Has Anyone Else Completely Lost Faith In The Government?

[saden1]

Originally Posted by mlmpetert

I dont really think anyone expected the Super Committee to come up with anything, and i guess they techniqely have until wensday but this is still just sad. I remembering hearing about a month ago that the automatic defense cuts that would happen are actually just a ploy and a gamble by the GOP. They wrote them in such a way that they can be reversed in 2013 (when the cuts actually start taking place) on the idea that the GOP will win the white house in 2012. It has allowed the GOP to play “harder” since they think they are going to win 2012 and are not very concerned that the cuts will actually ever take place.

Also what I find hilarious in a very sad/unfortunate sense is that the mandatory reduction of 1.2 trillion isn’t really 1.2 trillion since it takes into the cost of interest of the over spending. They clearly are calling it 1.2 trillion to trick us into thinking they are doing more then they are actually not even doing.



Also just as “hilarious” is being reminded that our politicians cant come up with 1.2 trillion, which i actually is 984 billion, to cut from 44 trillion over 10 years.



No wonder the American people and rating agencies have lost faith

Congress May Try Blocking Cuts If Debt Panel Fails | Fox News

The idea that the GOP really cares about budget deficits and national debt was laughable with their proposals from the get-go. Part of me wishes they gain control over everything so they can show us how they can right this ship by not cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Defense spending and not increase revenue.


Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Blog Archive | Republicans’ Latest Supercommittee Offer: $181 in Spending Cuts for Each $1 in Revenue Increases

Republicans on the supercommittee have made a new offer that would reduce deficits by $640 billion over the next decade, according to news reports (here and here). The Republican offer consists of roughly $542 billion in spending cuts and $3 billion in revenues, meaning the ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases in the plan is 181 to 1.

These measures would also produce nearly $100 billion in debt-service savings. Democrats promptly rejected the new Republican offer as unbalanced.
When one includes the $900 billion in discretionary spending cuts already enacted in the Budget Control Act, the plan’s total deficit reduction rises to about $1.445 trillion, and its ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases rises to 481 to 1.

That's not a good faith negotiating, that's sabotage. And in light of their desire not to close carried interest loophole it is downright evil.

[H]ere’s how [carried interest] works. These fund managers are compensated mostly with a performance bonus of 20 percent or more of the profits they make. Under this carried interest loophole, that 20 percent is eligible to be taxed at the long-term capital gains rate (if the fund’s underlying assets are held long enough) of just 15 percent rather than the regular personal income rate of 35 percent.

This tax loophole is also intellectually vacuous. The performance fee is a return on the manager’s labor, not his or her capital, so there’s no reason to give it preferential capital gains treatment.