Dear Mainer, In the past, I have sent you short newsletters to keep you up to date on the work I am doing in Congress. While you will still receive newsletters going forward, I would like to begin a new conversation that I hope you will follow along with and even take part in.
These proposals seems reasonable as a serious starting point; however, they do not ask rich AMERICANS to pay their fair share of taxes. We are living in a new Gilded Age (i.e. the late 1800s before Theodore Roosevelt became President). The serious disparity in economic opportunity among Americans is a national disgrace.
The tax rate on the wealthy needs to rise to reduce the deficit further, maintain or even increase key government investments that are "discretionary spending" but are the engines needed for future health and prosperity (e.g., NIH, NSF, USDA, etc research budgets that make new discoveries to cure disease, prevent disease, develop and implement changes to transportation and power networks to reduce the risk of the gravest global warming consequences).
Theodore Roosevelt's biographers have written that he was considered a "Traitor" by his "class" (he was born into a wealthy family), but we sure need more like him now!
Thank you for a very thoughtful analysis and proposal for addressing our fiscal difficulties.
I absolutely disagrees with the focus on the dollar amounts without much concern over the subsequent policies from the cuts. Our country has done this for far too long: taking great care to ensure our billionaires have access to our political and economic systems and all the possible benefits they can get. We cannot ignore the fallacies of the right over these years: trickledown doesn't work.
In order to have us in a good stable financial condition as you describe, I argue that you must be taking care of the Demand side of the economy. A strong economy won't happen by fiat, but by people paying money for things. This is the area that needs strengthening.
Let's remember where a lot of the money has been going since the 80s: sending jobs overseas, making the rich richer and cutting down the numbers in the middle class, which is the true driver of the economy in the long run. Isn't the long run what we are looking at? Look at the strength of the economy of post-WW2 through the 70s, and compare it to the curve since then.
Instead of picking these "Usual Suspects" programs for cutting, we should be considering our expenditures as investments. Yes: get our fiscals in order. But social spending more than pays for itself while a lot of our money seems to simply end in billionaires accounts.
I am now retired, having worked (in the tech world as it was back then) since the 1970s. In all of that time (yes, ALL of that time) when reviews for raises came about, the companies expressed how the economy was requiring belt-tightening. These companies, as it turns out, were cutting expenses to make themselves look good in order to sell to other companies: either temporary investors out for the resale-killing after breaking up said company, or to mega corporations that cut 80%-plus of the employees and moving their jobs overseas.
I and the rest of my foolish Boomer generation believed the BS we were fed about companies' profits, that the move away from manufacturing and towards a "Service Economy" was the greatest way to for our economy. We each sacrificed a little for... well, it wasn't for the overall good after all. History shows where our money ended up: with a few billionaires who make choices based on their own needs/wants/frivolities. Enough! TOO MUCH!
I am afraid that we have been in a losing war for the country: people against billionaires. DO NOT continue to make them grow at our expense.
Look for cuts wherever we see corporate welfare. The citizens of the country should not be capitalizing established companies' risks while allowing all the profits go to a few stockholders and ignoring the true stakeholders. A good place to start is the fossil-fuels industry (if they haven't been able to make it on their own by now, they do not deserve to be in "business").
I like that you are thinking about this huge problem. I like your ideas for savings cuts. I hope that you will speak out (with out fear ) to try to get your house members to consider and approve them. In regards to social security it seems to me that the rate ( currently 12.4% ) paid 1/2 by employer and 1/2 by employee could be raised and the cut off cap ( currently 147K) could be increased drastically. A wealthy friend of mine, when I mentioned this, said " why should wealthy people pay this they will not get any benefit beyond a certain amount." and I said to this wealthy business owner "because all the employees that you have and had made you rich with their hard work on your behalf. Now, social security may be the only thing they have in their old age" She agreed. Good luck to you. I am hoping that you succeed in your pursuit.
Why can people like Trump and Bezos pay no taxes while using their own private jets? If we could fix the tax laws and hire more IRS agents to catch tax cheats maybe lowering the deficit would not just fall on the the backs of hourly wage earners. And funds for public health could be increased if more taxes were collected. It is time the tax laws were written for workers and not the big funders of Congressional campaigns.
