WP: Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget (Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand)

[Pirate Smile]

Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget
Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand

By Lori Montgomery and Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A01

When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.

Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.

"The Democrats have assailed deficits under President Bush. The White House is telling Democrats to walk the walk," said Brian M. Riedl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Budget experts and economists from across the political spectrum, including some who worked in the Bush White House, say that Bush is unlikely to offer real concessions toward a balanced budget in the plan he delivers to Congress next month.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501085.html

[citygal]

1. To call his bluff is to simply

tax the top 1% of the country and bring the middle class tax relief. The top 1% did not vote to elect the Democratic Congress, nor will it ever.

[Habibi]

6. Yes!

Roll back those tax cuts for the wealthy to help balance the budget and fund the troop increase in Iraq. Surely the rich wouldn't be so unpatriotic to object to that?

[EVDebs]

12. Sounds kinda WalMartish but what the hell, "Rolling back tax cuts"

...for the wealthy. Low taxes, always (if you're able to outsource and cheat) !

[YankeyMCC]

8. Bingo nt

[Just-plain-Kathy]

2. Talk about forcing hands...

Bush is sending troops to Iraq even though the congress is talking about holding back funds.

It's like Bush is holding our troop hostage. His actions say, fund these troops or they die.

:grr:

I hope the dems take away those big tax cuts and start taxing religous groups. "Mega" churches, come on.

There are more people who feel that religous groups should be taxed, then not.

[citygal]

3. That's not a bad idea...and take away their tax-exempt status, too.

[aquart]

4. We aren't going to tax churches. Period. But inherited wealth?

Unearned income? Something has to be done to stop the Paris Hilton Syndrome from destroying the country.

[Trillo]

5. "82 Big U.S. Corporations Paid No Tax in One or More Bush Years"

"# Eighty-two of the 275 companies, almost a third of the total, paid zero or less in
federal income taxes in at least one year from 2001 to 2003. Many of them enjoyed
multiple no-tax years. In the years they paid no income tax, these companies earned
$102 billion in pretax U.S. profits. But instead of paying $35.6 billion in income taxes as
the statutory 35 percent corporate tax rate seems to require, these companies
generated so many excess tax breaks that they received outright tax rebate checks from
the U.S. Treasury, totaling $12.6 billion. These companies’ “negative tax rates” meant
that they made more after taxes than before taxes in those no-tax years."

Read more @
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:liV7njAu_QYJ:www.ctj.org/corpfed04pr.pdf+negative+corporate+taxes&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

[Toots]

7. If the Democrats had any true grit they would look at our Defense Budget

Why on earth does the USA need to spend more than the other ten largest countries in the world combined on Defense? When we spend less on Defense other countries are less likely to think of us as a hostile nation. When we spend less on implements of Death and Destruction we spend more on health and welfare. If the Democrats are true to our cause we will cut Defense Spending by at least half. I doubt there is a person in the Democrats midst that has the courage to stand up and say this...They believe and they may be correct that America is a killing Nation and needs to continue to be so. People will demand we kill more and destroy more just to show the world we can....

[tabasco]

9. Toots, it's worse than that.

As of 2004, the USA spends more on "defense" than the entire rest of the planet.

http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdi/jdi050504_1_n.shtml

War profiteering by the ruling classes is destroying this Nation!

[mopinko]

10. and with all that money, we can't take over a country

the size of california.

[tabasco]

15. Thanks to GW Bush and the oil companies for the 51st state.

It's great spending all this money for nothing but a neocon oil grab.

Bush and all the oil cronies that started this war belong in PRISON.

[EVDebs]

13. Something like $2.5 TRILLION mission in DOD

War on waste
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

but I'm sure the number is higher now that they've greased the corruption skids !

[Beetwasher]

11. What A Bunch Of Idiots, This Will Not Be A Big Problem For Dems

Get rid of the subsidies for oil companies, reverse the tax cuts on the top 1% and crack down on corporate welfare, cut defense funding for idiotic programs like Star Wars etc.

Be careful Chimpy, you may just get what you ask for, you idiot.

[high density]

14. "Walk the walk"

I love this crap being peddled by the press. It's like the Democrats are supposed to fix everything that has gone wrong over the last 6 years instantly... What a joke.