For the moment I'll pass over commenting on your points and ask you this question. Considering that something as simple as a budget confounds Congress, which they are supposed experts on, how do you think they'll do with that which is far more complex and beyond their understanding? How would your ideas compare to what would come out of the supercommittee?
Why cut the tax rates that a democratic executive office and a republican legislature (for a significant portion of the 90's at least) arrived at? Especially when the 90's were coming to a close the budget was running a surplus.
So why does a budget confound congress? Because something as simple as letting the Bush tax cuts expire when they were originally supposed to expire is verboten to Republicans.
There. are. no. Republican. moderates. running. for. congressional. office. any. more.
That's why Congress is pretty much doing the equivalent of sitting there with their opposable digits up their proverbial behinds instead of actually doing serious work on balancing the budget.
When one side doesn't want to cut spending and when another side doesn't want to cut spending, something has to give. Medicare and Social security cuts were put on the table. Taxes were not put on the table. Hell, people started kicking and screaming over letting the original built in expiration date for the Bush tax cuts go through.
The Bush tax cuts cost around 1.8 trillion over the last decade by more sober and conservative estimates. Would this lost Federal intake have covered the increased costs of the last decade?
No but after starting with the initial tax cuts in 2001 you don't implement an additional tax cut in 2003 after we know that we're going to take on the increased costs of going to war in other countries.
Prior to the last decade that has rarely been done before. Kennedy did it during the Vietnam war, before it was escalated. During the war when it was apparent how serious a fight it actually was taxes were increased.
How would I have done it differently from the super committee?
That's an interesting conundrum because the way it was set up Health Care lobbyists and Defense lobbyists were pitted against each other for the first time in a long time.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-lobby-groups-idUSTRE77A6JG20110811
How would I handle it if I could tell the super committee what to do?
Repeal the Bush Tax cuts immediately on those making 500k+ a year.
Cuts:
1)Review foreign military aid.
2)Look at Medicare, Military Spending, Social Security, basically everything that might be a sacred cow.
Taxes:
1)Look at raising taxes on people making an income of $1 million dollars (not people whose net worth is $1 million) or more beyond what the repeal of the Bush tax cuts would accomplish.
2)Loot at Estate Tax rates. Contrary to popular belief not every founding father had an inherent disgust regarding "the death tax."
One of the more famous ones considered basic property necessary to survive should be exempt but that "all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition."
3)Trade Tariffs, Clinton did a good job along with Congress in the 90's in balancing the budget but the free trade agreements are something that he messed up on. Ross Perot despite being kinda insane was absolutely correct in regards to this issue.
