So President Obama has volunteered his work force -- 2 million federal employees -- to live with a pay freeze for two years as a contribution to reducing the $1 trillion-plus federal debt.Now I really like the idea of volunteering others' income to cut the national deficit. I personally would like to volunteer that everyone pays FICA on all their income, not just the first ~100K. I'd like to volunteer 50% of long-term capital gains to be taxed as income, not just 15%, or 20% as it was before the Bush tax cuts. I'll also volunteer all members of the financial sector to pay a flat 50% rate on all bonuses and stock options above and beyond their declared salary. The freeze on federal employees' salaries is estimated to save 2/3 of 1% of the next decade's deficit. I'd be happy to bet a very substantial sum that my generous volunteering of other people's incomes would save a hell of a lot more than that.
Miscellaneous thoughts on politics, people, math, science and other cool (if sometimes frustrating) stuff from somewhere near my favorite coffee shop.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
That's Mighty White of You, Mr. President
In fairness, these aren't Obama's words, but those of the editorial board for The Achorage Daily News:
It's way too logical. It could be the base of a plan, but after the good ol' boys went over it and added tweaks to make sure nobody touches any of THEIRS it would be the same.
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