The Great Debate

 President Barack Obama pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. But because he focused on political gimmicks, rather than real reform, we’ve seen trillion-dollar deficits and nearly $6 trillion added to the debt instead. Based on what we heard from the president at a news conference Tuesday, his unserious attitude is likely to continue.

That’s worrying. Unless we can get a handle on Washington’s overspending, and quickly, it will continue to undermine our economy and jeopardize our children’s futures.

Sadly, the White House is not yet serious about doing that. Instead, it has predictably suggested politically driven tax hikes as appropriate offsets for the sequester, including a tax on corporate jets. If that sounds like a poll-tested P.R. gimmick rather than a serious solution, that’s because it is. A permanent tax increase like that would take 10 years just to raise enough money to replace one week’s worth of the sequester.

A similar scheme, attempted in the 1990s, actually resulted in lost revenue. It had to be repealed just a few years later because of the economic damage it caused.

In short, a tax on corporate jets isn’t a real plan. It’s a cheap stunt. And it certainly won’t shrink the deficit or increase jobs.

Mitch McConnell is the Senate Republican Leader. Any opinions expressed are his own.

From the first moments of the Obama Administration, continuing through today, its 100th day, Senate Republicans have pledged to work closely with our new president to find solutions to the many foreign policy challenges we face. As our armed forces continue to wage two wars overseas, Republicans believe it’s important to work with the new administration to advance a foreign policy agenda that protects the American people and furthers our interests abroad.

So far, there have been two major points of convergence. Republicans agree with the President’s strategies in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where the new administration has agreed in both cases to closely follow the best advice of our military commanders on the ground. We part ways, however, with the administration’s proposal to close the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by an arbitrary date in January 2010, before it even has a plan for the 240 terrorists who are there.

– Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. —

The economy is in a painful slump. Growing numbers of people need help, charities are facing a decline in donations and states are cutting back on services. The April employment report from the Labor Department will show a further increase in the number of unemployed.
Yet, rather than harnessing the generosity of Americans to help out, President Obama has proposed to reduce the tax incentives for charitable giving. He wants Congress to limit to 28 percent the tax saving from contributions for taxpayers who itemize their deductions.

Mr. Obama proposed to use the revenue gained to fund universal health care. He would make the 28 percent cap on the tax saving for contributions take effect in 2011, when he contemplates letting the Bush 2001 tax cuts for upper-income people expire.
The combination of higher rates and a 28 percent cap on the value of deductions for charitable contributions (and mortgage interest) would diminish donations to charities ranging from local churches to national opera companies. Cutbacks on charitable giving would be more pronounced among the well-to-do, not only because they have more to give, but because their tax rates would rise at the same time as their deductions would be limited.