Poll shows Americans oppose entitlement cuts to deal with debt problem

[gautama]

Here is the US budget for this year.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy12/pdf/BUDGET-2012-BUD.pdf

Total expected spending: $3.8 trillion.
Total expected tax revenue: $2.2 trillion.

Deficit: $1.6 trillion.

If the government cannot issue any more debt, and we're not going to raise taxes, then the deficit must be eliminated by drastic spending cuts.

Interest payments are expected to be $200 billion. Those must be met, unless we are planning to default. Thus, we can only spend $2 trillion. Here are the line items of the budget.

Social security, $800 billion.
Medicare and medicaid, $800 billion.
Defense, $800 billion
Interest, $200 billion. (Can't cut that though.)
Everything else, $1.2 trillion.

As you can see, social security, medicare and medicaid, and defense account for $2.4 trillion in spending. That means if we eliminate "everything else," and I mean everything, we have to cut $400 billion from those three. What do you cut? Social security? Medicare and medicaid? Defense?

And remember, we don't have any government employees any more, because we fired them all, since they were part of "everything else," so no one will actually be collecting and disbursing any revenues from the government any more.



BTW, if we go cold turkey and are forced to match expenditures with revenues, i.e. not raise the debt ceiling, the government will stop spending $1.6 trillion a year, or about $130 billion a month, which accounts for 11.3% of GDP. IOW, GDP will start falling by about 1% a month. As a comparison, the economy fell by 3.1% top to bottom during this most recent recession. So forcing the government to balance its budget by not raising the debt ceiling would contract the economy in one quarter what it did during the entire recession.

Toroshit,

Pay attention, Obamarrhoidal idjit: READ Dick Morris's books: "REVOLT" & "CATASTROPHE".

A moron like you might not know that Dick Morris successfully Macro & Micro Managed Slick Willy's political career. He's gone through ALL the twists and turns of political maneuvering and is THE master of them.

And, here you are, a meaningless Obamarrhoidal fart, spurning invaluable insights, pontificating on what should be done when I am trying to instill an element of reason in what is, in effect, the blather of a lobotomized baboon.

It is fucking amazing how an insignificant insect like you can house such a stupendous ego.

 

[Toro]

lol @ gaytardma

"Read this book! I can't form an argument because I have no idea what I'm talking about!"

 

[Trajan]

Here is the US budget for this year.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy12/pdf/BUDGET-2012-BUD.pdf

Total expected spending: $3.8 trillion.
Total expected tax revenue: $2.2 trillion.

Deficit: $1.6 trillion.

If the government cannot issue any more debt, and we're not going to raise taxes, then the deficit must be eliminated by drastic spending cuts.

Interest payments are expected to be $200 billion. Those must be met, unless we are planning to default. Thus, we can only spend $2 trillion. Here are the line items of the budget.

Social security, $800 billion.
Medicare and medicaid, $800 billion.
Defense, $800 billion
Interest, $200 billion. (Can't cut that though.)
Everything else, $1.2 trillion.

As you can see, social security, medicare and medicaid, and defense account for $2.4 trillion in spending. That means if we eliminate "everything else," and I mean everything, we have to cut $400 billion from those three. What do you cut? Social security? Medicare and medicaid? Defense?

And remember, we don't have any government employees any more, because we fired them all, since they were part of "everything else," so no one will actually be collecting and disbursing any revenues from the government any more.



BTW, if we go cold turkey and are forced to match expenditures with revenues, i.e. not raise the debt ceiling, the government will stop spending $1.6 trillion a year, or about $130 billion a month, which accounts for 11.3% of GDP. IOW, GDP will start falling by about 1% a month. As a comparison, the economy fell by 3.1% top to bottom during this most recent recession. So forcing the government to balance its budget by not raising the debt ceiling would contract the economy in one quarter what it did during the entire recession.

interesting article here, in that we have not even started to have a discussion that cuts to the chase; a) we have half the country on some type of fed. sppt. be it through tax credits or in actual transfer payments, food stamps, housing subsidies etc.

