Failure is NOT an action for this committee. Two many Americans are unemployed, lost their homes and have large college debts. Both Democrats and Republicans on this committee have the responsibility to all of us not just the 1%ers. This is the land of opportunity and where there is a will there is a way. Mainstream authors are not helping by writing gloom and doom articles like this one. We need to build on where there is agreement and work from there because that is what intelligent individuals do when there are challenges. What Grover Norquist thinks is no more important than the rest of us. He is just one person with no more rights than the rest of us. To commit to him instead of this country is in some ways treason.

Mc Rob:

I think you need to recheck your numbers!!!!

I blame every damn one of them..... Every damn one of them thinks they're right and there's no room for compromise. I believe each of them enjoys puffing up and hearing their own voice....

I don't care if they raise taxes, I am about to retire with a six figure income. Won't pay any tax in that my wife and I will be living off of tax free investments.

HA HA HA HA.

this was posted yesterday by another member in an article about the Patriotic Millionaires contacting Washington in person:

Here is an edited response from the Patriotic Millionaires to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT):

First, we are well aware that making voluntary contributions to reduce the deficit is an option that is open to us. That you seem to think reminding us of this is a constructive contribution to this serious debate indicates that you have missed the point. In our democracy, individual citizens do not get to pick and choose what government spending to pay for. ...That is an intrinsic part of living in a democracy: you don't get to opt out...

To suggest that we try to tackle this problem by making individual contributions is, frankly, insulting. It is like suggesting to someone expressing a desire to serve their country by bearing arms that they buy a rifle and a plane ticket to Afghanistan. Some problems are too big to be solved except through collective effort and shared sacrifice, and this is one of them...

[for those who say]"this debt crisis is not caused because we tax too little. It is caused because our nation spends too much." This is quibbling over semantics. Deficits result when spending exceeds receipts. Whether that happens because spending is too high or receipts are too low is a matter of perspective and priorities...

It is true that government spending levels are at historic highs, but it is also true that tax rates (and hence receipts) are at historic lows in terms of percentage of GDP. It is the combination of these two factors that has taken us from surplus to near catastrophic deficits in a mere decade.

the tax cuts should expire. when this low was enacted the cut was supposed to last 10 years, then it was extended for 2 more. and that is enough.

It will remain muddled as long as republicans have forgotten the meaning of "negotiate" and "compromise!"

Total personal income in the US in 2010 is $12,357,113,000,000. If we took everyone's income away it still would not solve the problem. Raising taxes is not the answer.

Just like in my household the government must also reduce spending. This means we all must tighten our belts. If we continue thinking that raising taxes is the answer, the problem will just continue to worsen and eventually the country will go broke leaving those expecting help with nothing.

There is nothing super about the Super Committee. A committee comprised of members of Congress is bound to be less smart than the Congress, and Congress is dumber than a bag of hammers. They spend their days trading stocks on inside information not available to the public. They have a gravy train and they are going to milk it for all it is worth. The US Congress is a gang of thugs and criminals. They are worse than OWS because the police can shoot and tase OWS members, while they can do nothing about Congress. And the American people are too damn dumb to do anything about Congress. We elect these fools and we can't un-elect them, at least not en masse, nor to any effective extent. We are royally screwed while Congress is crapping in high cotton.

Republican lawmakers would waterboard their own mothers if it meant a tax cut for the wealthy.

Mvargus writes -

It may actually result in reduced revenues (Phd and Nobel Prize winning economist Arthur Laffer wrote and continues to write extensively on this, hence the economic term "Laffer Curve" for how tax revenues decline as rates increase above some pivot point.)

This is a false statement - check this link -

Arthur Laffer has never won a nobel, his theory is crap and most economists would agree that the Laffer Curve is just that, a laugh. Laffer is nothing more than a paid USC shill for whatever rich alumni wants to trot him out as if he has any credibility.

LOL

Was there any doubt that theses hand chosen figures were going to fail??? Really people, rally around occupy rally around the tea party can we please get to the center its about jobs jobs jobs and simplified tax code you make x and you pay Y lets go america we can do this!! We all use the road we all use the system make Y and pay x come one!!

Seems to me the debt had just tripped 14 trillion around the time the committee started and went to 15 trillion today does anyone remember? If I am right how is finding 1.2 trillion going help when its going out that fast?

make X pay Y and spend only what you bring in wow that was hard right Washington!!!!!! Bunch of dip@!$%#s yes you heard me I could debate with the best of you!! Figure it out or you can all go home and not have inside info on investing. Isn't interesting how I being in the financial industry have to get pre clearance for trading and you bozos can trade whenever you like.

