Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/93143
VOICES HOT BUTTONS Take the plunge to deal with U.S. public debt? How should lawmakers deal with the "fiscal cliff" (automatic tax increases and spending cuts) scheduled to go into effect in January? How exactly to reduce the national debt – upward of $16 trillion as of late October – is a tough ques- tion. Congress needs at least a partial answer by yearend as it wrestles with the looming "fiscal cliff." This is a package of tax increases and spending cuts set to go into effect Jan. 1 if lawmakers don't agree on a debt-reduction deal. Overdrive readers know the problems of debt/revenue imbalance – potential for asset loss, a declining credit rating, inability to borrow, default or bankruptcy. These consequences apply to government as well. The cliff is the product of the 2010 extension of President Obama's payroll tax cuts and the Bush tax cuts, intended to stimulate the economy. It's also due to the Budget Control Act of August 2011, which came about after House Republicans forced the debt issue in exchange for a further increase of the debt ceiling. Speaking of which, don't look up: We may reach it before yearend. There are some out there – including a small cadre of commentators and nearly a fifth of Overdrive read- ers – who favor going off the cliff and letting the tax increases/spending cuts take effect. However, 41 percent William S. Janoch: Cut taxes and cut spending. If we do not need it enough to take a loan, cut it. Let D.C. take a pay cut — a real one, not a cut here to be spent over there to fill the same people's pockets. I feel as a company driver I need to make $1 a mile, but I cannot call it a pay cut every time I get a pay raise that does not get me to that dollar. In D.C. talk, that's a pay cut. "I wanted $10,000 but only got $5,000. I had to take a $5,000 pay cut." Dennis Carter: Put someone in office who understands how to create and sustain business. It doesn't make sense to pun- Watch for our Hot Button questions and have your political voice heard at: 10 | Overdrive | December 2012 regardless of the economy 19% I don't know 7% Let the increases/cuts go into effect to reduce government debt, Some commenters at OverdriveOnline.com favored an approach of drastic spending cuts as well as tax cuts. "We need to stop all the spending and cut the taxes," wrote Paul Brown. A tax increase, he added, is "the last thing we need." Other 23% of the spending cuts 1% Cancel only some Percentages do not add to 100 percent due to rounding preferred more targeted cuts and revenue-producing tax measures to avoid the short-term harm many analysts expect the cliff measures would produce. Ultimately, with much of the public debt financed by foreign governments – China, chiefly – the public debt is also a national security concern, some commenters noted, and should be paid down as soon as possible. "If we can't pay back what we owe," wrote Dex Jones on Overdrive's Facebook page, "who is to stop [the lenders] from taking over the country, fiscally speaking, and run- ning us through the wringer?" And on OverdriveOnline.com, one commenter expressed the ultimate frustration with inaction on the issue this way: "The lawmakers should be the ones going over the cliff." ish your moneymakers. Billy Fannin: Simple — take the cuffs off the free markets and let the movers and shakers do what we do. Also, energy exploration: This will create jobs, which creates revenue, which creates a tax base that is untapped. Energy independence fixes the economy, period. Fix high fuel prices, and you fix the fiscal uncertainty. Tom Puckett: The economy will not be fixed by using slogans designed to distract! M. Rick Richards: Bring in a gallows. And tell the obstructionist Republicans if they keep it up, they will be tried for high treason! Facebook.com/OverdriveTrucking @OverdriveUpdate of the tax increases 8% Cancel only some Cancel some of the tax increases and spending cuts to avoid harming the economy and address budget in limited fashion 41% FISCAL CLIFF OverdriveOnline.com poll