I'm with you on some of your concepts.

First, let's do away with this ridiculous "break" on FICA. Only reason that it was given was to give a "tax" break to those that pay no federal income tax (estimated at over 45% of the population).

How can you shore up a system, that's truly a Ponzi scam, wherein benefits are not cut, but contributions are?

Next, allow bankruptcy courts to discharge student debt ..... HOWEVER, we need to be FAR more restrictive in these loans. No sane entity loans money without there being a very certain chance of repayment. When we went to school ... there were no Pell Grants and it was next to impossible to score a student loan. That's why I worked 66 hours a week between three minimum wage part time jobs all of the way through.

I disagree with the 1099s on discharged debt. If it isn't income, what is it?

You run up fifty large in cc debt ... and don't pay it back. What happened to the money?

The way in which one deals with "not punished for their own misdeeds", is to (lemme me think about this) perhaps, punish them Hang 'em and hang 'em high.

Some of tax code is ripe for fraud. Think about this one:

If you are an "illegal" (undocumented) alien, there is a special tax form.

Within the body of this, they (revenue) allows them to take the child tax credit without any verification of a child, whereas U.S. citizens have to furnish social security numbers.

Said child(s)need not reside in the newnited states. They can, but they do not have to.

Juan, who pays solely FICA/Medicare contributions ... no federal income tax ... can claim twelve or more (average claim is seven) at a thousand per child. It may revert back to five hundy, but that's solely if the "bush" tax cuts aren't extended. However, that has nothing to do with verification that is a MUST for legal residents and not required for "illegals".

I realize that's only a little over seven billion ... but every billion counts.