The Foreign Service Journal, December 2010

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 7 constituencies feared by Republicans and Democrats alike to speak up and indicate what sacrifices they are willing to consider in the national interest? Many of us in the retired or near-re- tired ranks have lived through a pretty good stretch of U.S. economic history and, for nearly 30 years, have paid taxes at historically low rates compared to the generation which preceded us. Is it not time for us to accept that we can do something to ease the future bur- den on our descendants who, at this point, appear to be facing much dim- mer economic prospects as a result of wars waged on credit and social bene- fits to the elderly that are paid out re- gardless of economic need? I propose that AFSA conduct a poll of its membership to determine what, as a group, we are willing to put on the table in the great national debate over tax increases and spending cuts. De- pending on the results, AFSA could be in a position to take the lead among public and private unions in providing some political cover to those members of Congress who are ready to consider some hard but responsible votes in a concerted effort to resolve our fiscal challenges. Here are some suggestions: 1. Abolish the current cut-off thres- hold for FICA deductions. 2. Eliminate tax exemptions for So- cial Security income. 3. Continue graduated cuts to social security income due to earned income levels even beyond full retirement age. 4. Put a cap on mortgage interest deductions, and begin a 30-to-50-year phase-out of mortgage interest deduc- tions altogether. 5. Reconfigure our defense estab- lishment to what is required to defend the United States, plus a reasonable re- serve of naval, air and special forces to project severe but time-limited force in the event of truly critical foreign emer- gencies. 6. Levy an equitable carbon tax on any product or economic activity with high carbon emissions. 7. Recalculate government pensions tomatch the locality pay in effect for the location where we retire. (Why should a GS-15/10 employee from New York who retires to Mississippi have a higher pension than a GS-15/10 employee fromMississippi who stays put?) L E T T E R S