ATLANTA, GA, May 07, 2020 /Neptune100/ — Allen Buckley, a fiscal conservative independent candidate in the special election race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Kelly Loeffler, says the USA RISE proposal of Senator Kelly Loeffler will mainly make the national debt rise.
Federal debt is now approximately $25 trillion. By year-end, it will likely exceed $27 trillion, as roughly $4.5 trillion will be borrowed in 2020 and federal revenue for 2020 will be well below $3 trillion. Annual federal revenue has never exceeded $3.5 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently reported that the public debt-to-equity ratio is expected to hit 101 percent by the end of 2020, and 108 percent by the end of 2021.
USA RISE states: “Ongoing expansion of the national debt does not come without costs to future generations.” It then calls for significant tax cuts and spending increases, without any provisions to deal with the debt. It goes out of its way to attack China in numerous places.
The tax cuts include rate reductions, expensing of capital assets, investment tax credits, an employer FICA tax holiday for the remainder of 2020, increasing income exclusions and making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 permanent for working and middle class families. However, under Internal Revenue Code sections 168(k) and 179, the tax law already provides for expensing of capital assets through at least 2022.
On the spending side, recommended increases include: (a) investing in infrastructure (apparently the $2 trillion sought by President Trump); (b) expanding rural broadband; (c) subsidizing retraining and trade schooling; (d) expanding the Paycheck Protection Program’s eligibility and funding; and (e) providing for loan forgiveness for nursing and med-tech workers. There are no offsetting reductions to expenses or tax increases to cover the costs. It also recommends establishing a new regulatory review commission, with “committees for each area.”
USA RISE also provides: “Congress can also give governors the ability to cap the CARES Act unemployment insurance benefits not to exceed an employees’ previous wages.” The CARES Act, that Loeffler voted for, allows a large percentage of individuals to receive more money in unemployment benefits than they received while working.
In a guest column in the May 3rd edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Senator Loeffler said concerning creation of the USA RISE proposal that she was “putting to work my nearly three decades of experience of building companies and creating jobs . . .” According to Wikepedia, Ms. Loeffler is 49 years old.
Allen Buckley has advocated that a significant smart outlay be made to fight the pandemic, even though it will produce a substantial deficit in 2020. He has, for years, recommended balanced budgets exist in years of prosperity.
Buckley said: “If enacted, USA RISE would mainly make the national debt rise. It is right out of the standard Republican playbook: Cut taxes and raise spending to buy votes, while claiming to be ‘conservative.’ I think the public is getting tired of it. We don’t need another commission. Ms. Loeffler has provided absolutely no solutions to, or long-term vision with respect to, the growing national debt problem, which has been made worse by the pandemic. In contrast, on my website, I provide solutions to the problem, in part by switching to a must simpler tax system that uses algebra to produce balance budgets in prosperous years. Also, I propose significant spending cuts. It’s time to address this potentially catastrophic problem.”
Mr. Buckley’s “Save Tomorrow” campaign is about living for today and tomorrow, instead of living for today to the detriment of tomorrow. The focus is on doing things to make tomorrow as good as or even better than today, by acting now to address the nation’s financial challenges and confronting global warming in a practical way.
Mr. Buckley is an attorney/CPA. He can be reached for comment at (404) 610-1936. Mr. Buckley’s campaign website is www.buckleyforsenate.org.
