Thank the Good Lord for courageous statesmen - Sen. Chambliss: Tax changes must be on the table

From The Moultrie Observer:

As Congress gets serious about reducing the country’s $14.3 trillion debt, everything should be on the table, including raising revenues, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss said Thursday.

Those revenues would come from eliminating some tax breaks while lowering effective individual and corporate rates, said Chambliss, R-Ga. . . .

Chambliss’ comments echoed a December 2010 report delivered by the debt commission appointed by President Barack Obama. The recommendations in that report would cut about $4 trillion from the deficit over a decade, with about three-quarters of that amount coming from budget cuts and the remainder from tax policy changes.

Chambliss said he has been meeting this year with a bipartisan group of senators working toward a package that can garner the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster.

“They came up with some significant changes in the tax code,” Chambliss said. “Hopefully we’ll get together on some bipartisan agreement in the Senate that will get 60 votes in place.”

The plan put forth recently by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would not meet that threshold, he said..

To meet that goal, Chambliss said, spending cuts need to be made as well as “putting revenues on the table.”