39 replies to this topic

[Happy Panther]

I welcome your ideas. How would you get our country back in fiscal shape?

Federal Income is around $2T and outlays are around 3.5T

So we need to find around $2T. 1.5T just to break even and say .5T to actually start paying down the debt.

We could blow up social security/medicare/medicaid saving around 1.3T. Make the states take care of it. Or companies. Whatever.

Defense could be lopped in half saving around $390B. This isn't that hard as Iraq and Afghanistan are $130B. We only need to find $260B after we get the hell out. Also we may want to stop warmongering for a couple of decades

TARP goes away...150B

This only leaves say $150B plus to get from taxes. But we also need to account for the loss of tax from social security. Let's call it $1T from taxes. Personal income tax and corporate income tax needs to go up by 90 - 100% to get where we need to be





In summary.

Blow up social security/medicare/Medicaid
Cut defense in half
Tax doubles.

If those things happen we will have 500B per year to pay off principal on a debt of around 13T

So the three things above will need to happen for 26 years

What did I miss?

Happy Easter!!!

[Delhommey]

Cutting defense spending and reeling in Medicare/Medicaid expenses are the key, but political death. Any politician that tries to do either will be burned at the stake.

Wonder why politicians never try to do that?

[Happy Panther]

Maybe Obama should do it. He has the congress to do it and talks about change we can believe in. Doing this would kill the dems for a while though. Big voting base on government assistance.

[rodeo]

he could cut a lot of military budget without a lot of controversy by ending the war(s).

repeal Bush's government expansions in the redundant DOHS, close a lot of foreign bases. would help a lot.

a dem would never touch medicare.

[ChucktownK]

Cut Obama in half and put him on both sides of the scale.

[Davidson Deac II]

Make me dictator for about 10 years, and I will have it balanced. I would cut expenditures on everything (no exceptions) by 1% real every year, and increase taxes by 1% every year until its balanced. While I was at it, I would simplify the tax code quite a bit. At the end of the 10 years, I will go live on my estate with my government provided harem, but I think thats a small price for the taxpayers to pay.

In truth, its going to be something that the voters demand, to the point were they will vote anyone out of office who does not follow a more restrictive fiscal policy. And I doubt that will happen for a while. Either that, or a constutitional amendment requiring a balanced budget.

[88 Bronco]

1 Legalize and tax marijuana- This generates money and saves money in one step. It creates an industry requiring an infrastructure for support. This means more tax paying workers. It frees up some of the War on Drugs Funding, and alleviates some of the prison over-crowding issues due to some non-violent offenders being released, which also saves money.

2 Contract out the USPS- UPS and FedEx are performing the same service for a profit while the government continues to subsidize the USPS

3 Reel in government spending- This is where people get pissy. Defense spending needs to be realistic. Look at the Osprey program. Welfare programs need reform more than defense spending.

4 The government has to operate within its budget.

[ChucktownK]

Heavily tax outsourced (international) work. Also, a more fair or balanced amount of imports that we also export, such as cars. We import far more cars than we export as well as many other commodities. We have got to get back to making and providing our own commodities and resources instead of being a nation of buyers.

[pstall]

Heavily tax outsourced (international) work. Also, a more fair or balanced amount of imports that we also export, such as cars. We import far more cars than we export as well as many other commodities. We have got to get back to making and providing our own commodities and resources instead of being a nation of buyers.

That's a delicate balance though. You don't want to create more walls and also start a trade war with China. Tightrope in that area.

[ChucktownK]

That's a delicate balance though. You don't want to create more walls and also start a trade war with China. Tightrope in that area.

Korea and Japan as well as other small Asian nations would be a little more upset than China prolly.

[88 Bronco]

Make me dictator for about 10 years, and I will have it balanced. I would cut expenditures on everything (no exceptions) by 1% real every year, and increase taxes by 1% every year until its balanced. While I was at it, I would simplify the tax code quite a bit. At the end of the 10 years, I will go live on my estate with my government provided harem, but I think thats a small price for the taxpayers to pay.

In truth, its going to be something that the voters demand, to the point were they will vote anyone out of office who does not follow a more restrictive fiscal policy. And I doubt that will happen for a while. Either that, or a constutitional amendment requiring a balanced budget.

Collectively as a country, we tend to live beyond our means. Why would we elect anything different?

[pstall]

Top 100 are sitting on close to 1t in CASH. That doesn't considered all the other companies as well as private investors or individuals.

[Saint J]

cut medicare

cut social security

cut welfare

cut defense

down with the peasants

[88 Bronco]

Someone has given this a lot of thought

[Saint J]

lol