How would YOU cut the deficit?

[Wiseacre]

How would YOU cut the deficit? .

With either a chain saw, or a back hoe....depending on the level of precision needed.

Obama's going to do it with a scalpel, or so I hear.

 

[Flopper]

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.

Paying off the national debt should certainly not be our goal. 14 trillion is a big number but so is our economy. What is important is not the amount of debt, but the amount of debt in relation to the country's GDP. Just as an individual's credit worthiness depends on their earning capacity, so does the country. Right now our ratio of debt to GDP ins 97%. There are 36 nations that have higher ratios, some as much as 4000%.

I think we need to lower the ratio to about 60%, which is what it was the 1990's. This can be done by cutting about 400 billion in spending over the next 10 years and encouraging economic growth so we can get back to a 4% GDP growth.

 

[Flopper]

I am not in favor of corporate welfare and CEO getting rich on the back of our tax dollars nor on destruction of the value of the dollar.

1. I would bring down defense spending, probably by half over a 10 year period. I would defend the US shores, but not prosecute wars of aggression we have no business in. See England, Russia. No troops in Germany or Japan. I would support development of high tech weaponry, as this has proved its value the last two decades. Cruise missiles, drones, our satellite eye in the sky, have all proven their worth. Aircraft carriers, AWACS, all good stuff. We spend 10 times what China or Russia spend, to maintain a huge offensive capability. This costs us too much money and too many lives, and we should reduce it substantially.
2. I would attack Medicare part D (repub screw up). For each illness, I would offer 1 out of 4 drugs on the market, some generic and some brand name. Lets say there are 40 blood pressure pills out there, I'd give away 10 for free (if prescribed by physician, 6 generic and 4 brand name). You would have to bid, and I'll take the 10 low bids. If you want a different pill, go buy it yourself. That would pressure the manufacturers to compete on price.
3. I would require all recipients of social security SSI payments to be certified by the SS doctor, not just their doctor. Maybe end SS-SSI altogether. This is being gamed by many, ripping off the working class. We need to look at social security much harder. I am not sure the problem is with retirees, as it is with the govt. letting too many people claim Disability and get payments for life when they could be working. Below I will post a quote on SSI.
4. I would allow private investigators to be bounty hunters on medicare fraud clinics. You bust one leading to conviction, you get 50K plus 10% of their fraudulent billings.
5. I would have medical boards set treatment standards, particularly end of life care. After a certain point, you go on DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and hospice care. That's what they do in Europe. If you have money and want to pay for more (or buy an additional insurance to pay for more), you can.
6. End most corporate welfare. Exxon does not need tax breaks, they make a fortune. Eliminate farm subsidies, the family farm is gone, just huge operators out there.
7. Bring back the clinton era tax rates, the rich can pay more, they used to pay more and the economy was doing fine.

There are only 5 areas that make up most of the fed. budget, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense, and Interest on the debt.

- You can't do anything about interest on the debt unless you balance the budget and run a surplus and use the surplus to pay down the debt. I'm not holding my breath. Actually, interest rates will rise from here and this must go up and nudge something else out.
- So, you have to deal with SS, Medicare, Medicaid and Defense to meaningly deal with the deficit.

QUOTE from Social Security website about SSI:

What About The SSI Program?

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program pays benefits to disabled adults and children who have limited income and resources.

SSI benefits are also payable to people 65 and older without disabilities who meet the financial limits.

Social Security's Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program

A friend in Houston tells me 10 families on his street, the husband, wife and daughter all are "disabled" and collect SSI; they all live in the same house. But, he sees them put the garbage can out on pick up day. The system is being gamed. The 10 families are not native americans, but migrated here.

I agree with most of your recommendation, however I disagree with cutting SSI. It is for most people, the only disability insurance they have. FICA payroll taxes are divide into SS retirement benefits and SSI. Cutting SSI would be unfair to workers since many have paid for this for a number of years. Also it will have little if any impact on the deficit.

I think a better way of handling Medicare Part D would be to set a high deductible, waived for low incomes and eliminate the GAP. During the deductible phase cover only generics. The program works quite well but at 50 billion a year, it needs to be cut.

 

[M14 Shooter]

I am not in favor of corporate welfare and CEO getting rich on the back of our tax dollars nor on destruction of the value of the dollar.