The capitalist system affects to have great regard and reward for intellect, and the capitalists give themselves full credit for having superior brains. When we have ventured to say that the time would come when the working class would rule they have bluntly answered “Never! it requires brains to rule.” The workers of course have none. And they certainly try hard to prove it by proudly supporting the political parties of their masters under whose administration they are kept in poverty and servitude.

Mr grover & the gop & the soviets will tell you that the occupy wall streeters are wrong because they believe in representative govt for the people. No. The gop will tell you power should reside in the executive branch with a privately funded military. Like iran-contra.

If any of these politicians were my employees they would be fired by now. O wait don't we pay their salary? Why can't we fire them? and i mean right now, not when their next election date comes.

The Republican leadership, who are all TEA Party members now they say, have hit upon a way to "limit the size of government" and reduce taxes on the wealthy. In fact, their proposal for the wealthy to pay NO taxes at all is centered in no taxation on capital gains. Now, capital gains (stocks, bonds, investments) is the single most important way the wealthy make their money, and no taxes on capital gains means the wealthy pay NO taxes at all. It's an important way to "limit the size of government." Very little revenue coming into the government means the government cannot pay its bills, including paying its workers civilian or military. "Starve the Beast" is the Republican leadership's words for bringing the government of the United States of America to its knees. I haven't heard the federal government referred to as a "Beast" other than in Iran, in al Quida, and in the Taliban. Americans destroying America. Hard to believe, isn't it? But, it wasn't hard to believe during WW II when the Nazi's had thousands of American Nazi's in this country working to "destroying the Beast." Same is true during the cold war when the USSR paid agents to "Destroy the Beast." So, what do these Republican "patriots" want? They want a plutocracy, a govenment and nation run by the wealthy. But, the nation is beginning to understand what has become of a once important reform party in American history. The fact is that a majority of the American people today believe the Republican Party is the political arm of the wealthy, and that FOX News is their official Ministry of Propaganda! Those numbers continue to grow day by day.

We watched the TEA Party threaten the elected representatives of Congress, minorities, the people, and the Constitution with "2nd Amendment Rights" during the summer of 2009 through 2010. We heard Sharon Angle, Christine O'Donnell and others of their ilk threaten the people of the American Republic with "2nd Amendment Rights" during the elections of 2010. Those particular people lost, but others won election to Congress, and here they are practicing their rabid programs of "Starving the Beast." My response is the Beast is rising up against you in the streets of New York City and in every other city across the land until you and your lackeys are driven from office in the 2012 elections and I hope never to return to threaten this land again.

Let's Play Ball, The Right has about 72 members at least, that will not play if there is any increase of tax revenue{Norquist Congressman} on the rich. So Republicans call for President Obama to come back and fix this. The ball is out in Right Field and they want A Left Fielder to Catch it. What is up with that. The Republican Party can't get passed the pre-signed oaths =their vote owned by someone already, to do the right thing, by the people they represent in their district or their Country, Team United States of America wants them to straighten up, and get back into the game. The Left President can not fix the Republican Congress. They have to do it, themselves.

Congress should continue along it's merry do-nothing way... that way the Bush Tax Cuts expire and those savings, coupled with the sequestration cuts means something can actually get done.

Hi all,

I'm going to post an article I think all you lefties need to read.......

It was inspired by MSNBC's Chris Matthews book on Democrat Icon John F. Kennedy.

Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” has a new book out, Elusive Hero, which offers an in-depth and well-researched look at the life and presidency of John F. Kennedy. In light of today’s focus on tax reform and the dealings of the congressional supercommittee, Matthews’s new book provides a timely reminder of the stark contrast between the policies of the man who brought us Camelot and the policies of the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

An examination of Kennedy’s record shows a Democratic president whose approach to fiscal policy is more in line with congressional Republicans of today than the agenda of President Obama and his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill. In his annual budget address on Jan. 17, 1963, Kennedy sent the following message to Congress:

“Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased — not a reduced — flow of revenues to the federal government.”

Contrast those remarks with President Obama’s most recent executive budget, which calls for a 13 percent increase in the top marginal income tax rate for individuals and small businesses, taking the rate from 35 to 39.6 percent.

In a message to Congress on Jan. 24, 1963, Kennedy stated, “Our tax system still siphons out of the private economy too large a share of personal and business purchasing power and reduces the incentive for risk, investment and effort — thereby aborting our recoveries and stifling our national growth.”

