Moderateman Here are my suggestions:
Suggested policy changes for the second Bush term, Four More For George W?
Spending
Review discretionary non defense expenditures including “pork barrel” spending to cut our budget. Change legislative procedures to end tacking non related expenditures to bills and require all appropriations to go through the normal process. Any emergency appropriations should be dealt with as stand alone bills
Taxes
Restore the tax rates on the top two income tax brackets to the pre-2000 levels.
Restore tax rates on capital gains and dividends to pre- 2000 levels.
Make permanent the increased child credit, elimination of the marriage penalty, the 10% bracket and increase the level of income that triggers the alternate tax. That increased level should then be indexed to cost-of-living each year so that the threshold for the alternate tax remains constant after inflation.
Retain the federal estate tax with the following changes:
Provide a $2 million exemption per person and increase that exemption each year by the cost-of-living.
Provide deferment of any federal estate tax on family farms or family business so long as they pass to members of the immediate family – children, grandchildren or siblings. If the family business or farm is later sold to a non-family entity, the tax in the amount due at passing would be paid upon sale.
Close corporate loopholes that allow avoiding corporate income taxes by moving off shore. Provide surtax on companies that export American jobs to other countries and provide tax credits to companies who create or restore jobs from overseas to the United States. Insure corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
Consider new ways to help small businesses compete and to fund employee health insurance.
Simplify the progressive tax system by eliminating most of the existing loop holes in the tax code.
Deficit
Establish the objective to bring our general fund expenses and revenues into balance by 2008.
Begin generating a budget surplus of $200 billion annually starting with fiscal year 2009. This annual surplus would be directly applied each year to reduce the overall federal deficit.
Below is a process that should be considered to achieve the fiscal discipline outlined above namely to balance revenues and expenditures by 2008 and generate a fiscal surplus of $200 billion starting in 2009:
Evaluate tax incentives and or expenditures that would increase the growth rate (GDP) in an effort to generate more jobs and create additional federal revenue. Areas to consider should include tax incentives to stimulate such things as alternate energy sources and higher auto, SUV and truck gas mileage. Invest federal tax dollars to begin rebuilding the infrastructure of our country. These expenditures would be paid to private companies to complete the necessary reconstruction projects in order to create jobs and corporate profits.
If the added revenue from the increased GDP growth together with expenditure reductions does not achieve the overall objectives of balancing the budget and then creating a fiscal surplus, the tax structure needs to be examined for additional revenue sources. In no event, other than national emergency or declared war, should the United States spend more than it collects in revenue after 2008. In addition, we need to generate and apply the $200 Billion annual surplus to the repayment of the national debt until it is repaid, (approximately 30 years).
Failure to achieve this objective will have a devastating impact on our needs in the future. Issues such as additional funding for Social Security and Medicare, national defense, education and the rebuilding of our infrastructure make it essential that we end the practice of charging to the future the things that we need for our society.
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