1. I would bring down defense spending, probably by half over a 10 year period. I would defend the US shores, but not prosecute wars of aggression we have no business in. See England, Russia. No troops in Germany or Japan. I would support development of high tech weaponry, as this has proved its value the last two decades. Cruise missiles, drones, our satellite eye in the sky, have all proven their worth. Aircraft carriers, AWACS, all good stuff. We spend 10 times what China or Russia spend, to maintain a huge offensive capability. This costs us too much money and too many lives, and we should reduce it substantially.
2. I would attack Medicare part D (repub screw up). For each illness, I would offer 1 out of 4 drugs on the market, some generic and some brand name. Lets say there are 40 blood pressure pills out there, I'd give away 10 for free (if prescribed by physician, 6 generic and 4 brand name). You would have to bid, and I'll take the 10 low bids. If you want a different pill, go buy it yourself. That would pressure the manufacturers to compete on price.
3. I would require all recipients of social security SSI payments to be certified by the SS doctor, not just their doctor. Maybe end SS-SSI altogether. This is being gamed by many, ripping off the working class. We need to look at social security much harder. I am not sure the problem is with retirees, as it is with the govt. letting too many people claim Disability and get payments for life when they could be working. Below I will post a quote on SSI.
4. I would allow private investigators to be bounty hunters on medicare fraud clinics. You bust one leading to conviction, you get 50K plus 10% of their fraudulent billings.
5. I would have medical boards set treatment standards, particularly end of life care. After a certain point, you go on DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and hospice care. That's what they do in Europe. If you have money and want to pay for more (or buy an additional insurance to pay for more), you can.
6. End most corporate welfare. Exxon does not need tax breaks, they make a fortune. Eliminate farm subsidies, the family farm is gone, just huge operators out there.
7. Bring back the clinton era tax rates, the rich can pay more, they used to pay more and the economy was doing fine.

There are only 5 areas that make up most of the fed. budget, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense, and Interest on the debt.

- You can't do anything about interest on the debt unless you balance the budget and run a surplus and use the surplus to pay down the debt. I'm not holding my breath. Actually, interest rates will rise from here and this must go up and nudge something else out.
- So, you have to deal with SS, Medicare, Medicaid and Defense to meaningly deal with the deficit.

QUOTE from Social Security website about SSI:

What About The SSI Program?

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program pays benefits to disabled adults and children who have limited income and resources.

SSI benefits are also payable to people 65 and older without disabilities who meet the financial limits.

Social Security's Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program

A friend in Houston tells me 10 families on his street, the husband, wife and daughter all are "disabled" and collect SSI; they all live in the same house. But, he sees them put the garbage can out on pick up day. The system is being gamed. The 10 families are not native americans, but migrated here.

Some good ideas.

Wait - you just agreed to "full spending ahead."
Make up your mind.

 

[Flopper]

Privatize Education, Ban all Government Unions and instantly................all budgets are balanced with ease.......





Democrats create ghettos....nothing more.

Education and govt. unions may be 3% of the entire budget if that so that is nothing if we totally eliminate both.

You have to cut the big ticket items: Social Security needs to go to mandatory age 66 retirement now, Medicare a means test now for wealthy seniors 25% of which have income over 80K today, Medicaid needs to be block grants to the states and all obsolete military bases need to be closed yesterday.
Those items will be 90% of the budget in 8 1/2 years and are over 60 % now.

Banning federal government unions would do little to reduce the budget since these unions do not have collective bargaining rights.

No to privatizing education. This would be a step in wrong direction.

 

[hortysir]

http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/PathToProsperityFY2012.pdf













is that cheating??

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

Enroll everyone on foodstamps thats the fastest way to stimulate the economy . Devalue the dollar the fastest way to pay down debt.

What ? My plan doesn't sound right?

 

[bripat9643]

Banning federal government unions would do little to reduce the budget since these unions do not have collective bargaining rights.

No to privatizing education. This would be a step in wrong direction.

Privatizing education is exactly the right direction to go.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

1. Increase taxes
2. Cut Spending

I challenge you to find a SINGLE instance of Congress passing a Tax increase AND cutting spending at the same time.

 

[Gadawg73]

1. Increase taxes
2. Cut Spending

I challenge you to find a SINGLE instance of Congress passing a Tax increase AND cutting spending at the same time.

