We all knew that Congress wasn't going to do anything significant with regard to fiscal responsibility. At least for the last 50 years, our Congress has feathered their own nest, destroyed the Social Security System, and essentially, distorted the tax system, and in general, been fiscally malfeasant.
In this day of high tech, we should have an efficient, fair, flat, simple, and broad based tax system, where everyone has some skin in the game. Instead, we have members of Congress that have shifted the burden of taxes to half the working people, and the other half pay none. And a lot of them that don't pay any federal taxes actually get money back (think of it as a modified Welfare System). When I was in the Navy, I paid taxes, and I made less than minimum wage. Social Security taxes just go into the general fund, and it makes me wonder why we have money designated for it.
My suggestion would be to take a small percentage of revenues and build up a new Social Security Retirement Fund, maybe like the Federal Employees Retirement System, and once it is adequately funded (maybe to 140 or 150 percent of expected liability), shift current retirees to it, then it would not need additional input. No Congress would get access to it, and guess what, a reduction of about 12.5 or 13 percent in peoples tax burden.
Question: If you treated your own finances like Congress treats tax revenue, do you think you might be headed toward bankruptcy?
Also, the biggest counterfeiter in history, Ben Bernancke, is printing 60 billion a month to buy our own Treasury Bonds, called Quantitative Easing.
Brian Foley