Meanwhile, the aforementioned income tax hike that Obama is calling for would siphon $709 billion from the private economy over the next 10 years, resulting in reduced income for individuals and families, as well as the small businesses that are responsible for over 60 percent of American jobs.

And that’s just income taxes. Kennedy and Obama are also 180 degrees apart when it comes to taxing investment. Kennedy remarked that the “tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility and flow of risk capital … the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy.”

Contrast this with Obama, who, during a debate with Hillary Clinton in April 2008, was challenged on his proposal to raise the capital gains tax. Debate moderator Charles Gibson asked why he would take such an approach when “history shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues go up.” Despite all of the revenue that he needs to fund his spending goals, Obama responded that he supports a capital gains tax hike, even though it would have a negative effect both on revenue and job creation, for reasons of “fairness.”

What exactly is President Obama proposing to do with the capital gains tax, its importance to economic growth so eloquently articulated by Kennedy? Obama is vehemently pushing a massive tax increase on investment income. Between the expiration of the Bush-era tax rates and the 3.8 percent surcharge on investment income included in the 2010 health care bill, Obama is proposing a nearly 60 percent increase in the capital gains tax in just one year, taking the rate from 15 to 23.8 percent. Kennedy’s treatment of investment highlights his economic acumen; Obama’s treatment of investment proves that he’s a hard-left ideologue.

In total, President Obama has signed into law 21 separate tax increases in less than three years, raising taxes by approximately $500 billion. He’s now hawking his American Jobs Act, which entails $467 billion in higher taxes starting in 2013. Between the approaching onslaught of higher taxes in 2013 and regulatory uncertainty, it’s little wonder that economic growth has been anemic and unemployment hovers just below double digits.

In contrast, during his brief time in office, President Kennedy cut the top marginal rate on individual income by 21 points, reduced corporate taxes and lowered the cost of capital by creating an investment tax credit. As the Kennedy tax cuts were phased in from 1962 to 1965, not only did revenues grow by more than a five percent yearly average, GDP surged at a five and a half percent average annual rate.

President Obama’s fiscal policies are very much in step with the Democratic-controlled Senate and Nancy Pelosi’s caucus in the House. As things stand, Democrats are prepared to blow up any supercommittee deal that doesn’t include higher taxes. It seems the closest thing the modern Democratic Party has to a leader in the mold of Kennedy is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who balanced his budget with spending cuts alone and remarked earlier this year that his state “has no future as the tax capital of the nation.”

Unlike Lloyd Bentsen, I was not a friend of Jack Kennedy’s, nor did I even know the man. However, judging by the record and rhetoric of JFK and the current occupant of the Oval Office, it is obvious that Barack Obama is no Jack Kennedy. Matthews makes it clear that he thinks there is a lot Obama could learn from Kennedy. When it comes to pro-growth tax policy, I couldn’t agree more.

Patrick Gleason is director of state affairs at Americans for Tax Reform.

For all you tax and spenders, I want to here how you spin this one. Looks to me that JFK and Ron Paul would get along just fine on tax policy.

This is the very reason Obama didn't want to add on to the raising of the debt ceiling this political circus act from the very beginning the ceiling was raised. He knew this Republican monster would raise it' ugly head. Deja Vu!!?

Congress is like an insane asylum. All of its members are mentally ill. Any one that votes for an incumbent should be with them but sadly the majority of them will be back. Thus the US voters are just as bad if not worse.

Muddle super committee is right. We should be talking about the 14 trillion not the 1.2 trillion.

Failure is the Beltway

what is really needed is a new third party one that does not accept corporate donations or donations from lobbying groups nor unions or political action commmitees. a party truly supported fincially en masse by the people with anoymous donations only.Once the corporations banks military contractors and special intrest groups are kicked to the curb then we will have what we all want no matter if your a liberal or conservative: a resposible goverment held accountable to the people who elect it and politicians who now have to serve the intrests of the people who elect them. Right now what is going on is one set of special intrests battling another set of special intrests groups and of course social security will be cut. Reason? Its the only thing they can agree to cut that wont upset none of the special intrest groups much. In fact why not lets add a poor tax into the mix too. yes lets tax those who are poor but working just because they are. That wont upset the special intrest groups either. Enough I say! if the current political parties wont stop this special intrest graff by self imposing rules on themselves( which wouldn't take legisalation as it would be self imposed and not have a supreme court challenge) then its time for another party that will only accept anoymous donations and kick the special intrest groups to the curb