I was listening to Samuelson on the radio on the way home from work today, he made a valid point which I have never heard mentioned anywhere probably because its too true and has become a third rail, in that for instance SS and Medicare are subsidies, not sppt. in that they are not meant to be the end all be all for anyone's retirement by and large but in addition to.....its was never meant to be 'the' retirement sppt. for anyone in toto, but we have lied so long and loud that has been forgotten and the expectation is the reverse.

here;

Big government on the brink
wash post
By Robert J. Samuelson, Sunday, April 10, 8:00 PM

We in America have created suicidal government; the threatened federal shutdown and stubborn budget deficits are but symptoms. By suicidal, I mean that government has promised more than it can realistically deliver and, as a result, repeatedly disappoints by providing less than people expect or jeopardizing what they already have. But government can’t easily correct its excesses, because Americans depend on it for so much that any effort to change the status arouses a firestorm of opposition that virtually ensures defeat. Government’s very expansion has brought it into disrepute, paralyzed politics and impeded it from acting in the national interest.


Few Americans realize the extent of their dependency. The Census Bureau reports that in 2009 almost half (46.2 percent) of the 300 million Americans received at least one federal benefit: 46.5 million, Social Security; 42.6 million, Medicare; 42.4 million, Medicaid; 36.1 million, food stamps; 3.2 million, veterans’ benefits; 12.4 million, housing subsidies. The census list doesn’t include tax breaks. Counting those, perhaps three-quarters or more of Americans receive some sizable government benefit. For example, about 22 percent of taxpayers benefit from the home mortgage interest deduction and 43 percent from the preferential treatment of employer-provided health insurance, says the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

“Once politics was about only a few things; today, it is about nearly everything,” writes the eminent political scientist James Q. Wilson in a recent collection of essays (“American Politics, Then and Now&#8221. The concept of “vital national interest” is stretched. We deploy government casually to satisfy any mass desire, correct any perceived social shortcoming or remedy any market deficiency. What has abetted this political sprawl, notes Wilson, is the rising influence of “action intellectuals” — professors, pundits, “experts” — who provide respectable rationales for various political agendas.

The consequence is political overload: The system can no longer make choices, especially unpleasant choices, for the good of the nation as a whole. Public opinion is hopelessly muddled. Polls by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago consistently show Americans want more spending for education (74 percent), health care (60 percent), Social Security (57 percent) and, indeed, almost everything. By the same polls, between half and two-thirds of Americans regularly feel their taxes are too high; in 2010, a paltry 2 percent thought them too low. Big budget deficits follow logically; but of course, most Americans want those trimmed, too.

more at-
Big government on the brink - The Washington Post

and you know, after reading this today;

CBO: Budget deal cuts this fiscal year’s deficit by just $353 million, not $38 billion touted

By Associated Press, Wednesday, April 13, 12:40 PM

WASHINGTON — A new budget estimate released Wednesday shows that the spending bill negotiated between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner would produce less than 1 percent of the $38 billion in claimed savings by the end of this budget year.

rest here-
CBO: Budget deal cuts this fiscal year’s deficit by just $353 million, not $38 billion touted - The Washington Post


all of this dreck over the last month, for what? This?And now because we have been boxed into a corner by the negotiations over ongoing resolutions we have no time to table bills calling for an enacting reductions in exchange for raising the debt. ceiling.....

I really seriously believe at this moment, we will have to see 'mini Athens' play out as in Greece fires in some major urban areas before we get serious, its all hooey.

 

[Toro]

Search tags for this page raising debt ceiling and illuminati

lol

I love those tags.

 

[Toro]

I won't bitch about any of that and I would love to see it. Can you link it? I honestly don't believe it but you can change my mind.

The Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (ADM) has been the most prominent recipient of corporate welfare in recent U.S. history. ADM and its chairman Dwayne Andreas have lavishly fertilized both political parties with millions of dollars in handouts and in return have reaped billion-dollar windfalls from taxpayers and consumers. Thanks to federal protection of the domestic sugar industry, ethanol subsidies, subsidized grain exports, and various other programs, ADM has cost the American economy billions of dollars since 1980 and has indirectly cost Americans tens of billions of dollars in higher prices and higher taxes over that same period. At least 43 percent of ADM's annual profits are from products heavily subsidized or protected by the American government. Moreover, every $1 of profits earned by ADM's corn sweetener operation costs consumers $10, and every $1 of profits earned by its ethanol operation costs taxpayers $30

Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study In Corporate Welfare

Theres one

I agree with you on this, but I don't believe that there are over a trillion dollars worth of subsidies given out to large corporations out there. The income tax brings in $1 trillion. I don't believe that subsidies cost anywhere near that much.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Well Toro...in your provided list:
Social security, $800 billion.
Medicare and medicaid, $800 billion.
Defense, $800 billion
Interest, $200 billion. (Can't cut that though.)
Everything else, $1.2 trillion.

Estimated fraud and waste:
Medicare/Medicaid - $60 Billion
Social Security fraud - $41 Billion
Defense overspending and fraud - impossible to accurately predict. Some estimates have it as high as $100 billion a year.

So there is a $200,000,000,000 hole to save some huge money.

Secondly, it is time to address what no politician wants to even glance at. The third rail of all third rails - Social Security.
Beginning with reducing or preferably eliminating social security payments to all individuals who have pensions above a certain number, or have a certain net-worth.

 

[Zander]

Aren't the democrats all talking about "shared sacrifice"? Start sharing bitches.....

 

[gautama]

lol @ gaytardma

"Read this book! I can't form an argument because I have no idea what I'm talking about!"

Citing and agreeing with a renown political expert Dick Morris, who successfully Macro & Micro Managed Slick Willy's political career causes this Obamarrhoidal meaningless fart, Toroshit, to continue to babble like a lobotomized baboon.

But, then that would be what one would expect.

 

[HannahM]

You know, I'm a high schooler and even I can see that clearly raising taxes isn't what this country needs right now. We not only have a spending problem, but it seems that we have somewhat of a moral issue. Since when is the government supposed to baby the people and pay for every little thing? I thought it was for possibly making laws and protecting us from foreign threats... We really need to be weaned off most if not all of these social programs that America has begun to use as a crutch. Only then will the debt truly go down. And why should we give the government even more power by handing over our hard earned money for them to merely use it like it means nothing to them? I haven't seen any proof by either the Democrats nor the Republicans that they will stop their little spending sprees. Until we get a new group of people in office that really listen to the American people and stop foolishly spending money, I will continue to be unconvinced that Congress knows what's right for America.

 

[Toro]

lol @ gaytardma

"Read this book! I can't form an argument because I have no idea what I'm talking about!"

Citing and agreeing with a renown political expert Dick Morris, who successfully Macro & Micro Managed Slick Willy's political career causes this Obamarrhoidal meaningless fart, Toroshit, to continue to babble like a lobotomized baboon.

But, then that would be what one would expect.

gaytardma

Since you are completely incapable of articulating a coherent argument because you haven't got the remotest clue, go back to your book by the political operative and see if he says we should cut 11% of GDP all at once, which is what not raising the debt ceiling means. Try and understand the difference between cutting spending over time and cutting 11% of GDP all at once, you moron. Then go out and learn how to read a balance sheet and an income statement and THEN come back and give us something other than an ignorant and uneducated opinion.

 

[uscitizen]

What to cut?
Any road repair or construction not paid for by gas tax dollars.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

You know, I'm a high schooler and even I can see that clearly raising taxes isn't what this country needs right now. We not only have a spending problem, but it seems that we have somewhat of a moral issue. Since when is the government supposed to baby the people and pay for every little thing? I thought it was for possibly making laws and protecting us from foreign threats... We really need to be weaned off most if not all of these social programs that America has begun to use as a crutch. Only then will the debt truly go down. And why should we give the government even more power by handing over our hard earned money for them to merely use it like it means nothing to them? I haven't seen any proof by either the Democrats nor the Republicans that they will stop their little spending sprees. Until we get a new group of people in office that really listen to the American people and stop foolishly spending money, I will continue to be unconvinced that Congress knows what's right for America.

