Thread: Coburn to introduce $9 trillion in cuts

Originally Posted by adaher

Budget deficit: Senator Tom Coburn will offer $9 trillion deficit reduction plan

That dwarfs everyone else's plans. Be interesting to see what it contains. Kent Conrad is also planning to introduce the official Democratic budget soon, since the President's is obviously DOA even among the Democratic caucus. And the Progressive Caucus budget, well, 99 votes in the House is all that could muster, and I'd bet it would get precisely two votes in the Senate: Boxer and Sanders.

Coburn is throwing up gorilla dust because he is looking at criminal indictment over his role in the Ensign conspiracy case.

Not very likely. He's under investigation for an ethics violation, not a criminal offense. Coburn broke the rules to help a personal friend unwind a scandal, and has been fully cooperating with the FBI and the Senate Ethics Committee.

Originally Posted by adaher

Budget deficit: Senator Tom Coburn will offer $9 trillion deficit reduction plan

That dwarfs everyone else's plans. Be interesting to see what it contains. Kent Conrad is also planning to introduce the official Democratic budget soon, since the President's is obviously DOA even among the Democratic caucus. And the Progressive Caucus budget, well, 99 votes in the House is all that could muster, and I'd bet it would get precisely two votes in the Senate: Boxer and Sanders.

This will make the borrow and spends democrats go ballistic.

Originally Posted by Forplay

This will make the borrow and spends democrats go ballistic.

Why? Reid will just ensure it never reaches the floor for a vote.

Originally Posted by Forplay

This will make the borrow and spends democrats go ballistic.

A "better plan"

10 Point plan to Reduce the Federal Debt

The TenOC 10 Point Plan to Reduce the Federal Debt:

Are you interested in a plan to stop the growth of the Federal Debt? If so please review the 10 point TenOC plan below. If you like it (or even if you do not like it) forward it with your comments to your email buddies, facebook friends, your talk show host, your congressman, tweet about it, bog about it, post it on your websites, and you are free to send or copy it to anyone else you can think of. We need to start an ACTIVE conversation about this (or some other) plan to reduce the federal debt.

What politician is willing to “step out in front” and LEAD with a plan?

Since we do not have any politician who are willing to “step out in front” and LEAD with a plan, the 10 point TenOC plan is a place to start from the “grassroots” of America. Many people are talking about the need to reduce the federal debt, but no one has a good plan to do so because they all want "someone else" to feel the "pain" of the actions necessary to reduce the federal debt. To miss-quote JFK, do not ask what handout or benefit you can take from the government, but ask how much you are willing to contribute to the government to continue to live in the BEST country in the world. For years, we all have been "milking" the government for all we could get. Now is the time we ALL need to feel the pain of reducing the debt. The 10 point TenOC debt reduction plan is designed to affect everyone. It should be a bold "take it all" plan – do not pick one point and reject a different point. One must NOT say I like this point (because it does not affect me too much) but I do not like a different point (because if affect me too much).

In our hearts, we all know that the ONLY way to stop the growth in the federal debt is to stop spending more money than the government receives. Thus, me must reduce government spending AND increase taxes. The plan is as simple as that.

One of the primarily reasons to reduce the federal debt is to simply reduce the amount of interest that the government pays out each year. This interest could (should) be better spent on other more worthwhile projects. In 2010, approximately 10% of the amount the federal government spent was spent on interest! This has got to stop – not increase as WE allow the debt to increase. If we do not take action soon, the government's "credit score" will go down and the interest rate charged the government to borrow money (from China and other countries) will increase drastically.

TenOC 10 Point Plan

All the changes listed below use January 1, 2011 as the starting point for the any reductions in spending or increase in income (taxes).

1. This plan will be in effect for 10 years unless a super-majority (2/3) of both houses of Congress votes to change the plan. This is necessary so that everyone (business, government, and the public as well as foreign governments) will know what to expect and can plan accordingly.

2. Repeal the so called "Bush" tax cuts and add a 10% surtax on the income tax due for everyone – business and individuals.

3. Almost one-half -- yes one-half (about 47%) -- of working Americans did not pay any income tax in 2010, and almost one-half of these got a credit (read that as a gift or reverse tax) from the people who did pay taxes. We need to expand the tax base to include all but 25% of the population. People and businesses in this expanded base would pay an income tax at a 10% rate without the above mention surtax.

4. Set the estate tax rates to 55% on estates larger than $10 million. Estates less than $10 million will be exempt from estate taxes. In 2011 estates are taxed at 35% on all amounts over $5 million.

5. Permanently reduce the number of ALL government employees (civil service, contract temporaries, and part-time) in all government departments by 10% from January 2011 headcount levels in the first year of the program with an additional 5% reduction in the second year of the program.

6. Permanently reduce the non-payroll expenditure budgets (expense, operating and capital equipment budgets) of all government departments by 10%. This reduction effects both on-budget and off-budget expenditures.

7. The above mentioned permanent reductions in the government budgets will stay in effect for the balance of the program. That is to say NO increase in either headcount or spending for the balance of the program. No increases to adjust for inflation except civil service employee salaries may be adjusted for inflation using the same inflation adjustment as Social Security uses. Thus, because of inflation, the program should continue to achieve yearly reductions in government spending of a few percent (the inflation rate) per year.

8. A $0.10 per gallon "energy" tax on all gasoline, diesel (including off-road diesel), jet fuel, and heating oil. Add a equivalent tax on natural gas, propane and coal. The second year of the program add an addition $0.10 per gallon tax (for a total of $0.20 per gallon) to this energy tax. This energy tax will be collected at the distributor or wholesale level.

9. A 10% "entertainment" tax on the price of all entertainment -- movies, sport events (except K - 12 school events), concerts, theme parks, cable and satellite TV, Internet connections, and the sale (or rental) of entertainment CD and DVD.

10. Set up a bipartisan commission (much like the military base closing commission) to suggest binding recommendations to "solve" the Social Security and Medicare problems. This commission would also study the long-term effects of the new government medical insurance plan and suggest changes (if any) to this plan.

This plan will affect everyone because every one of us is the cause of the problem. We cause the problem by "living" off the Federal Government for the last 70 plus years. IT IS NOW TIME FOR US TO "PAY UP".