Three entitlements I would like to see ended

[jmowreader]

The standard on DU is that an entitlement should never, must never and can never be altered in any way, shape or form. Not true! In fact, there are a LOT of entitlements we need to get rid of, tout suite. Here are three:

Entitlement 1: The rich are not entitled to a FICA cap. The current cap is $106,800, which means someone barely into the six-figure range pays exactly the same FICA tax as someone who makes $100 million per year. We wouldn't even be dreaming of having a conversation regarding the long-term stability of Social Security if the entitlement to a FICA cap was eradicated.

Entitlement 2: KBR is not entitled to charge $1000 per gallon for the diesel they sell to US Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. You know how it costs $2 billion a year to air condition tents in Afghanistan? Let's see here...if we assume 60 percent of that is diesel, we're looking at 1.2 million gallons of fuel for the generators they run the air conditioners from. At the current price a trucker pays in the US for fuel, you'd be looking at a $5 million fuel bill rather than a $1.2 billion fuel bill. It's a drop in the bucket, but still...Modify KBR's contract. Offer to pay them $8 per gallon for fuel--in acknowledgment of the cost of transporting it from Texas--and to pay the company the same rate for personnel that those personnel would earn if they were Specialists (paygrade E-4) in the Army. If they don't like it, they can always stop providing services to the US Army.

Entitlement 3: Grover Norquist is not entitled to be Supreme Potentate of the United States. Enough said.

[Maru Kitteh]

1. K & R. nt

[CaptRandom]

2. cant find a flaw..

im with ya

[emulatorloo]

3. Simple, Clean, and Easy. I could get behind this, no problem n/t

[indepat]

13. The only impediments are a RW House, a RW Senate, a RW Supreme Court, and

a RW Executive Branch, i.e., a quad-fecta. :shrug: :patriot:

[Kennah]

4. It's definitely a good start

[toddwv]

5. Those are good starts.

[Angry Dragon]

6. How about these

#4 If Congress does not feel that the American people should rely on SS.
Then they can give up their pensions.

#5 If Congress feels that the American people do not deserve good and affordable health care. Then they should lose their medical coverage that the American people pay for.

[jmowreader]

9. Those are good, but they're not entitlements

How about:

Entitlement 4: The Congress is not entitled to a better pension plan than the people who sent them there and pay their bills. If a 401(k) plan with no employer match, invested in the stock market, plus a 104-draw Powerball ticket purchased on the first of January every year, is a good enough retirement plan for The American People, it's a good enough retirement plan for Congressmen.

Entitlement 5: The Congress is not entitled to a better healthcare plan than the people who sent them there. Every Congressman who thinks "private sector" health insurance is good enough for the American public can go on private sector health insurance--and every Congressman who thinks the health insurance companies should be able to sell coverage across state lines to "foster competition" can start buying it from Blue Cross of Any Coal Mining State, just like is gonna happen to us.

[aquart]

7. Straightforward and sensible.

Clearly you aren't in the US Congress.

[pansypoo53219]

8. CEOs need to have their WHOLE FUCKING income taxed!!!

and yes, where is our harry truman to root out profiteering.

and KILLING THE BUSH tax cuts is RESTORING OLD taxes.

NO PARTISAN SACRIFICE!

[jmowreader]

10. You're talking about a CPA's Full Employment Act

Corporate executive compensation is only deductible to the amount of $1 million per year. If you pay your CEO $750k/year, you get to write it off. If you pay him $750 million/year, you have to eat $749 million of it--which, as one would expect, would cause the shareholders to have kittens. So...if you want to pay your leader a billion dollars, almost all of it's got to be in stock grants of one form or another. If you wanted to tax a CEO's WHOLE FUCKING income you'd have to work out a way to price and tax all those options.

Now as to your other assertion: According to the Supreme Potentate of the United States, His Holiness Grover Norquist, not only does an actual tax increase count as a tax increase, so does letting a tax cut expire, doing a spending cut without an offsetting tax cut and doing a spending cut without enough of a tax cut to offset it. And because Grover Norquist is, to the GOP, more important than fulfilling the oath they took when they got the job they now hold, we're basically screwed.

[liberal N proud]

11. You can guarantee they will protect those

The rulers of this nation do not see anyone below them. They think this is a nation of rich people with the rest invisible.

[XemaSab]

12. I'd love to see a big scowl taken at ag subsidies

Corn and cotton are tops on the list of fucked up subsidies.