Avoiding the Fiscal Cliff Means Real Spending and Entitlement Reform
Crossroads GPS calls on President Obama to defy the liberal extremists in Congress and propose meaningful deficit reduction and entitlement reform that will allow our nation to avoid the “fiscal cliff” that looms on January 2, 2013.
This President has run up our national debt by nearly $6 trillion during his tenure, after promising to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. It is now his responsibility to find the way out of this hole he has dug. So far, the President has instead demanded a $1.6 trillion tax increase without making any effort to tackle the spending and entitlements crisis that threatens our nation’s future. Yet this massive tax hike would have a very small effect on a structural deficit that exceeds $1 trillion every year. Even worse, every time the President mentions raising taxes, he says he wants to spend the new revenue on other pet projects.
What we need is realistic fiscal reform, and that means addressing Washington’s out-of-control spending habit and exploding entitlements. Conservatives in Congress have been urging the President to tackle this problem, but have yet to find a partner in the President. Instead, the President remains hamstrung by his extremist liberal allies on Capitol Hill who object to true reform and have publicly committed themselves to thrusting the nation into fiscal and economic chaos if they don’t get everything they want.
The consequences of inaction are dramatic. If the President fails to offer real spending and entitlement reform that addresses America’s fiscal crisis, the nation will be hurled off the “fiscal cliff.” That means working Americans will face a $500,000,000,000 income and payroll tax hike at the same time that both patients and investors will start paying new Obamacare taxes. In addition, the “sequestration” scheme advanced and promoted by the White House will indiscriminately slash both national security and domestic spending priorities, putting our nation’s security at risk.
It’s time to stop politics as usual. It’s time for the President to lead.
Background Facts on the “Fiscal Cliff”
- A $494 billion income/payroll tax hike for next year alone will hit American taxpayers at all income levels. According to Ernst &Young, this tax hike will cost 700,000 jobs and reduce GDP by $200 billion, producing a “smaller economy, fewer jobs, less investment, and lower wages.”
- Obamacare’s new taxes begin, including a medical device tax that patients will pay, and a 3.8% income tax surcharge for many taxpayers. Those new taxes amount to $502 billion over the next ten years.
- The federal government’s “death tax” will jump to 55%, meaning many American families and small businesses will see a majority of their inheritances taken by the IRS.
- The White House-proposed “sequestration” plan will force massive, automatic cuts to national security and domestic priorities, without any consideration for the value of the programs and services being slashed.
- Doctors who treat Medicare patients will see their reimbursement rates slashed immediately, causing many of them to stop taking new Medicare patients altogether.