Military Budget Cuts

President Obama makes a statement at the White
House afterthe congressional debt supercommittee
failed to reachan agreement. Photograph: Pablo
Martinez Monsivais/AP- via Guardian.co.uk

Apparently, the ill-conceived "Super Committee" is to fail to reach budgetary compromise and that would automatically trigger a huge cut - read, cut only, no tax increases - including military cuts, the only incentive for the Republican to compromise in the whole "Super Committee" enterprise.

With the cuts looming, guess what, the Republicans are trying to take that cut out of the whole deal and President Obama has voiced his strong opposition.

If the Republicans are so concerned with the military budget cuts, they could have prevented it by compromise on tax increases in the "Super Committee".  Failing that, if they really want to prevent the military budget cut, they can try to negotiate with tax increases to offset all those agreed upon military budget cuts.

After all, our nation's huge military spending, is largely to protect the commercial interests of large corporations and the super-rich.  The Republicans love to lecture people that there is no free lunch.  Suck it up then!

Occupy Wall Street and Super Committee

There are many charges against the movement of "Occupy Wall Street" and one of the major one is that the movement lacks a clear and executable agenda.

Due to the democratic nature the movement, it is inevitable that there have been many ideas floating about without a central core but it is indeed high time for ideas and organizations to congeal and make a clear, reasonable and executable demand.

As this nation is in a crucial juncture, it is disheartening to see that President Obama once again, sits on his hands, and let the so called congressional super committee to come up of a scheme to cut the deficit and put it for a vote in the congress; and if the plan failed to pass, an automatic drastic budgetary cut would be enforced.  How brilliant this idea is.  Since the result of failing to pass any plan the "Super Committee" might put forth is a large budget cut, the Republicans - who have been calling to starve the beast (government) for decades - have all the incentives not to pass any plan.

Since the ill conceived and all powerful "Super Committee" is to dictate the direction of the nation for a long time to come, it is vital for the "Occupy Wall Street" to demand to scrap such "Super Committee".  I call it "ill conceived" because it didn't demand an automatic tax increase on certain group (along side with some large budgetary cuts), therefore creating a balanced incentives for both leading political parties to reach an agreement.

Without that threat of automatic tax increases, it is a good bet that the consequence of any plan from such "Super Committee", or the failure to pass such plan, would only exacerbate the bottom 90% or 99% of the population, meanwhile protecting those on top, sitting on piles of gold and refusing to lift a finger to help the underprivileged and the nation they claim that they love, and the nation has done so much for them - deregulation and tax cuts after tax cuts and still more to come.

To replace such an ill-conceived super committee, the movement of Occupy Wall Street ought to demand a new committee, seating people from all economic spectrum, in proportion to the demographics, so as to come up with a plan to reduce deficit and correct the income inequality, and then put the plan to a national referendum, instead of a congressional horse trading.

President Obama, it's high time for you to lead and please lend your support to Occupy Wall Street.

Domesticity © Matthew Felix Sun

Note: Below is National Public Radio (NPR)'s summary of the Super Committee:

How Super Is The Deficit-Cutting Committee? Twelve lawmakers. More than $1 trillion to shave off the deficit. One Thanksgiving deadline. Can they do it?

The debt-ceiling deal struck this summer created a panel of six Republicans and six Democrats — dubbed the "supercommittee" — to find ways to reduce the deficit. If they can't, "sequestration" — a slew of automatic spending cuts — kicks in. While there are high hopes in Washington for the committee's success, skeptics have trouble seeing how the chosen lawmakers will navigate around the main sticking points: Democrats seem set on protecting Medicare and Medicaid and see increasing revenues as essential.  Republicans would prefer to lower taxes if anything and want to make cuts to the big entitlement programs.

Need a Plan to Rebut Calls for Permanent Tax Cut for the Rich

"Unless President Obama develops a plan to rebut calls for premature spending cuts, the tax-cut deal will not do as much good as he says it will." New York Times' Editorial published on December 19th, The Tax-Cut Deal, eloquently pointed out the compromise he made with Republicans would not help our economy much, particularly because the high cost of the little help to the poor and the unemployed, Republicans will call for more spending cuts, which will made the economy recovery more difficult.  It urged President Obama to prepare for the next showdown.  The editorial pointed out that:

In exchange for high-end tax breaks, Mr. Obama won a 13-month extension of federal jobless benefits, a modest one-year cut in payroll taxes and other temporary measures for businesses and low-income families...

