Challenge: Can you balance the budget ?

[dschere]

Sorry I posted this under the wrong category!

 

[Mr. H.]

Just change your username to douchere and no one will notice.

 

[dschere]

The United States is the only country in the world that villifies and castigates its oil and gas sector. It is the only country that penalizes that industry's successes and actively seeks out venues which would ultimately result in its demise.

I agree.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Here is the current federal budget in billions:

OtherSpending 199.6
Transportation 102.6
Defense 902.2
HealthCare 846.1
Pensions 819.7
Protection 62
Interest 224.8 -> Better pray there isn't a spike in interest rates!
Welfare 451.9
GeneralGovernment 33.6
Education 153.1

TaxReceipts = 2468.6
Deficit/Surplus = -1327


Politics aside what does the MATH say needs to be done? Remember these figures when
the bubble heads on MSM start babbling about deficit reduction be cutting one billion dollars here or one billion there.

The MATH says something more drastic is required.


Here is my budgett:


OtherSpending 199.6
Transportation 200 -> doubled budget for infrastructure
Defense 440 -> halved defense spending
HealthCare 450 -> slash medicare/medicaid
Pensions 450 -> move retirement age up to median life expectancy - 7 years.
Protection 62
Interest 224.8
Welfare 250 --> cut by 200 billion
GeneralGovernment 33.6
Education 153.1 -> kept the same but I want it reorganized.

Result: balanced budget.

You can prance and cry but MATH is MATH. I pay too much in taxes and I don't trust
that the government would just keep on spending beyond its means if they raised taxes.

I assume other spending includes foreign payments.

Other spending 150. Let the gee wiz types figure out where to cut.
Transportation 102.6
Defense 1000
Health Care 0 It is not the responsibility of Federal Government to fund health care
Pensions 819.7
Protection 62
Interest 224.8
Welfare 0 It is not the Federal Governments job or authority to fund welfare.
General Government 33.6
Education 0 Federal Government has no authority to fund education.

That leaves 173.7 Surplus.

Since I do not know the exact figures in your break down for Social Security I assume maintaining it would not work as I have listed. The Government owes tons of money to SS. I would use the surplus to begin paying it back. I would look at raising taxes to meet our requirement on Social Security.

The zeroed parts are all Local or State functions. The States need to pay for those if they want them.

 

[alan1]

I'm thinking that if I used the US Constitution as my guide, I could probably make the budget quite smaller.

 

[dschere]

I'm thinking that if I used the US Constitution as my guide, I could probably make the budget quite smaller.

Do it. put some numbers down. I found that this is a good exercise that filters out all the crap that I hear on all sides of the debate.

Its simple: the MATH says we have to cut drastically, period.

Do you see that "Interest" portion?

The bond market sets that. Pray to god we never get an interest rate spike like they have in some
of the European countries. The "Interest" portion will engulf EVERYTHING.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

I'm thinking that if I used the US Constitution as my guide, I could probably make the budget quite smaller.

Yes, the Constitution called for very very limited government but Demcorats have slowly been subverting it. This is why Republicans have introduced 30 Balanced Budget Amendments since Jefferson's first and why liberals have killed every one of them.