Economy & Budget

If you’ve watched certain YouTube videos or heard statements from a number of Republican members during last week’s House Subcommittee hearing, you might think the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program is enabling rampant abuse of taxpayer funds by the poor to collect stockpiles of free cell phones.   

It would be wrong thinking, as the most egregious abusers of the program have been opportunistic private companies, not the vast majority of low-income households that rely on the program for discounted basic phone service.

After thinking about it for more than a year, I finally pulled the trigger. At 64-plus, I am now one of millions of baby boomers who is collecting Social Security. Had I waited another year and a half, my monthly check would have been more, but the math seemed to be in my favor now. 

As a result of working the numbers every-which-way, I created a formula that just might solve three Social Security problems simultaneously. Namely, maintaining support for current retirees, creating a blueprint for future beneficiaries, and a shoring-up of the system itself. I think it's a plan that Simpson-Bowles, the White House and Congress all can agree on in a matter of hours. First the assumptions; then, the idea:

Over the past decade, the Pentagon has engaged two major conflicts nearly half a world away with thousands of military personnel on multiple tours of duty. Military forces are coming home and operations will decline. But now the country's economic health dictates that going forward the Defense Department must operate on a much reduced budget and make these cuts faster than planned.

The chosen mechanism for trying to slim down, unfortunately, is a technique called "sequestration" which was thought to be so extreme that it would never be employed. But here we are. Sequestration mandates cuts without much consideration -- valuing pounds sliced from belly fat equally with those chopped from muscle and brain tissue.

On my way to Washington this week, my flight, along with many others, was delayed. The 45 minute delay wasn’t due to bad weather, a mechanical problem, or poor scheduling by the airline. It was an unaccountable bureaucrat who decided to slow down the lives of Americans.

You may have seen the news this week concerning the 40 percent of flights that have been delayed throughout the country. This air traffic jam is a direct result of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) furloughing air traffic controllers in response to the sequester recently implemented out of Washington for federal spending. The sequester called for a 5 percent cut to the FAA. That’s it – 5 percent.

The president’s attempt to cut Social Security and veterans’ benefits through what is known as “chained CPI” breaks the promise he made to seniors when he was campaigning for the Presidency. His plan is inequitable and ignores the economic realities of the typical Social Security beneficiary. It is inaccurate even by its own lights, failing to deliver on its promise of a better gauge of the cost-of-living.
 
The chained CPI cut would start now and grow larger and larger over time. It would cut Social Security and veterans’ benefits by $146 billion over the next 10 years, taking thousands of dollars out of the pockets of seniors who have earned their benefits and veterans who have already sacrificed so much for all of us.

Sometimes, even in Congress, one can overplay one’s hand protecting turf. Consider the South Carolina delegation’s sharp objection to President Obama’s cut to a nuclear project sited at Savannah River designed to convert 34 tons of nuclear weapon-grade plutonium into civilian reactor fuel. President Obama, who has a reputation for spending too much on energy projects, wants to cut this one by $167 million and find a more cost effective way to dispose of the plutonium. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has decided to play hardball by placing a hold on the Energy Secretary nominee, Ernest Moniz, whose appointment just received near unanimous approval of the Senate Energy Committee.
 
To be sure, the president’s proposed cut hardly augurs well for the Mixed Oxide Fuels (MOX) program.

While tax day is behind us, most small business owners have likely filed extensions to let them continue combing through the tax code looking for ways to keep their hard-earned dollars in their own coffers instead of in Uncle Sam’s. Fortunately, there have been some encouraging developments recently in Congress that could significantly impact small businesses.

A certain cautiousness overtakes many political observers upon hearing the word “bipartisanship.” Agreements between Republicans and Democrats too often mean more spending and debt, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. That’s why it was a pleasant surprise earlier this month when both parties came to a consensus on an initiative that would actually reduce spending -- through the elimination of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS).

Many of America's Cold War weapons are in the hands of one of its most obscure government agencies. It’s called the National Nuclear Security Administration, and it was the subject of a senate budget hearing this week. The agency’s obscurity to most taxpayers is exceeded only by its astonishing failure to acknowledge political and fiscal reality.

Two decades after the Cold War, the U.S. is reducing the number and the role of its nuclear weapons, and is committed to providing international leadership on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. Meanwhile, the federal budget is extremely tight; cuts are being proposed in all manner of government programs, including, unwisely, Social Security, Medicare and veterans’ benefits.

In classic Beltway fashion, the government has introduced a bill to pick winners and losers in the marketplace with a name implying the exact opposite. The Marketplace Fairness Act, introduced by Senators Michael Enzi (R–Wyo.), Dick Durbin (D–Ill.) and Lamar Alexander (R–Tenn.), would force online stores to collect sales taxes on behalf of other states, regardless of the web company’s physical location.
 
Under current law, states can only collect taxes from businesses that have a physical presence in the state. Buyers are supposed to track their own purchases and pay a “use tax” to their state at the end of the year. However, states rarely enforce payment of the tax, since most buyers don’t even know about this requirement.