I am old enough to remember that Bill Clinton negotiated a bipartisan balanced federal budget in the 1990s and put the country on a path to pay down the debt. What happened when his term in office ended and the Republicans took over? They used the surplus Clinton budget had created to cut taxes rather than reduce the debt. When I heard on the news that tax cuts were one of Kevin McCarthy's negotiating points on the debt ceiling, I knew that Republicans are still not serious about dealing with the debt. Their proposals seem to mostly involve reducing spending on programs that benefit the bottom half of the income structure in order to provide tax cuts that mostly benefit the top 10%. For this reason, I would prioritize your last three proposals. In a country (and state) where the majority no longer earn enough to afford the average-priced home and where inequality continues to grow, I don't think it is appropriate to ask middle and lower income Americans to sacrifice still more in order to provide tax cuts for the wealthy. In the long run, I wonder if it would be possible to create a corporate tax scale in which tax rates are tied to the ratio of top executive compensation to average worker compensation. In such a scheme, owners of small businesses that work with their employees and do not get rich off their backs would pay the lowest rates, while companies which pay their top executives 300-400 times the wages of their average workers (the average ratio for American corporations in 2021!!) would pay the highest tax rates. This would provide corporations with some incentive to share some of their government-subsidized profits with their workers, instead of just with their shareholders.
While you raise important points, there are much more pressing matters endangering our country right now. I, for one, would prefer that you address the despicable erosion of our civil liberties, the dangerous rise of Christian nationalism, racism and neo-Nazism, and the attacks on women's rights. I would say keep up the good work, but you can do better. Stand up for your constituents; don't cower under the threat of political reprisal.
Congratulations on your new blog! Reading your thinking and learning the details behind it will be far more informative that the short newsletters with their focus on daily activities, meetings, etc. You will no doubt receive negative comments from both political directions, but remember that many of us in Maine have a lot in common with you. I may disagree with your positions on some issues, but I much prefer your work in Congress to what we had before you. Stay the course.
Reverse the 2017 tax scam that gave big corporations and wealthy Americans a huge tax break. Republicans trying to hold Biden hostage right now are the ones responsible for that 2017 tax break. It's pretty rich of them to insist on cutting the budget, when they can't even come up with a list of cuts that would do anything to make meaningful progress. The idea that McCarthy would EVER sit down with Biden for a productive conversation are slim to none. McCarthy sold his soul to the lunatic fringe in order to get his speakership, and he answers only to them. He is not interested in serious governing, only performative politics.
I have a suggestion for you. Free up this Country to produce energy as fast as possible. That includes oil and natural gas. An immediate beginning will make us energy independent again in 18 months. Fast track the building of three more refineries and put modern nuclear energy production back on the table. Ramp up nuclear. New nuclear technology is safe and could eliminate the need for fossil fuels in ten years. All of this will increase our GDP so substantially. Estimates I hav3 seen are as high as 22% in three years as we sell energy to our European friends. Next, tariff the hell out of China. This will cost us a lot in the private sector, but it must be done. Bring the jobs back or at the least to friendly shores. The American people are prepared for the sacrifice if they are advised honestly. Just a start, kid. Stand up and tell it like it is. My old friend democrats, the men I served our State with, cared about people, but they shared a caring with conservatives for personal responsibility and traditional family values and morals. Join with them to move woke out of our system. When republicans say work should be required for welfare they are correct. When democrats say people sometimes need a hand up, they are correct. The middle speaks for itself. There is right on both sides. Much more if you wan5 to hear it.
I do not agree with reversing the student debt cancellation plan. I think this is a short-sighted view. Please reconsider and review the data regarding the long-term benefits of supporting education for our populace and getting our families out of debt.
I like your ideas. I am an independent and even though you are a Democrat, you think more like an Independent. The only hope for this country is compromise. My worry is that no one will step up to lead us to that end. If you take up this challenge, you are truly a great man. Wishing you all the best in your endeavors.
This seems a good start. A couple of observations:
(1) Insofar as the US dollar is, effectively, the world's reserve currency, it's not subject to many of the rules governing other currencies. That is, it will continue to have the confidence of international lenders far past the point where other currencies are likely to lose it. (Recall an old saying: If you owe the bank $10,000 and can't pay it back when due, you have a problem. If you owe the bank $10 trillion and can't pay it back when due, the bank has a problem.) The more pressing fiscal problem for the US is the looming debt-ceiling crisis, a manufactured issue that could be eliminated by appropriate legislation. Those holding the country hostage are the diners who've enjoyed the meal and now want to skip out on the bill. The ceiling should be abolished to avert the genuinely catastrophic consequences of a US debt default (and to remove a tool abused by a desperate minority to avoid facing their responsibilities).