New stimulus spending is undermined if it is offset by cuts in existing spending — and, in the next Congress, Republicans will clamor for immediate budget cuts. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, praised the tax-cut deal last week, precisely because he believes it will begin to force spending cuts. John Boehner, the incoming House speaker, has called for a spending level in 2011 that is more than $100 billion lower than President Obama wanted, though he has not said which programs he would cut to achieve those savings.

So the fight has just begun, and only one thing is sure. Unless Mr. Obama finds his voice and develops a plan to rebut calls for premature spending cuts, the tax-cut deal will not do as much good as he says it will...

Deficits are not as pressing a problem as economic recovery. A stronger recovery must not only come first, but is the best way to begin to heal the budget. Fighting to uphold health care reform is also crucial, because, in the long run, that is key to taming the deficit...

When deficit reduction begins in earnest, tax increases and cuts in big-ticket programs — Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and defense — will be the focus. Before that, Mr. Obama must not be drawn into nickel-and-dime cuts that will not solve the deficit problem — and will impede recovery. He made a deal with the Republicans. Now he has to get them to live with it.

That was very important but far from enough.  In two years' time, Republicans will push to have the "temporary" tax cut for the super rich made permanent, no matter what state the economy will be.  We have heard such arguments before - our economy is good, therefore we must cut taxes; the economy is in terrible shape, therefore we must cut taxes.  This irresponsible argument will be used with great directness and striking efficiency against the poetic eloquence of President Obama.

Therefore, it is pertinent for President Obama to develop a plan to rebut calls for permanent tax cut for the rich.  He needs to act now, because in last two years he has not demonstrated that he was able to win an upper hand in a last-moment parrying.  By surrendering to the Republican now, he owes the lower- and middle-class Americans this.


Bombed Bridge, III © Matthew Felix Sun

What Compromise?

Obama administration is touting a "compromise" they made with Republican congressional leaders to extend Bush-era tax cuts for two years for every one, including the richest people in this country, as part of a package that would extend jobless aid and cut payroll taxes, despite its previous demand that the tax rates for people with the highest income would be restored to previous higher level.

The White House was also said to have agreed to Republican demands on the estate tax that would result in an exemption of $5 million per person and a maximum rate of 35 percent.

The package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years.  The deal includes reducing the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax on employees by two percentage points for a year, which would put about $120 billion back in the pockets of workers and the unemployment benefits would cost about $60 billion, officials said.  Continuing the lowered tax rates for the highest-earners, by contrast, would cost the government $700 billion in lost revenue over the next 10 years, according to budget analysts.

Obama administration would like to call this a deal, but it is capitulation, considering that Democrats still have the majority of both House and Senate at this moment, this so called deal is absolutely unacceptable.

Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman said right in his article Let's Not Make a Deal: 

But while raising taxes when unemployment is high is a bad thing, there are worse things. And a cold, hard look at the consequences of giving in to the G.O.P. now suggests that saying no, and letting the Bush tax cuts expire on schedule, is the lesser of two evils.

Yes, letting taxes go up would be politically risky. But giving in would be risky, too — especially for a president whom voters are starting to write off as a man too timid to take a stand. Now is the time for him to prove them wrong. 

Lone Traveler © Matthew Felix Sun

Bush Tax Cuts? Let's Talk About Obama Tax Cuts

President Obama and his Democrat congressional colleagues are outmaneuvered by their Republican opponents once again and was dragged into the debate of partially or fully extension of Bush Tax Cuts, which was allowed to pass on the condition that it would expire at a fixed time. The time is approaching and the Republicans are now demanding to made the tax cut permanent, therefore made that condition a pretext and a cover for Blue Dog Democrat for robbing the poor to pay rich.

Instead of debating if Bush tax cut should be extended at all, for how long and for whom, Democrats should propose a new temporary tax cuts to combat the economic crisis we are still in.

Only by fully owing the tax cuts Democrats want to sanction, they will be given due credit. Otherwise, be prepared that people would bestow the mantel of hope to George W. Bush.


Kampf
© Matthew Felix Sun