The plans, unveiled Nov. 10 by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and retired U.S. Senator. Alan Simpson, R-Wyoming, will be the basis for discussion by the 18-person bipartisan group. Other commissioners, including the sole unionist – former Service Employees President Andy Stern – were silent on the proposals.
Obama named the commission earlier this year. He told it to create a package of proposals to reduce the federal deficit – now more than $1 trillion annually – to just the size of interest payments on the debt by fiscal 2015, or four years from now. Obama’s proposed budget for this fiscal year puts that year’s deficit at just under $500 billion.
Any deficit-cutting plan the panel comes up with must garner 14 of the commission’s 18 votes, followed by review by Obama and Congress. Even Simpson and Bowles acknowledged acceptance of their proposals was unlikely, but called them a starting point for discussion.
Trumka said the package would destroy the middle class. He reiterated the point he made in the panel’s hearings earlier this year: The way to cure the deficit is to create well-paying jobs, which increases tax revenues.
“The chairmen of the deficit commission just told working Americans to \'Drop Dead,\'” Trumka said. “Especially in these tough economic times, it is unconscionable to be proposing cuts to the critical economic lifelines for working people, Social Security and Medicare.”
He also dismissed the “starting point” contention. “This deficit talk reeks of rank hypocrisy: The very people who want to slash Social Security and Medicare spent this week clamoring for more unpaid Bush tax cuts for millionaires. What we need to be focusing on now is the jobs deficit,” he declared.
“Working families already paid for Wall Street\'s party that tanked our economy. If we actually want to address our economic problems, we need to end tax breaks that send American jobs overseas and invest in creating jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and green technologies.”
Bowles and Simpson also proposed ending some corporate tax loopholes, as well as the different – and lower – tax treatment for capital gains. Both benefit the rich. But they also proposed cutting both individual and corporate income tax rates, to encourage investment and job creation.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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The plans, unveiled Nov. 10 by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and retired U.S. Senator. Alan Simpson, R-Wyoming, will be the basis for discussion by the 18-person bipartisan group. Other commissioners, including the sole unionist – former Service Employees President Andy Stern – were silent on the proposals.
Obama named the commission earlier this year. He told it to create a package of proposals to reduce the federal deficit – now more than $1 trillion annually – to just the size of interest payments on the debt by fiscal 2015, or four years from now. Obama’s proposed budget for this fiscal year puts that year’s deficit at just under $500 billion.
Any deficit-cutting plan the panel comes up with must garner 14 of the commission’s 18 votes, followed by review by Obama and Congress. Even Simpson and Bowles acknowledged acceptance of their proposals was unlikely, but called them a starting point for discussion.
Trumka said the package would destroy the middle class. He reiterated the point he made in the panel’s hearings earlier this year: The way to cure the deficit is to create well-paying jobs, which increases tax revenues.
“The chairmen of the deficit commission just told working Americans to \’Drop Dead,\’” Trumka said. “Especially in these tough economic times, it is unconscionable to be proposing cuts to the critical economic lifelines for working people, Social Security and Medicare.”
He also dismissed the “starting point” contention. “This deficit talk reeks of rank hypocrisy: The very people who want to slash Social Security and Medicare spent this week clamoring for more unpaid Bush tax cuts for millionaires. What we need to be focusing on now is the jobs deficit,” he declared.
“Working families already paid for Wall Street\’s party that tanked our economy. If we actually want to address our economic problems, we need to end tax breaks that send American jobs overseas and invest in creating jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and green technologies.”
Bowles and Simpson also proposed ending some corporate tax loopholes, as well as the different – and lower – tax treatment for capital gains. Both benefit the rich. But they also proposed cutting both individual and corporate income tax rates, to encourage investment and job creation.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.