(2) Past profligate borrowing notwithstanding, when you're confronting an existential crisis it is time to borrow if you cannot finance the necessary actions with existing money available. This is the only justification for the immense borrowing entailed by last year's legislation, which will spend a huge amount of money to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change. Any cuts sought must come from elsewhere.
"Congress" did not pay ONE PENNY of the interest on America's national debt. To the extent there was an interest payment, that interest was paid by We the People, or more specifically, those 50% of Americans who pay taxes. Congress has THREE, and only three, methods to pay for any new expense"
1. Raise Taxes (and risk not being reelected)
2. Cut funding of an existing program (which NEVER happens)
3. Borrow the money
When you borrow BILLIONS to make ends meet, the end is near.
These ideas are fairly all right-but there is one that you're not addressing that should be-which is to cancel the tax cuts for the multimillionaires that was passed under Donald Trump. This has added to the deficit, and the middle class is suffering from it.
Another idea that you have approached is the coming 'insolvency ' of Medicare and Social Security-I've retired, so I'm rather interested in these topics but you have as a member of Congress have the duty to make sure neither goes insolvent.
I've read where if the limit of Social Security taxes on those making over $150,000 were removed. that itself would more or less guarantee the solvency of the Social Security trust fund, which by the way, is not going broke but will be paying 80% of benefits starting in 2035. That is not insolvency.
Medicare has to be fixed by stopping the insurance companies from fraudulently billing it, and also by removing the Medicare Advantage programs from existence.
Those are frauds, perpetuated to enrich insurance companies and nothing else. This has been reported on by the NY Times among other papers.
I hope these ideas will be reasonable for you to contemplate and perhaps enact.
I voted for you to represent me and the state of Maine, and you've done a good job even if the GOP has gone off the cliff.
what the government needs to do is make the rich pay there share of taxes and then maybe we can get inflation to start dropping so we can afford to eat and pay our bills I am in the lower class I have to work 7 days a week just to survive so please help us midclass
While on the topic of budget and paying to support initiatives our government needs to consider removing the income cap to which results in higher earners not being required to pay into social security once the cap is reached. Seems like a major issue that everyone shares an opinion on but do nothing about saving Social Security. That and removing the penalty imposed on government retiree annuitants and cutting “earned” benefits by over 50% through the Windfall Elimination Provision.
These proposals seems reasonable as a serious starting point; however, they do not ask rich AMERICANS to pay their fair share of taxes. We are living in a new Gilded Age (i.e. the late 1800s before Theodore Roosevelt became President). The serious disparity in economic opportunity among Americans is a national disgrace.
The tax rate on the wealthy needs to rise to reduce the deficit further, maintain or even increase key government investments that are "discretionary spending" but are the engines needed for future health and prosperity (e.g., NIH, NSF, USDA, etc research budgets that make new discoveries to cure disease, prevent disease, develop and implement changes to transportation and power networks to reduce the risk of the gravest global warming consequences).
Theodore Roosevelt's biographers have written that he was considered a "Traitor" by his "class" (he was born into a wealthy family), but we sure need more like him now!
Thank you for a very thoughtful analysis and proposal for addressing our fiscal difficulties.
I absolutely disagrees with the focus on the dollar amounts without much concern over the subsequent policies from the cuts. Our country has done this for far too long: taking great care to ensure our billionaires have access to our political and economic systems and all the possible benefits they can get. We cannot ignore the fallacies of the right over these years: trickledown doesn't work.
In order to have us in a good stable financial condition as you describe, I argue that you must be taking care of the Demand side of the economy. A strong economy won't happen by fiat, but by people paying money for things. This is the area that needs strengthening.
Let's remember where a lot of the money has been going since the 80s: sending jobs overseas, making the rich richer and cutting down the numbers in the middle class, which is the true driver of the economy in the long run. Isn't the long run what we are looking at? Look at the strength of the economy of post-WW2 through the 70s, and compare it to the curve since then.
Instead of picking these "Usual Suspects" programs for cutting, we should be considering our expenditures as investments. Yes: get our fiscals in order. But social spending more than pays for itself while a lot of our money seems to simply end in billionaires accounts.
I am now retired, having worked (in the tech world as it was back then) since the 1970s. In all of that time (yes, ALL of that time) when reviews for raises came about, the companies expressed how the economy was requiring belt-tightening. These companies, as it turns out, were cutting expenses to make themselves look good in order to sell to other companies: either temporary investors out for the resale-killing after breaking up said company, or to mega corporations that cut 80%-plus of the employees and moving their jobs overseas.
