The Progressive Deficit Plan

[n2doc]

Paul Krugman-

A coalition of progressive think tanks has released a plan for dealing with the deficit. It’s at least as responsible as any of the other plans being advanced, with a very different emphasis: more reliance on revenue, no attack on Social Security. Some of the revenue comes from indirect taxes — green taxes and fuel taxes — but the rest comes from measures that would raise taxes mainly on upper-income Americans.

I’ll need to work through the proposal, but one thing it clearly does is to explode the myth that there is no alternative to the Bowles-Simpson-type regressive proposal. A lot of inside-the-Beltway types have been trying to sell the notion that a severely weakened social safety net is the only possibility; it isn’t.

And it’s definitely worth noting that even with the revenue measures in the progressive plan, the US would have lower overall taxation than almost any other advanced country.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/the-progressive-deficit-plan/

plan at:
http://www.ourfiscalsecurity.org/fiscal-blueprint/

[xchrom]

1. i agree there are alternatives -- always have been --

it's the single narrative express in the dc beltway that's the problem.

it's the constant push by both party elites that there is only one way to look at deficit reduction.

and like 'health care' -- i'll be very surprised if progressives are allowed at the table.

or that progressives are allowed a serious debate -- which would be even more interesting.

[loudsue]

2. True. Inside the beltway is being well paid to think inside the box.

Their corporate masters have greased the skids on making middle class Americans as poor as possible, so we won't make demands on them to share the wealth, and we'll be happy just to have a job....any job.