I.O.U.?

The Ragister throws the entire intellectual weight of its editorial board behind this editorial

Budget action needs to involve spending and revenue

The federal budget is complicated, but the principle for balancing it is simple. Spend less money or bring in more.

They should have stopped after the first half of the second sentence and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Spend Less --

Since 1960 federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has averaged 20.3 percent while federal revenues averaged 18 percent.

The federal government is experiencing historic budget deficits now because, thanks to the recession, federal revenues have dropped to 14.8 percent of GDP, while federal spending under President Obama has soared to 24.7 percent.

Bring In More --

Senator Marco Rubio (R/FL) says...First of all, if you taxed these (Millionaires & Billionaires) people at 100 percent, basically next year you said, 'Look, every penny you make next year the government's going to take it from you,' it still doesn't solve the debt.

Rubio takes on the President's, and Dummycrats, solution of ending tax breaks for corporate jet owners and oil companies (Jet Boy?) and finds...

the jet airplanes, the oil companies, all of the other things they talk about -- you put them all together in one big batch, and you know what it does? It basically deals with nine days and 23 hours worth of deficit spending. Nine days and 23 hours of deficit spending. That's how much it solves. So all this talk about going after people that make all this money, it buys you nine days and 23 hours. Let's round it off. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt. It buys them 10 days of deficit spending reduction.

“We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system. And then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again. And that's what we should be focused on, and that's what we're not focused on...".

The Ragister wants all tax breaks, including those for tax-exempt organizations, reviewed.

The Ragister also states that government, Unlike some charities, its finances are transparent and it doesn't pay huge salaries to those at the top.

They must not have read, and didn't report, 454 people in President Obama's White House are being paid a total of $37,121,463.

141 Obama aides -- or nearly one-in-three -- earn more than $100,000 a year and Twenty-one Obama aides earn the top-dollar $172,200.

The kicker is, 41 unidentified Obama staff members owe the Internal Revenue Service $831,000 in back taxes.

Obama hires do have a pattern of not paying their taxes (Everyday Fools).

The Ragister also wants to end tax breaks for having a child, saving for a kid's college, charitable contributions, saving for retirement, mortgage interest deductions and energy tax credits.

They fail to mention the nearly 50% of the country who pay no income taxes, as well as the practice of receiving refundable tax credits.

In a sidebar column titled, Some donate a little extra to Uncle Sam, the Ragister mentions an anonymous $10,0000 check Los Angeles County received and put in its general fund.

Uncle Sam represents the U.S. as a whole, not a county in California.