I and the rest of my foolish Boomer generation believed the BS we were fed about companies' profits, that the move away from manufacturing and towards a "Service Economy" was the greatest way to for our economy. We each sacrificed a little for... well, it wasn't for the overall good after all. History shows where our money ended up: with a few billionaires who make choices based on their own needs/wants/frivolities. Enough! TOO MUCH!
I am afraid that we have been in a losing war for the country: people against billionaires. DO NOT continue to make them grow at our expense.
Look for cuts wherever we see corporate welfare. The citizens of the country should not be capitalizing established companies' risks while allowing all the profits go to a few stockholders and ignoring the true stakeholders. A good place to start is the fossil-fuels industry (if they haven't been able to make it on their own by now, they do not deserve to be in "business").
Sorry for the long note.
Dear Rep Golden,
I like that you are thinking about this huge problem. I like your ideas for savings cuts. I hope that you will speak out (with out fear ) to try to get your house members to consider and approve them. In regards to social security it seems to me that the rate ( currently 12.4% ) paid 1/2 by employer and 1/2 by employee could be raised and the cut off cap ( currently 147K) could be increased drastically. A wealthy friend of mine, when I mentioned this, said " why should wealthy people pay this they will not get any benefit beyond a certain amount." and I said to this wealthy business owner "because all the employees that you have and had made you rich with their hard work on your behalf. Now, social security may be the only thing they have in their old age" She agreed. Good luck to you. I am hoping that you succeed in your pursuit.
Ralph Smith
Fryeburg, ME
Why can people like Trump and Bezos pay no taxes while using their own private jets? If we could fix the tax laws and hire more IRS agents to catch tax cheats maybe lowering the deficit would not just fall on the the backs of hourly wage earners. And funds for public health could be increased if more taxes were collected. It is time the tax laws were written for workers and not the big funders of Congressional campaigns.
I am old enough to remember that Bill Clinton negotiated a bipartisan balanced federal budget in the 1990s and put the country on a path to pay down the debt. What happened when his term in office ended and the Republicans took over? They used the surplus Clinton budget had created to cut taxes rather than reduce the debt. When I heard on the news that tax cuts were one of Kevin McCarthy's negotiating points on the debt ceiling, I knew that Republicans are still not serious about dealing with the debt. Their proposals seem to mostly involve reducing spending on programs that benefit the bottom half of the income structure in order to provide tax cuts that mostly benefit the top 10%. For this reason, I would prioritize your last three proposals. In a country (and state) where the majority no longer earn enough to afford the average-priced home and where inequality continues to grow, I don't think it is appropriate to ask middle and lower income Americans to sacrifice still more in order to provide tax cuts for the wealthy. In the long run, I wonder if it would be possible to create a corporate tax scale in which tax rates are tied to the ratio of top executive compensation to average worker compensation. In such a scheme, owners of small businesses that work with their employees and do not get rich off their backs would pay the lowest rates, while companies which pay their top executives 300-400 times the wages of their average workers (the average ratio for American corporations in 2021!!) would pay the highest tax rates. This would provide corporations with some incentive to share some of their government-subsidized profits with their workers, instead of just with their shareholders.
While you raise important points, there are much more pressing matters endangering our country right now. I, for one, would prefer that you address the despicable erosion of our civil liberties, the dangerous rise of Christian nationalism, racism and neo-Nazism, and the attacks on women's rights. I would say keep up the good work, but you can do better. Stand up for your constituents; don't cower under the threat of political reprisal.
Congratulations on your new blog! Reading your thinking and learning the details behind it will be far more informative that the short newsletters with their focus on daily activities, meetings, etc. You will no doubt receive negative comments from both political directions, but remember that many of us in Maine have a lot in common with you. I may disagree with your positions on some issues, but I much prefer your work in Congress to what we had before you. Stay the course.
Reverse the 2017 tax scam that gave big corporations and wealthy Americans a huge tax break. Republicans trying to hold Biden hostage right now are the ones responsible for that 2017 tax break. It's pretty rich of them to insist on cutting the budget, when they can't even come up with a list of cuts that would do anything to make meaningful progress. The idea that McCarthy would EVER sit down with Biden for a productive conversation are slim to none. McCarthy sold his soul to the lunatic fringe in order to get his speakership, and he answers only to them. He is not interested in serious governing, only performative politics.
