Bad News Everyone. The ONE's Deficit Commission Report.

[Tarheel]

Now I see why the Dems wanted to wait until AFTER the election to release the Deficit Commission Report.  This would have made their defeat even more dramatic as there are suggestions in this report that everyone will hate...increased Federal gas tax, raise the retirement age (not that I'll ever get to retire or see any of my Social Security money), and eliminate the mortgage interest deduction.  And it only saves $200 Billion.  Oh, and the lefties will hate the decreased spending on Health Care and the salary freeze for Fedgov employees.

Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal...all emphasis is my own:

Panel Chairmen Recommend Cutting Federal Spending by $200 Billion
NOVEMBER 10, 2010, 2:51 P.M. ET

By COREY BOLES And MARTIN VAUGHAN

WASHINGTON—The co-chairs of a deficit commission established by the White House would seek to limit federal spending on health care, gradually raise the retirement age and lower the corporate tax rate to 26%, according to a draft set of proposals released Wednesday.

The sweeping plan is likely to provoke a political firestorm. It touches many of the third rails of politics, including defense spending, Social Security and middle-class tax breaks long seen as inviolate.

It isn't a final document. The co-chairs—Erskine Bowles, a chief of staff in the Clinton White House, and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming—presented the draft plan to members of the 18-strong committee earlier Wednesday. It was presented as a series of options that could be taken together or considered individually as a ways to bring down federal spending.

Members of the panel emerged from the meeting saying they thought the proposals were "provocative," but they failed to endorse them outright.

According to the draft, the plan identifies $200 billion in discretionary-spending cuts by 2015, with half the savings from reductions to spending by the Pentagon.

For businesses, it would lower the corporate tax rate but remove a number of deductions currently available. It would make permanent the research-and-development tax credit.

The federal gasoline-tax rate would start to increase from 2013, increasing by 15 cents a gallon at that stage.

On Social Security, it would gradually increase the retirement age when people can start receiving benefits to 68 at around 2050 and to 69 by 2075.
...
It would seek to rein in federal spending on health care, both by introducing further proposed changes, including reform of tort law, and by seeking to slow the growth of the Medicare program.

...
The panel was told to come up with a proposal that would bring the federal budget deficit back to about 3% of U.S. gross domestic product by 2015, compared with 8.9% in fiscal 2010, which ended on Sept. 30.

Boring, I know, but nothing's been posted in here in a while and this could affect all of us.

Here's the full story:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703805004575606643067587042.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

[AUTailgatingRules]

If you eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, you will effectively put the death nail in the housing market.

[CCTAU]

If you eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, you will effectively put the death nail in the housing market.

Is there such a thing as "death nail?"

Or would it be a "death knell?"

Either way, I'm not sure there will be too many folks that could afford a decent size house. We will become Europe where everyone lives in 400 year old cracker boxes handed down from parents to children along with a lifetime mortgage.