Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Debt and Deficit Problem -- A Solution

Here are my suggestions on how we can solve the debt and deficit problem in a realistic manner:


1) No automatic increases in the Federal budget.  Instead an across the board decrease in each agency budget at a rate of 2% per year for 10 years. 

2) Real and simple tax reform which forces fairness for everyone -- EITHER a flat tax of 17% of all income above 22K with a surcharge of 5% on income above 500K to be used to fund Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

3)   OR a truly modern alternative to all income taxes.  Eliminate the income tax altogether and replace it with the Automatic Payment Transaction Tax at a rate of 1% collected 1/2 from each side of the transaction at the time and place of the transaction distributed 40% to the locality, 40% to the State and 20% to the Fed.

4)  Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) fixed at 15%.

5) Flat corporate tax rate of 15% on all income after the first 2MM, 

6)  Eliminate the "death Tax".

7) Balanced budget amendment with a cap on spending at the historic level of 18% of  GDP.

8)  Legislative term limits of 5 terms for House members and 2 terms for Senators

9) Campaign finance reform limiting contributions to only registered voters at federally limited amounts, once before the primaries and once after the primaries.  

In my mind, this is a good starting point to achieving a balanced budget, eliminate the deficit and decrease the national debt with an added bonus of a thriving economy and a much more responsible government.