Spending is the problem.
And privatizing education will not do much of anything to settle THE NATIONAL debt and deficit.
It social security and Medicare folks. Wake up.

 

[Big Black Dog]

I would cut the budget 15% across the board for every government program regardless of what it was, fire 15% of all government employees, fire 15% of all of the congress critters staff, and make it a mandatory law that no more than 90% of all moneys brought in by taxes could be spent by the President or congress and 10% of that generated income go strictly to paying down the debt. By law, no more money could be spent then was generated by income taxes and absolutely no borrowing of money form any overseas source. Tighten up that belt. No more foreign aid.

 

[candycorn]

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.

Good Question:

No time right now to itemize what I would get rid of out of this year's budget...the stuff that comes immediately to mind are as follows:

All New Weapons Systems DEVELOPMENT--not the research. No Virginia Class SSN, no F35 fighter. Ten year moratorium on all Federal Spending for the NEA (NPR/CPB funding if it's not part of that already). Fifty Percent reduction in all spending on foreign aid across the board.

I know the scrapped weapons systems would reduce $16 billion off of the budget over and above an other developments in weapons systems. Build more 688's, F18 Hornets, F22's... fantastic weapons systems already on the drawing boards. And it keeps Americans employed building tried and true weapons systems that are already second to none (or second to few if you're a fan of MIGs and the diesel powered Song Class).

I'm not sure how much the moratorium on NEA/CPB/NPR would save frankly. I love all of the above but in a situation as we are in now, we can't afford it. If you tell the afficianados (sp?) like me that for the next 12 years, you have to take up the slack; we can pony up for what we want. Wait Wait Don't Tell Me will survive; grants to art nobody wants to look at will falter. As it should be.

Cutting foreign aid by 50% is another light stroke of the brush where large brushes and bold colors are most needed but it is something we could totally get rid of and nobody stateside would notice. Do we really need an ambassador to Argentina? How much are we paying him or her? Why not send 10 more kids to college every year then paying for this guy to monitor the situation in Buenos Aires?

The goal is to do this; whatever you take in=your spending. No more hiding the costs for Afghanistan or Iraq in "special" budgets. Spending=income.

It is the most important thing.

----------------------

On the supply side....

Take a 12 year program (yes, a nationwide 12-step program); divide the deficit by 12 and raise taxes and fees over those 12 years to equal the deficit. Whether or not it's a rotating burden over those 12 years or the same lesser burden shared by all for 12 years is debatable.

I'd do the following things:

Rotate 1 every 3 years where nobody gets a tax refund; All that money goes to paying off the deficit.
Raise the price of a postage stamp to $0.75. All of the extra monies go to paying off the deficit.
Place a federal tax on the landing fees for offshore airlines, docking fees for foreign registered cruise ships. All of the monies go to paying off the deficit.
Raise fees for National Parks where fees are charged. All of the monies go to paying off the deficit.
Luxury taxes on purchases of high end vehicles, private jets, yachts, large real estate purchases, and other high ticket items. All of the monies go to paying off the deficit.
Tax the holy shit out of all offshore wire transfers. If you want to fund your tax shelter in the Cayman Islands, you can do that; you're going to get taxed for it. All of that new money will go to paying off the deficit.

---------------------

I am not comfortable with any debt per say but I understand the need for them.

The alarming thing to me is that the debt ceiling is raised so haphazardly. I find this behavior alarming. So I think we've gotten to the point where the debt ceiling just may be in the territory of Constitutional Amendments barring exceeding of an agreed upon level relative to GDP. The point isn't to strike the fear of God into our elected officials--many of whom are working hard for us--just to make it so hard to spend more money that its easier to cut spending.

 

[hortysir]

1. Increase taxes
2. Cut Spending

I challenge you to find a SINGLE instance of Congress passing a Tax increase AND cutting spending at the same time.

Spending is the problem.
And privatizing education will not do much of anything to settle THE NATIONAL debt and deficit.
It social security and Medicare folks. Wake up.

Why wouldn't privatizing education put a dent in the budget?
The President's 2012 budget proposal calls for a 10% increase over 2011 with a total of 77.4 billion dollars.
That's more than twice the amount of budget cuts Reid & Co. proposed recently.....

 

[Mr. Shaman]

I'd cut the military budget in half.

I'd defund HSA, too.

That would be the end of budget problems, folks.

