about fiscal responsibility

[hfojvt]

Hillary was talking about fiscal responsibility as a key step to solving problems in medicare and social security. That raised a question. How?

Only two ways to balance a budget - cut (or slow) spending or increase taxes.

Which is Hillary proposing and what are the details? Which programs will be cut? Which taxes will be increased?

Actually, I am not sure any other candidate is talking about this either, but I do guarantee that whoever the Republican candidate is, he will pound and pound on any tax increase proposal. Edwards, I know, has promised to reverse the Bush tax cuts for those over $200,000, but he is using that money to fund his healthcare program, not to balance the budget.

I cannot find anything on fiscal responsibility on Hillary's website, under "issues" I find her promising to cut taxes :wtf:

"Hillary has consistently supported tax relief for middle-class families. She has supported permanently ending the marriage penalty, extending the lower-income tax rates, providing a deduction for college tuition, and providing a refundable child tax credit and adoption tax credit.

She has worked to make college affordable and accessible, fighting to increase the federal Pell Grant, which currently covers just a third of tuition at an average public college. Hillary has also proposed the Student Borrowers Bill of Rights, a comprehensive set of reforms that would eliminate unscrupulous lending practices.

In New York, Hillary championed tax incentives like wage credits for businesses and job creation in upstate New York and elsewhere. She also helped launch economic development initiatives to provide critical resources to small and micro businesses and helped launch a private sector venture called New Jobs for New York that makes venture capital available to New York's innovators."

I also would like to hear her definition of "middle class" since we already know it includes individuals who make over $104,000 a year.

[Time for change]

1. good point

I have felt for a long time that she is the vaguest of all the Democratic candidates with respect to her positions. Of course, that could be partially due to her front runner status, but nevertheless it does cause me to trust her even less than I otherwise would. (Though I certainly will vote for her if she gets the nomination).

I believe that I read somewhere that ALL the declared Dem candidates have said that they would reverse the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy, but I'm not positive about that.

[DCKit]

2. The * tax cuts aren't the only thing that need to be reversed....

Everything he's done since 2001 would be a good start.

[hfojvt]

3. probably none of them are saying that

the Bush tax cuts all have expiration dates, so by doing nothing, the cuts will expire on their own. This may or may not be an issue in the Presidential campaign, but it may be something that hurts us in 2010 or 2012 in Congressional and, hopefully, re-election campaign. My guess is that Republicans plan to make hay with this as they always do.

Perhaps a Clinton/Richardson ticket (or is it Hillary and Bill?) will try to dodge the issue by claiming economic growth will balance the budget. Richardson talks that way in the debate and Hillary promises job creation.