As you know, the so-called* fiscal cliff is looming* over us all. The prospect of tax increases and spending cuts has everyone freaked. Our elected officials are in full campaign mode, yet still manage to o attend committee meetings to discuss and debate policy of the utmost importance in order to reach a compromise for the good of the American people. Unfortunately, they're starting to phone it in:
The powerful House Ways and Means Committee, in charge of taxes and entitlements, will have to guide America away from the fiscal cliff before January – but it remained paralyzed to do anything about it on Thursday. The committee met for a brief 20 minutes behind closed doors, and was unable to move the ball forward at all on averting the tax increases and indiscriminate spending cuts that are due to hit around the end of the year. Analysts have said the full weight of that so-called fiscal cliff would likely lead to a recession.
20 minutes? That's barely enough time for Sandy Levin to get seated. Again, I think it's time we considered the Thelma and Louise solution.
*Rote journalism term
To trigger job growth, Gingrich proposed to cut the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 12.5 percent, a deeper cut than some other Republican politicians have offered. He would extend income tax cuts that expire in 2013, which were the subject of a pitched battle late last year when President Barack Obama tried to let tax reductions for wealthier Americans expire. And he would completely eliminate the capital gains tax on stock profits. Gingrich, proposed that the country move toward an optional flat tax for Americans of 15 percent, and strengthen the dollar by returning to “Reagan-era monetary policies,” and reform the Federal Reserve to promote transparency. [
“If they don’t come up with loan modifications and keep people in their homes that they’ve worked so hard for, we’re going to tax them out of business,” Waters said. [