Now we all know how dysfunctional our political system is in terms of getting things passed that can help or reform our economy and long-term debt problems.
Well, I had a dream. Now I know it’s only a dream, but imagine if we woke up tomorrow morning to discover the following events.
Work is being done on a job package. Not any old job package but a job package with a twist, that spends every single cent on fixing our huge infrastructure problem. The twist would be to first target the long-term unemployed. Second, there would be no tax cuts in this package, every single cent goes to creating a new infrastructure job. Third, no money to the states to fix budget gaps, every single cent goes to creating new jobs. No more arguments about how many jobs were created or saved — and all the new jobs would be for fixing a problem we can all agree we have here in the US.
Now, will this save our economy? No. However, it’s a step to move forward and get some Americans working again.
Next comes tax/spending reform. If we can get a jump-start on the Simpson Bowles plan, then at least we can start the long process of making a deal that both parties can live with. Simpson Bowles was trying to get a bi-partisan plan that both parties could approve of and stop the madness of one party trying to block or rip away the other party’s reform plan. Our elected leaders need to give Mr. Simpson, Mr. Bowles, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Warner and many others some firepower to get things moving. Nothing will be perfect but a long-term tax/spending reform plan would be better than the extend and pretend madness we have now.
Is this possible? Likely it is not. But we can always dream , can’t we, of a job package and a real tax/spending reform. Now that would a nice surprise to see, leaders leading to get things done on both sides of the political houses.
Logan Mohtashami is a senior loan officer at his family owned mortgage company AMC Lending Group, which has been providing mortgage services for California residents since 1988. Logan is also a financial columnist for Benzinga.com and contributor for BusinessInsider.com
Great idea Logan. We have witnessed a stalemate between the GOP lead US House and the Obama administration with nothing being accomplished to put Americans back to work. The US government cannot collect taxes if its citizens are not working. You cannot pay of the deficient without collecting taxes. Personally, I would love to see all Congressional members be docked for all the time they have wasted trying to ensure that Obama is a one term President. While I don’t think Obama or Romney should serve the next term in the White House, when you have been elected to do a job, which is to serve the best interests of the US citizens you represent, then do the job and leave your politics out of it!
Full disclosure…I’m a liberal so I see things through that lens.
As long as either party deems it necessary to ensure that the elected official on the other side of the isle serves only one term then we’ve got a problem. Sure, the POTUS is the obvious position where it is most easy to make it difficult to “lead” and frankly the founding fathers wanted it this way as to not make the POTUS a king. But the current digging in of heals by the GOP has got to end and my hope would be that if Obama gets reelected then we will see a bit of capitulation as this will be his final term and Mitch McConnell can relax over that reality.
What is most frustrating for me is that our tax code has become a myriad of loopholes for both rich and poor. I don’t prescribe to the idea that poor people or over half the population pays not tax. In many cases it is true that they pay no income tax but they pay taxes elsewhere that are effectively federal taxes that go to many of the same benefits and entitlements. What is even more frustrating is the inability to let both the payroll tax cut and the “Bush” tax cuts expire as they were, by law, supposed to. Of course based on the lens I see the world through I don’t believe the “Bush” tax cuts were ever intended to expire. But I don’t understand (a lot of not understanding by me…) is why we can’t phase both tax cuts out gradually over a period of two to four years and significantly reduce the “fiscal cliff” that we have all become convinced of is coming.
Of course this is not black and white enough for either side so a proposal such as this could never occur…never mind the pledge to Grover Norquist that effectively makes such compromise impossible.
I am of course a supporter of the Simpson Bowles reform plan. It’s been a difficult process indeed with any kind of financial reform here in the US. Getting anything pass congress will be a challenge, but I believe the time has come for tax/spending reform if we are going to have a long sustainable functioning government. In regard to the fiscal cliff, something will be done to extend that to 2013. If you follow the political handbook, they always wait to the end on something like this. Also, you can see why the Treasury wanted to make sure they didn’t have a debt ceiling debate in the last few months of 2012 in an election year. Everything gets so political that common sense gets lost.