998 IL governor primary, Chad was the only conservative candidate. He’s pro-tax cuts, pro-spending cuts, pro-life, pro-gun rights, and anti-illegal alien. Please read his blog, chadkoppiescampaign.blogspot.com. He’ll get a better website, after he gets some donations.
Senator Dickhead is more of a PIGressive.
I am trying to figure out how we can say Social Security is solvent for the next twenty years when the country is over 16 trillion in debt. Did they find Al Gore’s lock box when I wasn’t looking?
you know what they say.
little dick, Big PRICK.
What is a "fair share"?
Ya have to wonder especially when 1/2 of the people pay no federal income tax at all.
Little Dick.
Little Dick.
Little Dick.
As far as I can tell, Durbin’s always been a thin-skinned little Dick. He, Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid should have their own display case in the Insufferable Jerk Hall of Fame. Right next to the Nancy Pelosi Pavillion.
They always come in threes.
That means they are without fear in flying their true colors. The day will come when you won’t be able to FIND anyone willing to admit to being a progressive.
How about severe penalties for deadbeats like Warren Buffett who haven't even paid the taxes they already owe?
Hmmmm...interesting point. According to the tax tables everyone is suppose to pay something. It’s apparent the tax tables do not reflect reality.
What exactly is a fair share? Who decides what’s fair? I believe all congress people should pay twice as much as everyone else for the priviledge to serve. Don’t they always say it’s a priviledge to serve? Well, pay up, “Donald Duck” Durbin!
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