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For the rest of us: mandatory. For Congress: impossible

February 25, 2010

Recessions stink. I know an engineer who was laid off from a big Chicago company after 18 years who is still looking for work 14 months later. I know businesses who have had to let go most of their employees to keep the doors open for the rest of them. These people have drastically cut their expenses to match their cash. So what about Congress? Martin Sullivan says it's just too difficult for our Real Congresscritters of Genius to balance their budget:

So how difficult would it be to achieve that goal? Using the best available estimates here are seven possible options:
(1) Raise individual taxes only by 30%
(2) Raise all taxes by 15%
(3) Cut all Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security by 25%
(4) Cut discretionary spending by 40%
(5) Cut all spending by 13%
(6) (a) Raise all taxes by 8% (b) cut all spending by 7%
(7) Impose of value-added tax of 7.7%

In political terms these are nothing short of earth-shaking. Our gridlocked dysfunctional Congress simply cannot bring itself to absorb these types of painful shocks. They are orders of magnitude away from what is feasible in the current political environment.

A Congress that can find money for a Tom Harkin Learning Center and Charles Rangel Centers for Public Service can't cut its spending 13 percent? The poor dears. If their job is so hard, we'd better find them new ones.

Tags: Charles Rangel.Martin Sullivan.Tax.com.Tom Harkin.