A couple weeks back we made mention of a little-noticed event that was creeping ever closer on the calendar. If you forgot, its right here {09.30.10}. The event is the final release of Obama's Committee on Deficits, however we got a sneak peak a couple days ago. {Go here to read it in its entirety}
Here's the link to the Bloomberg write up. But let me summarize a couple of points. Just as Applegate predicted, they recommended pushing the retirement age 68 and eventually 69 {even if it is as late as 2075}. The CoD suggested eliminating various tax credits or breaks on things such as mortgage interest while lowering top tier income taxes from 35% to 23%. HUH?
Yeah, not only are they suggesting that the Federal Government lower taxes to balance the budget, they have actually stuck a cap on the total amount of receipts they can collect. Yep, that's right. The Feds can only collect receipts less than 21% of GDP. Its hard to bail the water out of a sinking ship when then hull is shattered and being held together with knitting yard.
For a fantastic read on the subject matter, swing over to The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman at the NY Times. He's a better writer anyway. Just glad to say we saw part of it coming...
~LH
