Richardson pledges to balance national budget

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/66798.html

By AMY LORENTZEN | Associated Press

Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:42 pm

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson on Thursday blamed President Bush for the nation’s economic woes as he released his own economic plan, which he said is based on fiscal discipline and protecting working Americans.

It includes a constitutional amendment to balance the budget by eliminating congressional earmarks to reduce wasteful spending and reducing tax breaks and loopholes for corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

Richardson said all the steps were needed to overcome problems caused by the Bush administration.

“Frankly, the president is acting like a spoiled teenager who crashes the family car and then hopes no one will notice,” Richardson told a crowd at a union hall in Cedar Rapids. “Well, Mr. President, America has noticed. And the American government needs to stop breaking what the American family has built.”

He said the Bush administration’s tax and spending priorities have put the middle class under siege. He pointed to a national debt that has reached $9 trillion and said the president’s $1.1 trillion in tax cuts help the wealthiest Americans while putting the country “deep in the red.”

“This administration failed to protect the engine of our economy — the middle class,” Richardson said. “Productivity is up, yet real wages are down. American workers are holding up their end of their deal, but their government is not.”

FULL story at link.

[defendandprotect]

1. Good basis for BEGINNING discussions re restoring progressive income taxes . . .

especially on wealthy -- while lifting burden from the poor and middle classes.

NOTE that Allan Greenspan quietly arranged to have FICA payments in order to RAISE $ for Bush-1 via the Social Security Surplus.

This FICA burden has never been lifted from the middle class --
we need to do so WHILE lifting the ceiling limits on FICA so that the wealthy pay more --
probably on ALL their income.

[democratsin08]

2. we said we would eliminate earmarks

pork is still going wild

[frazzled]

3. He actually got booed on that at Yearly Kos

at the Presidential Forum. None of the other candidates would commit to a balanced budget agenda, at least in the immediate future, since, as they explained, we are so effing in the hole and there are so many needs outstanding in delivering services to the American people, that trying to balance the budget right away would be economically and socially unfeasible.

I felt kind of bad for Richardson. It wasn't the crowd to play 'balanced budget' to.

He can seem a bit clueless at times, though I am sure he must be incredibly smart and talented, to have done all the complex negotiations he has over the years and to run his state so successfully. He just seems a bit ditsy. While I was sitting at a table waiting for the debate to begin, he walked over to where I was sitting and held out his hand. "Hello, Governor Richardson, so nice to meet you and good luck in your campaign," I said. To which he replied, "I'm Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico." Hokay.

[MasterDarkNinja]

4. Glad to hear it, I was wondering if any dems would pledge to balance the budget

Personally I think balancing the budget and paying off the national debt should be the #1 most important issue, I mean a bankrupt government isn't going to protect you from terrorists and give you stuff like social security and health care.

I think I'm going to have to change my primary support over to Richardson.