'Gang of Six' In The Senate Seeking A Plan On Debt

nytimes.com:

Days after President Obama called for forming a bipartisan group in Congress to begin negotiating a $4 trillion debt-reduction package, the parties have not even agreed to its membership. Yet six senators -- three Democrats, three Republicans -- say they are nearing consensus on just such a plan.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[norkas]

05:28 PM on 04/17/2011

Unlimited contributions by business allowed by the supreme court decision how do you think this will effect ALL decisions making now and in the future?

Welcome to a potential Facist America

[timetraveler2039]

11:47 AM on 04/17/2011

End the "occupations" in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya. Let the Bush tax cuts lapse. Do away with subsidies for large corporations. Would taking money out of the election process restore this country to sanity? Limit corporate influence in fiscal decisions. Sentence those bankers and hedge fund operators to work in homeless shelters for the rest of their miserable lives. That's for Starters!

[rlwramjet]

05:10 PM on 04/17/2011

I love the comment about the leaders of the financial institutions. How about a little something to help the election process.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011-2

1. Term Limits.

12 years only, one of the possible options below..

A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

[oldngrumpy]

11:35 AM on 04/17/2011

Before we even talk about cutting benefits to seniors let's make the books right. The money paid into Social Security and Medicare is "REAL" money deducted from paychecks in a very regressive taxation that let the wealthy mostly off the hook to begin with. The funds were misused for tax cuts for the top earners while revenue didn't even keep up with the costs of their wars for profit. To now claim there is nothing in the fund is embezzlement of the highest order.

It isn't hard to show that the theft of the funds meant to provide security to middle class seniors transfered them to the top 2% by reducing their tax liability. Ten+ years of this transfer has left America with no "real" money in the pot to secure the incomes and health of those of us who paid large percentages of our income into a "trust" for that purpose. Those who have benefited the most from our society have purchased special accommodations from corrupt politicians and left us with a debt that will be unsurmountable without a real plan to recover it from them, but continue to use their minions to prevent that recovery. I want my investment back before we begin this insane Kabuki theater of deception. Cuts to Social Security and Medicare should be considered an act of war against America.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/15/967450/-Either-Leave-Social-Insurance-Alone-Or-Pay-Us-Back-Our-$-1-Trillion

[TRRoughRider]

12:25 PM on 04/17/2011

You make an excellent point. Corporate subsidies and lower and lower tax rates for the Wealthy by bought and paid for politicans have dimished the revenues of the Federal goverment for over 25 years causing the Federal Government to borrow from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds to make up the loss in revenues. That is why Social Security and Medicare have issues with not having sufficient funds to pay the benefits in the future.

[afgan irakson]

11:27 AM on 04/17/2011

sadly it's a sham, another fig leaf covering up republican unmentionables, tax increases, sure. as long as they are "revenue neutral" - direct quot.

[mad as heck]

11:14 AM on 04/17/2011

What say we let them know what WE think?

The Honorable Dick Durbin
United States Senate
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1304
202-224-2152

The Honorable Kent Conrad
United States Senate
530 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3403
202-224-2043

The Honorable Mark R. Warner
United States Senate
459A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4601
202-224-2023

The Honorable Saxby Chambliss
United States Senate
416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1004
202-224-3521

The Honorable Tom Coburn
United States Senate
172 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3603
202-224-5754

The Honorable Mike Crapo
United States Senate
239 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1204
202-224-6142

[VPN]

11:50 AM on 04/17/2011

We (being WE the People) are going to have too, we can NOT sit back and let these "6" dictate to the rest of the 300 million + their ideas on how much WE have to shoulder the burden for what THEY have done or allowed to be done to our economy. Especially since there is little doubt who at lest 5 of them REALLY represent, in case anyone is wondering look at your Bank Statement, if there isn't at least seven figures before the decimal there, they don't know you exist.

[oldngrumpy]

11:58 AM on 04/17/2011

The title "Honorable" is highly questionable in every instance here. Durbin "MIGHT" be in that lofty category, but the rest should be ashamed to even attempt to claim it.

Every time our President forms a "commission" it looks like the board of directors of Goldman ideologically. When do elections start having consequences?

[Jim Anderson]

10:51 AM on 04/17/2011

When I hear the word "Gang", I know it's not going to end well.

[littlemonster]

10:44 AM on 04/17/2011

ohdeargodifiheargangofanythingagainimgonnablowmyfuckingbrainsout

[ruthtruth]

10:36 AM on 04/17/2011

To many children and not enough adults in the room. The right and teabaggers act like children and won't come to the table unless it's their way. Maybe they will hold their breath like kids do and pass out . Maybe seeing them turn blue would be satisfying but I forgot they only turn red or orange.

[Independent Me]

10:45 AM on 04/17/2011

You just highlighted the problem. Name calling and political posturing and then they act like they don't understand why the other party won't work with them. I don't want to hear excuses from either party anymore. They need to put on their big boy pants, set their political motives aside and get this done for the country.

[Jim Anderson]

10:51 AM on 04/17/2011

One change: To many children and NO adults...

[ArjenBoatsma]

10:26 AM on 04/17/2011

Are they only talking about deficit reduction, or are they maybe talking as well about job creation?

[mheister]

09:50 AM on 04/17/2011

Where's the police anti-gang task force when you really need 'em?

[Sister777]

09:31 AM on 04/17/2011

Blah-Blah-Blah. If I hear one more politician talk about cutting Medicare or Social Security as a deficit cutting measure, I will explode!

If these tools were really interested in cutting the deficit they would talk about reducing the war costs ( ending the private, corporate, no bid contracts with no oversight nor accounting would be a great start there), they would speak of unfair trade agreements and taxing corporations and the rich, before going after the American way of taking care of the elderly and disabled.

