My brother's three requests to Republican Leadership

Three requests to Republican Leadership

Like many Americans, I have watched hours of coverage of the Debt Limit circus in Washington. As a Republican, I have had my moments of pride during the past months but more often I have been discouraged by the behavior and game playing of the leaders of my party. My frustration centers on the fact that I am a parent first, an American second and a Republican third. As a citizen of this country that has offered me so much opportunity, I have one primary wish. I want my children and their children to have similar opportunities. With this in mind, I offer the following three requests to the Republican leaders:

Lead the way on transparency: Virtually every budget reduction proposal is based on inflated baseline projections and very weak financial models. Political leaders are purposely misleading the nation about the true state of our budget and the actual impact of proposed "cuts". If the Republican party is going to be the party of transparency, you must address the following distortions that you help propagate:

1) Baseline projections must assume flat spending. Slowing the growth of spending is not a cut. It is only a smaller increase. If public companies used your language to describe their forecasts, the executives would go to prison for fraud. Stop using misleading financial projections.

2) Revamp the CBO models: By law, the CBO models distort the impact of budget cuts and tax increases on the economy. If tax rates go up, there is downward pressure on the economy. If tax rates go down, there is a lift for the economy. Why do you continue to allow the CBO to publish bogus impact projections? Lead the way on changing the laws.

3) Plan for rainy days: Is there a single budget plan that has been put forth that assumes that we will have a recession in the next ten years? What about natural disasters or increased military conflicts? Every responsible adult has some sort of rainy day fund built into their financial plans. Where have you planned for rainy days in your proposed budgets?


Lead the way on shared sacrifice: The only way that our nation will get out of this financial mess is with shared sacrifice. Real and perceived. Most reasonable and knowledgable people realize that increased revenue must be part of the solution to our deficit problem. The deficit is too big to solve with cuts alone. Lead the way in identifying revenue opportunities that are the most supportive of economic growth (or that do the least damage). This is critically important for both practical and political reasons. People are willing to sacrifice if everyone is pitching in. I see five obvious revenue opportunities that show shared sacrifice:

1) Means testing for Social Security: People like me should not see a dime. I would not be happy, but we must all do our part.

2) Establish means based deductibles for Medicare: Once again, I should be expected to pay more.

3) Establish very high tax rates for inheritance. Inherited wealth is like winning the lottery and it should be taxed accordingly. It is far more important we leave our children with a country on firm financial ground and the opportunity for them to succeed than to leave them with lottery winnings.

4) Establish progressive tax rates for capital gains and dividends. The reason that the most wealthy Americans have lower tax rates than the high income working Americans is that they get to pay low taxes on their capital gains. We need to make this far more equitable.

5) Revamp the tax code: The tax code creates tremendous economic inefficiencies by distorting the financial impact of our actions. Cut the deductions and the gimmicks and then lower the rates and you will get more revenue and increased economic activity.

Lastly, lead the way on trusting the American people. Spend your time educating about the realities of our financial mess. Explain the Laffer curve. Show the realities of our unfunded liabilities. Be the party that tells the truth and has the courage to suggest that we must make sacrifices today for the benefit of our children. If you show real leadership, you will be given the opportunity to capture the White House and the Senate. Keep in mind, that if you don't lead, Obamacare goes into affect and pushes us over the deficit cliff and there is almost no way for us to give our children the opportunity that our generation had.

Jim Sherriff
Austin, TX