How would YOU cut the deficit?

[DiamondDave]

we won in Iraq, we are leaving

Pardon me for focusing on this single item, which is not relevant to the discussion, but that fantastic delusion just jumped out and screamed to be addressed. You said "we won in Iraq?" What exactly did we win?

Invading and occupying Iraq earned us the reputation as a militarily aggressive rogue nation.

It cost us over 4,000 American lives and created tens of thousands of disabled veterans -- maimed, disfigured and psychologically crippled, formerly productive citizens.

It already has cost us in the trillions of dollars and is still adding up.

It cost us a useful ally, Saddam Hussein, who was keeping Iran in check and had served us well in our conflict with that increasingly threatening nation. He was an effectively secular enemy of our fanatical Islamist enemies. And the enemy of our enemy is our friend, whether we like it or not.

And you said we "won" in Iraq. Do you know who won in Iraq? Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel and the Military Industrial Complex. And next to Iraq we are the big loser.

Instead of invading Iraq we should have aligned with Hussein in an invasion of Saudi Arabia and supported his occupation of that country, in which case we would now be sitting in the catbird seat, paying .50 a gallon for gas -- and the World Trade Center Towers would still be standing.

So let me guess -- you're an undercover Zionist, aren't you?

This actually rivals the idiot douger's post in my signature as the dumbest post of the year

 

[ba1614]

Simply reversing everything the obama has done would be a fine place to start. Then look at anything initiated by Harry Reid and/or pelosi, and we're probably a solid 1/4 of the way through the current budget deficits.

 

[Flopper]

What do you think is an 'acceptable' deficit?
The FY2009 deficit was $1413B - what will you cut to get down to that 'acceptable' deficit?

Note that to asnwer the 2nd question, you must include dollar amounts and explain where those figures came from.
That is:
Specify what programs you'd cut/taxes you'd raise, how much they would save/generate, and how you know.

Congress should not specify the programs to cut. The Right and Left are too divided to agree on much of anything. They should do an across the board cut of all programs excluding Social Security which is being funded by the trust fund and FICA tax collections. Specifying the programs to cut is the problem. Most congressmen do not have the vaguest idea as to the value of most of these programs or how they actually spend their money. They just follow the leader fighting for or against programs according to the party doctrine.

After 3 months of wasting time and tax payers money, they can only come up with about a 1% cut which they can't agree on. So we are going to shut the government down which will cost more money.

 

[MikeK]

How is a topic about cutting the deficit the appropriate place to discuss your hatred of Jews? Please stay on topic.

Where does it say I hate Jews. If you've assumed I do it's because you are ignorant. So your lesson for today is all Jews are not Zionists and there are many Jews who are hostile to Zionists -- Professor Norman Finkelstein for one. In case you don't know who he is, he wrote The Holocaust Industry. You should read it. Very interesting and educational.

Also, I apologized in advance and explained the reason for my digression, which followed another digression, which happens sometimes. But the topic hasn't been diverted so no cause for panic. It's still intact.

 

[MikeK]

This actually rivals the idiot douger's post in my signature as the dumbest post of the year

Really?

Keepers at NYC's Bronx Zoo have installed plexiglas barriers beyond the bars of some cages in the primate exhibit because the monkeys there are known to defecate into their hands and throw it when something upsets them. The monkeys do this when they are frustrated because all that a monkey in a cage can do when he doesn't like something is throw shit.

Ignorance and stupidity are metaphorical cages. Personal insults and empty ad hominem comments are analogous to handfuls of shit to be tossed out in place of intelligent, reasoned, logical arguments.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Obama vows to cut huge deficit in half
By MIKE ALLEN | 2/22/09 6:58 AM EDT

President Obama will announce Monday that he plans to cut the nation’s projected annual deficit in half by the end of his first term, a senior administration official said Saturday.