Any politician that tries to go after Social Security or Medicare without cutting defense spending, ending unfair trade agreements, taxing the corporations, they do not care about you and are merely tools for the corporate agenda.

Remember that on the ballot next election.

[Independent Me]

10:51 AM on 04/17/2011

Two easy solutions that should make each party happy.

1) Put the repubs in charge of eliminating the fraud and abuse in Medicare and SS. Without even touching the program this would save BILLIONS a year from the deficit.

2) Put the Dems in charge of closing the loopholes in our corporate tax code. Our problem isn't the actual tax rate they all argue over, it is the loop holes. It would be like saying a prison isn't secure enough so we need to make bigger walls when there are open doors all throughout the structure. Again, this would not raise the rate yet would cut BILLIONS from the deficit.

[rtx47]

11:05 AM on 04/17/2011

Both these suggestions are the causes of the problems.

You've just put the foxes in charge of the chicken coop.

[Sister777]

05:09 PM on 04/17/2011

You mean put republicans like Rick Scott in charge of eliminating fraud? Ha. You do realize the Rick Scott was charged with the biggest Medicare fraud in US history right? When he was CEO of Columbia/HCA. Then two weeks before he was elected, his chain of doctors offices were found guilty of Medicare fraud. Now, as Florida's new governor, Scott is now trying to kill off an anti-fraud database that would track the fraudulent distribution of addictive prescription drugs in Florida, over the protestations of law enforcement officials.

Yes, loopholes and off shore tax accounts need to be closed. Republicans won't do it. During the 111 session of congress, when the Democrats controlled the house, a bill came through to do just that but the republicans in the senate blocked that bill from passing.

It would seem that Republicans are not to be trusted on any level.

[Mikeeee]

09:19 AM on 04/17/2011

Six supposed leaders and the president all lacking the vision and courage needed to make the decision necessary to truly help America.
"Official records on these subjects are misleading, although instructive. According to the Defense Department's annual "Base Structure Report" for fiscal year 2003, which itemizes foreign and domestic U.S. military real estate, the Pentagon currently owns or rents 702 overseas bases in about 130 countries and HAS another 6,000 bases in the United States and its territories. Pentagon bureaucrats calculate that it would require at least $113.2 billion to replace just the foreign bases -- surely far too low a figure but still larger than the gross domestic product of most countries -- and an estimated $591,519.8 million to replace all of them. The military high command deploys to our overseas bases some 253,288 uniformed personnel, plus an equal number of dependents and Department of Defense civilian officials, and employs an additional 44,446 locally hired foreigners. The Pentagon claims that these bases contain 44,870 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other buildings, which it owns, and that it leases 4,844 more."
If they do not deal with that (the numbers alone are staggering) ↑, then they're just sitting in the corner sucking their thumbs and playing with themselves all the while claiming some superior intelligence and ability more than the rest of us.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0115-08.htm

[Gaylord P Farqua]

09:04 AM on 04/17/2011

How about a gang of millions demanding term limits of two for the Senate and three for the House and  complete public campaign finance for a pre-election campaign period of publicly televised debate  for no longer than 90 days prior to election day? How about a gang of 435 plus the administration spending their time doing the business of the people instead of posturing through sound bites for reelection? Maybe they could find the time to reform the tax code and increase the revenue we need to run this country for the people and also take about an hour to vote that we immediately leave the Middle East and let the people of that region do whatever they want to as they will anyway.

[Mikeeee]

09:29 AM on 04/17/2011

Radical!! You cannot come here with clear thinking like that. It just confuses the inmates.
F&F

[mheister]

09:36 AM on 04/17/2011

We have term limits. They're called elections.

[ArjenBoatsma]

10:25 AM on 04/17/2011

The re-election rate of sitting congressmen and senators are so high, it would make tin-pot dictators blush.

[reverence]

10:35 AM on 04/17/2011

Elections are not term limits. They have become nothing more than the begining of the next campaign and fundraisers.

[hopepad08]

08:58 AM on 04/17/2011

Whether the so-called Gang of Six can actually deliver something when Congress returns from a recess in May

The main reason Congress can never get anything done is that they stay in recess to much.

Just a thought.

[SoCalGrandma]

10:05 AM on 04/17/2011

Yes, their recesses are called "Constituent Work Weeks" and they have at least one a month. For Spring they will take two weeks and many of them will be playing golf, jetting off to foreign countries for "inspection" tours, and giving speeches to raise money for their re-election campaigns. Very little will be done for their constituents. I suspect, without seeing the actual numbers, that members of Congress take more vacation days than the President, but he's the one who is criticized.

[cgeorgan]

08:57 AM on 04/17/2011

Whatever "The Plan" is, I am confident that it will push any tough decisions well out to a date where promises can be reneged upon, and that serious cuts in the programs that are draining the most from our coffers will be avoided.

In the meantime, our partisan representatives will keep us pitted against each other, arguing over crumbs and fighting over the arrangement of the deck chairs on this Titanic budget.

[oldngrumpy]

01:10 PM on 04/17/2011

The only "tough decision" that congress should be considering is how to recover the money stolen from America. If we don't find the resolve to do that first then the accounting begins with false premises of our being "broke". We have never been, nor will ever be, broke. We simply have failed to distribute the burden of government correctly. The shortfall of tax revenue is simply a symptom of more serious inherent flaws in our economic model that must be corrected. In the meantime tho, it is imperative that the citizens, especially those most vulnerable, be protected, as that is the first priority of government. What America needs is a benevolent dictator for about the next quarter century.