Not even remotely close.

"The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade."

U.S. Military Spending; Almost Doubled Since 2001​

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7S8TRIyDjs]YouTube - Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers - Trailer[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXjCtkymRQ]YouTube - US Troops in Iraq talk about Halliburton & KBR[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5xT1DGJMoQ]YouTube - Bush on Contractors in Iraq[/ame]​

 

[Flopper]

Banning federal government unions would do little to reduce the budget since these unions do not have collective bargaining rights.

No to privatizing education. This would be a step in wrong direction.

Privatizing education is exactly the right direction to go.

Unlike public schools, private schools can choose their students thru entrance exams, and interviews with parents and students. They are looking for students that will do well without special attention and without special needs. Those that do not measure up to their standards are left to the public schools.

14% of the kids in school are special needs kids. This means special teachers working with the classroom teacher or special ed. classes. Private schools often will not take special ed. kids. Those that do will include the cost in tuition or rely on public education to provide for special ed. services.

It’s not just special ed. kids, but any kids that are going to be costly to educate such as kids with discipline problems, emotion disturbed, and social disadvantage kids will likely be left to public schools or specialized private schools.

According to the Department of Education the average cost of tuition for one year of private school for K-12 is $6600. There are damn few families with 3 kids that can afford $20,000 a year for tuition. Also unlike public schools, most private schools charge for all additional services such as busing and many extracurricular activities.

To provide education for all kids, the government would need to provide vouchers for most families. This would mean government oversight and control similar to what we have in public education. I think replacing public education with private education would end up being more costly with questionable results.

 

[hortysir]

Unlike public schools, private schools can choose their students thru entrance exams, and interviews with parents and students. They are looking for students that will do well without special attention and without special needs. Those that do not measure up to their standards are left to the public schools.

14% of the kids in school are special needs kids. This means special teachers working with the classroom teacher or special ed. classes. Private schools often will not take special ed. kids. Those that do will include the cost in tuition or rely on public education to provide for special ed. services.

It’s not just special ed. kids, but any kids that are going to be costly to educate such as kids with discipline problems, emotion disturbed, and social disadvantage kids will likely be left to public schools or specialized private schools.

According to the Department of Education the average cost of tuition for one year of private school for K-12 is $6600. There are damn few families with 3 kids that can afford $20,000 a year for tuition. Also unlike public schools, most private schools charge for all additional services such as busing and many extracurricular activities.

To provide education for all kids, the government would need to provide vouchers for most families. This would mean government oversight and control similar to what we have in public education. I think replacing public education with private education would end up being more costly with questionable results.

So parents can spend their money on their kids' education rather than flat-screen televisions, iPhones, etc....

Sounds like a good deal to me

 

[M14 Shooter]

Banning federal government unions would do little to reduce the budget since these unions do not have collective bargaining rights.
No to privatizing education. This would be a step in wrong direction.

Federal spending on education is miniscule.

 

[beowolfe]

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.

1. I'd close all US military bases in Germany.
2. I'd close all US military bases in the Netherlands.
3. I'd close all US military bases in England.
4. I'd close all US military bases in Japan (and any other countries financially capable of providing for their own defense).
5. I'd repeal the Bush tax cuts and make the repeal permanent.
6. I'd end subsidies to the oil, coal, and natural gas industries.
7. I'd end all subsidies to non-small businessess (including those one or two person companies that make millions each year).
8. After all of that, I'd look at medicaid, medicare, and social security to see what they look like from 2037 and beyond.
9. And after all of that, I'd impose a 25% import tariff on any American company who moved their manufacturing operations overseas to China or other third world companies and repeal any tax benefits they received for moving them.

 

[candycorn]

I'd cut the military budget in half.

I'd defund HSA, too.

That would be the end of budget problems, folks.

Not even remotely close.

"The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade."

U.S. Military Spending; Almost Doubled Since 2001​

LOL...

I don't know if its the end of the discussion but we spend WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much on defense especially on the next generation weapons. Meanwhile we're being attacked with primitive people using primitive means.

 

[M14 Shooter]

I'd cut the military budget in half.

I'd defund HSA, too.

That would be the end of budget problems, folks.

Not even remotely close.

"The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade."

Irrelevant to what I said.
In fact, you have yet to respond with anything relevant to anything anyone has said.