In case you haven’t noticed, sequestration is killing the Hampton Roads economy and making Virginia not exactly the job creation champion of the world.
And with sequestration cutting the Defense department 50 billion dollars a year through 2021, how much more do you think the Virginia economy will take? Yes, I know, we need to diversify our jobs base, but I’ve been hearing that for twenty years. I’m starting to realize that as long as the Atlantic Ocean is here, we’re still going to be the military’s home.
Rep. Scott Rigell’s proposal has loftier goals than just the parochial economy. He believes our national security is at risk by these defense cuts.
Rigell’s proposal, America First, restores 75% of the cuts made by sequestration, enacting reforms to mandatory spending like Medicare and Social Security, and limits on deductions for the highest of income earners.
It’s pretty balanced, and it does some great long-term restructuring to mandatory spending programs.
I expect a hue and cry for some on the right who may object to limits on deductions to fund national defense, but let’s take a walk down Reagan Boulevard.
In 1986, Reagan’s reform law eliminated $30 billion annually in deductions, increased corporate taxes, capital gains taxes, and fees, and the result was increasing overall tax revenue by $54.9 billion the first year.
That means Reagan’s 1986 tax reform increased what would be $117 billion per year in today’s dollars.
Rigell’s plan generates an average of $76 billion per year in savings and revenue.
And Reagan’s plan did nothing but reform the tax code. Rigell’s plan restores hundreds of billions of dollars to national defense at a time where the world isn’t exactly the safest it’s ever been.
This bill is crucial to Virginia and likely crucial to America’s safety and fiscal sanity in the future. Everyone knows we are $19 trillion in debt. Everyone knows that cutting defense just increases the chance of war, and then we pay with lives. Everyone knows Social Security and Medicare need reforms to keep them solvent for the long term.
Compared to the amount Reagan raised new revenue in 1986 adjusted for inflation, Rigell’s plan is downright conservative.
I expect and hope that there may be compromises along the way that may strengthen the bill…at least that means it is getting a fair consideration.
I hope it passes and Congress starts taking this more seriously. It’s easily the best plan I’ve seen in a long while and the only plan to squash the sequestration that is pummeling the Virginia economy.