The plan will make explicit what Obama officials have been suggesting for months: Contrary to his campaign promise, Obama will allow the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans expire as scheduled at the end of 2010 instead of seeking their repeal sooner. Officials determined that seeking to raise the taxes earlier during a recession was a bad idea, advisers said.

Obama vows to cut huge deficit in half - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

. . . .




PRO$PERITY II!!!!!


​

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Simply reversing everything the obama has done would be a fine place to start. Then look at anything initiated by Harry Reid and/or pelosi, and we're probably a solid 1/4 of the way through the current budget deficits.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....probably!!!!!

(A typical Teabagger value-judgment.)

 

[Mr. Shaman]

What do you think is an 'acceptable' deficit?
The FY2009 deficit was $1413B - what will you cut to get down to that 'acceptable' deficit?

Note that to asnwer the 2nd question, you must include dollar amounts and explain where those figures came from.
That is:
Specify what programs you'd cut/taxes you'd raise, how much they would save/generate, and how you know.

Congress should not specify the programs to cut. The Right and Left are too divided to agree on much of anything.

i.e. it'd be too-much WORK (being specific); the bane of Teabaggers, nation-WIDE!!

"...'N, there's that, there THINKIN' stuff, TOO!!!!"​

 

[NYcarbineer]

Raise taxes to 18% of GDP, make massive cuts in defense. Begin a worldwide phase-out of US military operations on foreign soil to the barest minimum necessary to honor treaty obligations, and in the meantime, start re-negotiating the treaties. The EU, South Korea, and Japan, for starters, don't need us to defend them, and we don't need to be there to defend ourselves.
Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

[kaz]

What do you think is an 'acceptable' deficit?
The FY2009 deficit was $1413B - what will you cut to get down to that 'acceptable' deficit?

Note that to asnwer the 2nd question, you must include dollar amounts and explain where those figures came from.
That is:
Specify what programs you'd cut/taxes you'd raise, how much they would save/generate, and how you know.

I'm not giving dollar amounts because I don't know, but I'm guessing you'll buy it'd balance the budget. Some things I would cut, as in eliminate:

1) The war on drugs
2) Earmarks
3) Social Security and Medicare
4) Welfare and Medicaid
5) The wars, all US overseas bases, the two war strategy and make our defense actually defensive
6) The departments of Energy, Education, HHS, HUD for starters and evaluate the rest
7) The FED
8) All government research
9) The TSA

Some other good ideas:

1) Subject congressmen to their own laws
2) Eliminate entrapment as a defense for elected officials while they are elected officials
3) Force people to write actual checks for every tax they pay
4) Eliminate the IRS and all current taxes and replace it with the Fair Tax.

Just a few.

 

[AquaAthena]

I would personally support Rand Paul's bill to balance the budget as it would take much less time to accomplish than Paul Ryan's, which comes in second to Rand Paul's. *** I commend them both for trying to save America from bankruptcy and return her to solvency.

Rand Paul's budget plan:


Is it realistic? Maybe not every part of it, but have a look below and judge for yourself. I don't think his total removal of rental subsidies is unreasonable -- the fact that Section 8 is a total failure doesn't justify dumping its beneficiaries into oblivion. But there's also no reason every agency has to see its budget increase every year, and a lot of these cuts really do make sense. Most of them simply represent a return to 2008 levels of spending -- remember that a 30 percent cut is less than it seems when an agency's budget been increasing by 40 percent over the last few years.



Read more at the Washington Examiner: A detailed look at the Rand Paul spending bill | David Freddoso | Beltway Confidential | Washington Examiner

 

[AmericanFirst]

Abolish the military and threaten any nation that tries you with a flat "nuclear annihilation policy".Then you'll have another 15 million meatheads wandering around looking for work ( or robbing banks).
Your masters won't allow for that. The only export that's profitable to them is arming nations and then bombing the shit out of them......on your dime, of course.

Idiot.

 

[M14 Shooter]

What do you think is an 'acceptable' deficit?
The FY2009 deficit was $1413B - what will you cut to get down to that 'acceptable' deficit?