I have a suggestion for you. Free up this Country to produce energy as fast as possible. That includes oil and natural gas. An immediate beginning will make us energy independent again in 18 months. Fast track the building of three more refineries and put modern nuclear energy production back on the table. Ramp up nuclear. New nuclear technology is safe and could eliminate the need for fossil fuels in ten years. All of this will increase our GDP so substantially. Estimates I hav3 seen are as high as 22% in three years as we sell energy to our European friends. Next, tariff the hell out of China. This will cost us a lot in the private sector, but it must be done. Bring the jobs back or at the least to friendly shores. The American people are prepared for the sacrifice if they are advised honestly. Just a start, kid. Stand up and tell it like it is. My old friend democrats, the men I served our State with, cared about people, but they shared a caring with conservatives for personal responsibility and traditional family values and morals. Join with them to move woke out of our system. When republicans say work should be required for welfare they are correct. When democrats say people sometimes need a hand up, they are correct. The middle speaks for itself. There is right on both sides. Much more if you wan5 to hear it.
I do not agree with reversing the student debt cancellation plan. I think this is a short-sighted view. Please reconsider and review the data regarding the long-term benefits of supporting education for our populace and getting our families out of debt.
Dear Representative Golden,
I like your ideas. I am an independent and even though you are a Democrat, you think more like an Independent. The only hope for this country is compromise. My worry is that no one will step up to lead us to that end. If you take up this challenge, you are truly a great man. Wishing you all the best in your endeavors.
This seems a good start. A couple of observations:
(1) Insofar as the US dollar is, effectively, the world's reserve currency, it's not subject to many of the rules governing other currencies. That is, it will continue to have the confidence of international lenders far past the point where other currencies are likely to lose it. (Recall an old saying: If you owe the bank $10,000 and can't pay it back when due, you have a problem. If you owe the bank $10 trillion and can't pay it back when due, the bank has a problem.) The more pressing fiscal problem for the US is the looming debt-ceiling crisis, a manufactured issue that could be eliminated by appropriate legislation. Those holding the country hostage are the diners who've enjoyed the meal and now want to skip out on the bill. The ceiling should be abolished to avert the genuinely catastrophic consequences of a US debt default (and to remove a tool abused by a desperate minority to avoid facing their responsibilities).
(2) Past profligate borrowing notwithstanding, when you're confronting an existential crisis it is time to borrow if you cannot finance the necessary actions with existing money available. This is the only justification for the immense borrowing entailed by last year's legislation, which will spend a huge amount of money to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change. Any cuts sought must come from elsewhere.
Dear Rep Golden -
"Congress" did not pay ONE PENNY of the interest on America's national debt. To the extent there was an interest payment, that interest was paid by We the People, or more specifically, those 50% of Americans who pay taxes. Congress has THREE, and only three, methods to pay for any new expense"
1. Raise Taxes (and risk not being reelected)
2. Cut funding of an existing program (which NEVER happens)
3. Borrow the money
When you borrow BILLIONS to make ends meet, the end is near.
Randy Poulton, Winterport
These ideas are fairly all right-but there is one that you're not addressing that should be-which is to cancel the tax cuts for the multimillionaires that was passed under Donald Trump. This has added to the deficit, and the middle class is suffering from it.
Another idea that you have approached is the coming 'insolvency ' of Medicare and Social Security-I've retired, so I'm rather interested in these topics but you have as a member of Congress have the duty to make sure neither goes insolvent.
I've read where if the limit of Social Security taxes on those making over $150,000 were removed. that itself would more or less guarantee the solvency of the Social Security trust fund, which by the way, is not going broke but will be paying 80% of benefits starting in 2035. That is not insolvency.
Medicare has to be fixed by stopping the insurance companies from fraudulently billing it, and also by removing the Medicare Advantage programs from existence.
Those are frauds, perpetuated to enrich insurance companies and nothing else. This has been reported on by the NY Times among other papers.
I hope these ideas will be reasonable for you to contemplate and perhaps enact.
I voted for you to represent me and the state of Maine, and you've done a good job even if the GOP has gone off the cliff.
Thanks for your time in reading this.
what the government needs to do is make the rich pay there share of taxes and then maybe we can get inflation to start dropping so we can afford to eat and pay our bills I am in the lower class I have to work 7 days a week just to survive so please help us midclass
While on the topic of budget and paying to support initiatives our government needs to consider removing the income cap to which results in higher earners not being required to pay into social security once the cap is reached. Seems like a major issue that everyone shares an opinion on but do nothing about saving Social Security. That and removing the penalty imposed on government retiree annuitants and cutting “earned” benefits by over 50% through the Windfall Elimination Provision.