Washington,
Jul 25 -
Congressman Polis recently convened town hall budget workshops in Erie, Westminster and Boulder that focused on balancing the federal budget. On a Saturday afternoon, hundreds of Coloradans showed up ready to help restore fiscal integrity, create jobs, and get our economy going. In group exercises conducted by the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan national organization that supports fixing the federal budget, your friends and neighbors voted on a series of proposals aimed at restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C.
Participants showed a real commitment to cutting the deficit by voting to support more than $4.9 trillion of budget savings over the next 10 years. That’s more savings than the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission achieved and enough to actually reduce our national debt!
|
Budget Option
|
Savings (In Billions)
|
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Eliminate Agriculture Subsidies
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$55
|
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Reduce Adjustments in Federal Worker Pay Designed to Keep Up with Private Sector
|
$50
|
|
Freeze Discretionary Spending Levels Without Adjusting for Inflation over 10 Years. Spending Would Stay at 2008 Levels
|
$673
|
|
Adjust defense spending levels and deficit projections with the assumption that withdrawal from Iraq/Afghanistan will happen as anticipated in current defense plans
|
$1,122
|
|
Cancel further development of the ground based National Missile Defense System
|
$13
|
|
Cancel the new squadron of Maritime Prepositioning Ships
|
$18
|
|
Cancel the Future Combat System Program
|
$22
|
|
Increase per-ticket fees for aviation security
|
$21
|
|
Tie basic premiums for Medicare Part B (SMI) to 35% of the program's costs
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$241
|
|
Add public option to health insurance exchanges
|
$88
|
|
Limit punitive damages in malpractice lawsuits and impose a statute of limitations
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$62
|
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Raise Medicare eligibility age gradually, from age 65 to age 67, by the year 2027
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$125
|
|
Raise the full retirement age of Social security gradually, from 67 to age 70, by the year 2035
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$120
|
|
Increase the maximum taxable earnings cap for the Social Security Payroll Tax
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$457
|
|
Use "progressive price indexing" to decrease Social security benefits for higher income seniors
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$80
|
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Engage in revenue increasing comprehensive tax reform. Three new brackets go up by 2% each to 10%, 16 %, and 26%
|
$1,300
|
|
Impose a surtax of 5.6% on income earned over $1 million
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$453
|
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Eliminate tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry
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$44
|
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Increase the gas tax by 25 cents
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$291
|
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Tax the worldwide income of U.S. corporations as it is earned
|
$114
|
While you may not agree with all of their ideas for balancing the budget, these Coloradans made a commitment to work together and compromise that should serve as a model for a Congress that has been far too partisan and unable to compromise.
Click
here for a spreadsheet detailing the cost-saving measures that a majority of the workshop attendees supported. Motions were only considered adopted if a majority of the Coloradans at a particular table supported it.
Congressman Polis was excited to see the hundreds of Coloradans who turned out at these events because, like him, they want to restore fiscal responsibility so we can keep our promises to our seniors, invest in key priorities, such as education, infrastructure, and renewable energy, and put America on a fiscally sustainable and healthier economic course.
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