Note that to asnwer the 2nd question, you must include dollar amounts and explain where those figures came from.
That is:
Specify what programs you'd cut/taxes you'd raise, how much they would save/generate, and how you know.

I just read an interesting article on this. Here's a quick overview:

Cut Education subsidies - $40 billion
Cut Farm subsidies - $20 billion
Withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan - $100 billion
Cut Federal Worker pay by 10% - $30 billion
Cut energy subsidies - $20 billion
End drug war - $15 billion
Social Security made voluntary - $40 billion
Cut housing subsidies - $45 billion
Cut transportation programs - $80 billion

And the link:

Cato Puts Budget-cutting Debate in Perspective
Downsizing the Federal Government | Chris Edwards | Cato Institute

That's $390B.
Only >$1000B to go.

 

[blu]

defense side:

end the (now 3) wars
bring home troops from all bases except the essential ones and then close so bases.
don't pay a dime for the defense of other countries
cut the military in half

social side:

phase out social security
put limits on medicare/medicaid

other:

end the DOE and use part of saved money to increase pell grants and better high schools/middle schools

 

[M14 Shooter]

Raise taxes to 18% of GDP

2010 GDP = $14,660B
18% = $2638.8B
FY2009 income tax revenue: $915B
Where, specifically, do you plan to get the other $1723.8B?
You'd have to take every penny from everyone making over $100k/ro to generate that kind of revenue.

make massive cuts in defense.

Cut defense spending to $0 and you save $655B (FY2009)

 

[xsited1]

What do you think is an 'acceptable' deficit?
The FY2009 deficit was $1413B - what will you cut to get down to that 'acceptable' deficit?

Note that to asnwer the 2nd question, you must include dollar amounts and explain where those figures came from.
That is:
Specify what programs you'd cut/taxes you'd raise, how much they would save/generate, and how you know.

I just read an interesting article on this. Here's a quick overview:

Cut Education subsidies - $40 billion
Cut Farm subsidies - $20 billion
Withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan - $100 billion
Cut Federal Worker pay by 10% - $30 billion
Cut energy subsidies - $20 billion
End drug war - $15 billion
Social Security made voluntary - $40 billion
Cut housing subsidies - $45 billion
Cut transportation programs - $80 billion

And the link:

Cato Puts Budget-cutting Debate in Perspective
Downsizing the Federal Government | Chris Edwards | Cato Institute

That's $390B.
Only >$1000B to go.

Actually, the total in the article comes to about $500B. The national debt in 2000 was about $6000B and of course it's now around $14000B. It's going to take decades to pay it off.

 

[mnbasketball]

I would tell the people who have been getting the 190 billion a year in tax cuts to start spending it for the prupose it was ganted for, to create jobs, in other words spend your gifts from the taxpayers or lose them.
Next I would cut anything that doesn't serve a purpose or is wastefull and anything that is fraud.
Then I would cut any program that isn't needed. Then I would look at every part of the budget and anything that could be cut should be.

Religion should be kept out of govt and personal beliefs on such should be kept to yourself and not made a part of govt..

Then I would tax at the rate we need to provide what our country needs. and those who most benefit from our country and what it does should pay for it, not the people who are hired by business that use them to make them money.

 

[Sallow]

I wouldn't cut anything now. Austerity is a very bad idea doing a weak recovery.

 

[M14 Shooter]

I wouldn't cut anything now. Austerity is a very bad idea doing a weak recovery.

Damn the torpedes - full spending ahead!

 

[NYcarbineer]

defense side:

end the (now 3) wars
bring home troops from all bases except the essential ones and then close so bases.
don't pay a dime for the defense of other countries
cut the military in half

social side:

phase out social security
put limits on medicare/medicaid

other:

end the DOE and use part of saved money to increase pell grants and better high schools/middle schools

Social security does not impact the deficit. The OP's question was how do you cut the deficit.