Like all those years of prosperity, budget surplus

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The budget funds Volunteer America, and includes a provision to set up a commission to STUDY whether or not "mandatory volunteerism" should be established. My prediction is that it won't happen.

1. Roll back a significant portion or all of the stimulus that has not yet been distributed as of 2010.

2. Indiiduals earning less than $50,000 or couples earning less than $100,000 could either file under the current tax provisions or pay a flat 10%. Others earning more would pay a flat 25%. All who choose the flat tax rate could literally file their taxes on a form the size of a single index card.

You have to think about some of the implications of these tax ideas to understand the less obvious benefits, among which would be the stanching of the flow of investment outside the country and attraction of foreign investment, and an enormous savings in the waste of time and money that presently go to nothing more productive than filing taxes. A simple scheme like this would also be much more difficult to defraud than the complex system currently in place.

On this last point, just consider all the back taxes that Obama has collected from his tax-scofflaw political appointees - over $100,000! Not one of the excuses that any of them offered for not paying their taxes - i.e., that the tax laws are too complicated even for that "brilliant" idiot, Geithner (who now heads up the IRS). Not one of them could have skated by "paying their back taxes" while apologizing that they just couldn't get a handle on what they're supposed to pay. Now, multiply just those people by all the other tax cheats in this country who couldn't use similar excuses (or schemes, whichever term you prefer).

It's simple: What do you make? Withhold 10% and you owe nothing at the end of the year. Fill out your card, send it in, and you're done. And you tax accountants who have helped your clients avoid taxes for years...we need accountants for other purposes, so you won't starve either.

Peter Peterson. (Photo: Reuters)

Peter Peterson is coming to get your Social Security and Medicare. Peterson was the commerce secretary in the Nixon administration. He then went on to make billions of dollars as one of the top executives at the Blackstone Group, a private equity fund. Mr. Peterson is known as one of the top beneficiaries of the fund managers' tax break, through which he personally pocketed tens of millions of dollars.

Mr. Peterson has been using his Wall Street wealth to attack these social insurance programs for decades, but he recently stepped up his efforts. Last year, he spent $1 billion to endow the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to further his efforts.

In politics, it's not easy to counter the impact of $1 billion. In addition to its money, the Peterson crew enjoys the support of many important news outlets, most importantly The Washington Post, which pushes his line on both its editorial and news pages.

In fact, The Post even went so far as to identify Peterson's foundation by its boilerplate, an organization that "advocates for federal fiscal responsibility," instead of telling readers of its political leanings, the normal mode of identification for such organizations. (The Center for Economic and Policy Research was established "to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives.")

While the Peterson crew may have the money and the support of the media, the rest of us can rely on logic and ridicule to counter the attack. In this spirit, we have the Peter G. Peterson Intergenerational Fairness Tax Credit. (Mr. Peterson is apparently fond of having things named after him. In addition to his new Peter G. Peterson Foundation, he also has a think tank named after him, the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics.)

The Peterson tax credit would essentially take the Peterson crew at their word. They claim that they are worried that huge tax burdens will leave future generations worse off than the generations that preceded them.

This isn't true. There is no plausible scenario, short of war or environmental disaster, that would leave future generations worse off than their parents or grandparents. But we don't have to argue with the billionaire; let's just give future generations the option to trade places with their parents or grandparents who made out so well.

This is where the tax credit comes in. The tax credit would allow an individual to trade her after-tax income for the after-tax income that someone born 20 or 40 years sooner would have earned at the same age. For example, if someone born in 1990 believes in 2020 that their grandparents got a better deal, they would simply check off the year 1940, and they would have their taxes adjusted so that they would have the same after-tax income of a person born in 1940, when they were also age 30.

Of course, the young ones would end up big losers in this story. Real wages, on average, will be more than 50 percent higher in 2020 than they were in 1970. Even if tax rates were, on average, 5 percentage points higher, workers in 2020 will still have after-tax wages that are more than 40 percent higher than their counterparts in 1970.

This means that anyone who chose to take advantage of the intergenerational equity tax credit would end up as a big loser. That is why it can help solve the deficit problem. If people check off the tax credit, they will pay more in taxes and, therefore, increase government revenue.

It might be hard to convince large numbers of people to voluntarily pay more in taxes. This is where the Peterson Foundation comes in. They are spending huge amounts of money trying to convince young people that they are being ripped off by their parents and grandparents. They are even promoting front groups of young people to advance this effort.

With his billion dollars, Peterson could convince a huge number of gullible young people to tax advantage of the intergenerational equity tax credit. Insofar as he is successful in this effort, he can help to generate billions of dollars that can be used for items like health care, preschool education, and other pressing needs.

So, let's join efforts with Mr. Peterson and encourage his followers to take advantage of the Peter G. Peterson Intergenerational Fairness Tax Credit. There is a word for taking money from willfully ignorant young people who would deny their parents and grandparents the Social Security and Medicare benefits they need to survive: justice.

over the past 3 years, including charts. This is by the National Debt Awareness Center. There are lots of other links on there to check out too but, again, I am short on time today.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2009/02/25/hot-docs-bleak-and-uncertain-federal-budget-outlook-as-deficit-climbs.html

I saw today where they passed a budget to take us through the next couple months to the tune of $896B. Filled with pork. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to look it up tomorrow.

This is the correct link. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/world/middleeast/06surplus.html?ref=worldspecial

I heard the above comment in either an ad or in the debate itself and I almost flipped. You don't hear much about it yet, but it will come out sooner or later (and hopefully sooner).

Our kids will tell stories about us working six days a week, all hours of the day and night to stay at home with them. About how we had no health insurance, but somehow we managed to pay those hospital bills. How the mortgage broker tried to get us to refinance one more time, but we saw through the scam. How did we ever make a car payment for 5 years without going crazy? How we competed with workers in a virtual world and still managed to out produce them. Maybe they will think that we were pretty tough too. I think we are!

unless I want to work until I'm 70 or 80. What kind of mind will i have then? Will I be able to figure out what a doc is saying?

I'll probably be one of those homeless people in another 10 years unless they straighten out all the problems. I certainly will not be able afford the taxes we pay on our property, even though it's free and clear of a mortgage. At tha rate they expect taxes to rise, I'll be out on the streets.

The O will not be able to stop it. There's too many factors changing the economy. I'm just hoping things wil l straighten out, but I no longer have any faith in our government, no matter who runs the country. The so-called respresentaves are only out for themselves in the past few years and it doesn't matter who's in charge.

Write your congressmen or senators and what do you get? A "canned" letter that they will take your suggestions "under consideration" and "are doing whatever they can to fix the situation". I'm tired of it. It's the same old, same old.

O has reneged on some of his promises already. He spoke in all those other countries when he was running for prez (and isn't there a law against going to a foreign country to make promises(?) if he becomes president? He smoothed over so many countires that they thought they were finally going to get a prez that would straighten out the U.S. and all of a sudden, he is for Israel and against the Muslin terrorists communities. "Scuse me, butl lying to other ountries doesm't cut it.

I can only hope that O will keep some of his other promises bvut I don't see how he can with the economy the way it is at this pointl So all those people who voted for O with the hope of change (remember those who stated they would not have to worry about their mortgage, etc.), it ain't gonna happen.

O is a smooth talker and I almost fell for his ideas, but when I started to really think about it, there's no way he can accomplish all he plans to do, even in 8 yeras.

Well, I'll get off my soap box now. These opinions are mine and mine alone. You may not agree with my thoughts, but there's no reason to bash me for my honest opinion.