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Quote of the Day: Simpson-Bowles is Terrible

By Ben Cohen
October 02,2012

Paul Krugman .. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/a-public-service-reminder-simpson-bowles-is-terrible/ .. on the deficit reduction plan that is widely regarded by serious economists as, well, frankly ridiculous .. http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/11/worst-things-about-simpson-bowles.html :

So, a public service reminder: Simpson-Bowles is terrible. It mucks around with taxes, but is obsessed with lowering marginal rates despite a complete absence of evidence that this is important. It offers nothing on Medicare that isn’t already in the Affordable Care Act. And it raises the Social Security retirement age because life expectancy has risen — completely ignoring the fact that life expectancy has only gone up for the well-off and well-educated, while stagnating or even declining among the people who need the program most.

Yes, I know, inside the Beltway Simpson and Bowles have become sacred figures. But the people doing that elevation are the same people who told us that Paul Ryan was the answer to our fiscal prayers.

Deficits, deficits, deficits. It is literally all the Right can talk about, and their only solution to it is to take an axe to public services while cutting taxes. Again, it’s worth repeating (for the billionth time) that there is no evidence tax cuts and spending cuts during bad economic times results in anything other than more economic pain. Case study in point: The whole of Europe.

Case closed.

http://thedailybanter.com/2012/10/quote-of-the-day-simpson-bowles-is-terrible/

See also:

Bernie Sanders Blows the Lid Off the ‘Bipartisan’ Plan To Cut Taxes for Corporations and the Wealthy
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81918529