Budget Concerns

One of the biggest complaints about the extension of the Bush tax cuts is that they make it so much harder to cut government spending. Too many people have too much interest in the government programs that the commission report laid out by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson has suggested should be on the table. Already people are complaining about the proposed retirement age increase to qualify for Social Security - to 69 from the current 67. The Americans who need to wait to reach the age of 69 to begin collecting a Social Security pension, by the way, aren't concerned with it so much now. They haven't even started kindergarten yet. See, the retirement age would, under this plan, rise to 69 in 2075. But people who won't be around then are against it because they believe it opens the door for more rule changes that are detrimental to the American people.

If you want my humble opinion - well, maybe it isn't so humble - I can propose several sensible ideas. For example, we should the actually increase spending on mass transit and intercity rail projects while dramatically cutting highway spending for a net decrease in the federal transportation budget. We can move much more people by mass transit with a modest public transportation spending increase than we do with the massive amounts of money we already spend on highways. Also - and I'm actually with Rand Paul on this one - we should zero out farm subsidies that primarily help agribusiness, and we should encourage farmers to grow more diverse crops and create value-added products rather than limit themselves to the modest government-supported corn and soybean cash crops. And last but not least, stop spending so much money on the military, for Pete's sake - our multi-billion-dollar weapons systems aren't helping us win the war in Afghanistan. But no, all of that is too sensible, and even though I plan to write my Republican congressman to suggest these ideas, I doubt it's going to happen.

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell plan to start the new year with painful spending cuts that will hurt too many people even as the extended tax cuts help the rich, and many think President Obama, by allowing the tax cuts to be extended, has given them the rope to hang themselves with when they try to make those cuts. I hope this is correct, though personally, I think the President has given Boehner, McConnell, and their fat-cat friends the silk from which to produce expensive neckties - made in China - to wear to the inauguration of President Romney. Because when the deficit explodes, they'll just blame Obama for that.

After all, he agreed to middle-class tax cuts and a payroll tax holiday.

Which would make raising the retirement age irrelevant.