Senator Coburn telling it like it is; can you dig it?
Which he revealed today. A 9 Trillion dollar one; which, you know, is some serious money even in Washington DC…
One of the Senate’s staunchest budget-cutters unveiled Monday a massive plan to cut the nation’s deficit by $9 trillion over the coming decade, including $1 trillion in tax increases opposed by most of his fellow Republicans.
The plan by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is laced with politically perilous proposals like raising to 70 the age at which people can claim their full Social Security benefits. It would cut farm subsidies, Medicare, student aid, housing subsidies for the poor, and funding for community development grants.
Coburn would also eliminate $1 trillion in tax breaks over the coming decade, earning him an immediate rebuke from Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax organization with which Coburn has had a running feud. He would block taxpayers from claiming the mortgage interest deduction on second homes and limit it to homes worth $500,000. He would also ease taxpayers into higher tax brackets more quickly by using a smaller measure of inflation to adjust the brackets.
Coburn would cut $1 trillion from the Pentagon budget over a decade. He would block military retirees from the Tricare Prime health care plan, the option with the lowest out-of-pocket cost, saving $115 billion, and he would raise the prescription drug copayment under the program, as well as require higher out-of-pocket fees. He also would reduce the fleet of aircraft carriers from 11 to 10 and Navy air wings from 10 to nine.
As you can imagine, I’m no fan of that last provision to be sure, but that’s one of the reasons I lurves me some Tom Coburn; he’s a fair man, and I can guarantee that there will be something in this plan for everyone to hate 
Overall it’s an impressive work. Essentially, in a nutshell, over the next 10 years he achieves a total of $9 trillion in debt reduction through $3trillion in discretionary cuts, $3trillion in entitlement cuts, $1 trillion from defense cuts, $1 trillion reduction from tax code reforms, and $1trillion savings from a reduction of interests costs paid over that same time period.
As a member of the President’s deficit reduction panel Senator Coburn is well acquainted with the intricacies of this issue, and he’s never been afraid of putting it out there-so to speak. Here’s a list of where he’s getting the 9 trillion dollar figure from:
Now I’m sure in the coming days there will be mountains of analysis, comment, and explanation of this program. As Joy did with CC&B, I strongly urge you to get the facts straight from the source at Senator Coburn’s site. You can view the plan there in pieces, or download a PDF of the entire proposal.
Tell us what you think of Senator Coburn’s plan kind reader, we truly value your opinions here at The Conservatory.
- Excited
- Angry
- Not as Angry
- Bored
- Indifferent
- Sad
Sounds like a great starting point. I bet when it’s all said and done, someone will have tacked on funding for a sidewalk through the Everglades.
I dunno, Coburn’s a pretty serious guy.
So much homework!
Don’t worry, I promise there won’t be any pop-quizzes
Well, doesn’t have my pet solution included (changing how department funding works– especially the “use it or lose it” thing) but it looks like the biggest weakness is that it works so hard to kick all the cows.
Good start.
I happen to agree with you. I think that all baselines should be reset to zero, and start from scratch building all of the different budgets. Yeah, it may be time consuming, but, you know, it’s their job!, and on the plus side, maybe it’ll be more incentive to scotch some agencies like EPA or Dept of Ed; and the Congressional types might not have time to get into any other mischief
Thanks for your thoughts
So Discus was discarded, eh?
Can’t blame Dan for breaking it this time… )
Coburn’s plan includes verboten tax increases. Norquist already warned him about this sort of thing once.
I’m still synthesizing all the details serr8d, but these come more from the elimination of loopholes and simplification of the tax code than by straight rate increases; like the deficit commission considered, and along the lines of the tax reform Paul Ryan mentioned in his <iRoadmap .
But mileage varies. As I mentioned, I wasn’t too happy about the further defense cuts. I think them irresponsible when we have to refit our force’s equipment that’s been worn out in the course of prosecuting the WOT. And then there’s the whole other matter of resuming the future systems plans that have been sidetracked as well as production of near-peer weapons systems.
Our Chinese “frienemies” are going to get more aggressive, not less, as they build out their forces using the dollars sent to them monthly in the form of the US-China trade imbalance.
So, you know, there’s something for everyone to hate. Equal opportunity!
My Regards