A Rational Way To Cut The Deficit

The Republicans have been talking a lot about the federal deficit and the need to cut it. It has become obvious that they are not really serious about budget-cutting, since they are just cutting programs they don't like, and which don't come close to equaling the deficit increases they have caused by their giveaways to the rich and corporations.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer (pictured above) has decided to call the Republicans out and see if they truly want to do some budget-cutting. He has come up with a plan that would actually put a huge dent in the deficit. Here is what he is proposing:

* Institute a surtax on millionaires and billionaires. He said, "I noted with interest that in last weeks Wall Street Journal-NBC Poll, the most popular proposal to reduce the deficit -- out of 23 options surveyed -- was a surtax on millionaires and billionaires." While the Republicans don't want to admit it (since they spend a lot of effort funneling money to the rich), the American public would be in favor of more taxes on the rich. It turns out that the rich actually pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than either the working or middle classes.

* Crack down on tax dodging and income sheltering by large corporations. He said, "There is much we can do in the tax code to crack down on cheaters and vastly improve compliance. Any credible deficit plan should tackle the so-called 'tax gap' -- the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid -- which has gotten as high as over $300 billion a year this past decade." The fact is that while working and middle class Americans are paying taxes, many corporations like Exxon and Bank of America don't pay a single penny in American taxes. This needs to stop.

* Cut unneeded and wasteful subsidies given to industries each year by the federal government. Schumer said, "All these kinds of subsidies should be on the table, but the one that sticks out like a sore thumb is oil and gas because the entire rationale for it is gone. It was passed, I think, when the price of oil was $17 a barrel, we had low production, and now of course, the price of oil is $100 a barrel. The subsidy, in economic terms, doesn't mean anything other than to make some people wealthy who are already wealthy."

These are all excellent suggestions, and they would make a bigger dent in the budget deficit than anything that has been proposed by the Republicans. But we could go even further, and do it without cutting any of the social safety net needed by ordinary Americans in this recession. We could slash the defense budget. It is by far larger than any other segment of government spending from general funds (and is larger than the defense budget of all other countries put together).

A good start would be to stop the two endless wars we are currently engaging in -- which are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars each year while accomplishing nothing. Surely we have learned by now that we can't export democracy or solve another country's problems through military power -- a lesson we should have learned from Vietnam.

After that, we need to look at all the military programs to build new (and unneeded) weapons. The military has even admitted some of these are not necessary, but they are continued as pork projects for a congressman's district. And do we need all of our overseas bases? Probably not, especially since in this day and age we can move troops around the world at a moments notice.

The Republicans would not like any of the above programs because they hit at their favorite "sacred cows" -- the rich and the military. But they would meet with the approval of a majority of the American public. The Republican House would undoubtably kill any of the above-named efforts, but I say Democrats should force them to do it -- and then make them defend their actions in the next elections. It would expose the Republicans as not truly wanting to cut the deficit -- just programs that help ordinary Americans.