A small glimmer of hope for the country.

 

[Dr Grump]

Here is the US budget for this year.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy12/pdf/BUDGET-2012-BUD.pdf

Total expected spending: $3.8 trillion.
Total expected tax revenue: $2.2 trillion.

Deficit: $1.6 trillion.

If the government cannot issue any more debt, and we're not going to raise taxes, then the deficit must be eliminated by drastic spending cuts.

Interest payments are expected to be $200 billion. Those must be met, unless we are planning to default. Thus, we can only spend $2 trillion. Here are the line items of the budget.

Social security, $800 billion.
Medicare and medicaid, $800 billion.
Defense, $800 billion
Interest, $200 billion. (Can't cut that though.)
Everything else, $1.2 trillion.

As you can see, social security, medicare and medicaid, and defense account for $2.4 trillion in spending. That means if we eliminate "everything else," and I mean everything, we have to cut $400 billion from those three. What do you cut? Social security? Medicare and medicaid? Defense?

And remember, we don't have any government employees any more, because we fired them all, since they were part of "everything else," so no one will actually be collecting and disbursing any revenues from the government any more.



BTW, if we go cold turkey and are forced to match expenditures with revenues, i.e. not raise the debt ceiling, the government will stop spending $1.6 trillion a year, or about $130 billion a month, which accounts for 11.3% of GDP. IOW, GDP will start falling by about 1% a month. As a comparison, the economy fell by 3.1% top to bottom during this most recent recession. So forcing the government to balance its budget by not raising the debt ceiling would contract the economy in one quarter what it did during the entire recession.

Get rid of your bases in Europe and Japan...And don't tell me neocons that "they want us there". Too bad. Since when did you guys ever listen to dern furriners anyways....

 

[Mr Liberty]

Don't cut spending or raise taxes, Just keep printing. I have a lot of commodities, Oil, Gold, Silver & Farm Land. I would like to be a Multi-Millionaire soon.

It won't increase your buying power. The dollar will just devalue. I'm heavy into silver.

 

[M14 Shooter]

I'm sure if you ended the subsidies for the oil companies, conagra, monsanto and the sugar brothers in Florida. You'd find that 1.2 trillion or close to it.

I'm sure you're full of horsepucky.
Disagree?
Show the numbers for these subsidies.

No cause you will just bitch about the numbers, the source, or the date it was posted. Dont have time to attept educating someone who will fight every piece of evidence presented.

Traslation:
You're talking out of your ass and you know it.
You won't even -try- to support your claim because you know you cannot - both in terms of you being able to find the information, and that the information doe snot supprt what you said.

What remains? You being full of horsepucky.

 

[M14 Shooter]

I won't bitch about any of that and I would love to see it. Can you link it? I honestly don't believe it but you can change my mind.

The Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (ADM) has been the most prominent recipient of corporate welfare in recent U.S. history. ADM and its chairman Dwayne Andreas have lavishly fertilized both political parties with millions of dollars in handouts and in return have reaped billion-dollar windfalls from taxpayers and consumers. Thanks to federal protection of the domestic sugar industry, ethanol subsidies, subsidized grain exports, and various other programs, ADM has cost the American economy billions of dollars since 1980 and has indirectly cost Americans tens of billions of dollars in higher prices and higher taxes over that same period. At least 43 percent of ADM's annual profits are from products heavily subsidized or protected by the American government. Moreover, every $1 of profits earned by ADM's corn sweetener operation costs consumers $10, and every $1 of profits earned by its ethanol operation costs taxpayers $30

Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study In Corporate Welfare

Theres one

I rest my case - nothing here supports your statement.

 

[gautama]

lol @ gaytardma

"Read this book! I can't form an argument because I have no idea what I'm talking about!"

Citing and agreeing with a renown political expert Dick Morris, who successfully Macro & Micro Managed Slick Willy's political career causes this Obamarrhoidal meaningless fart, Toroshit, to continue to babble like a lobotomized baboon.

But, then that would be what one would expect.

gaytardma

Since you are completely incapable of articulating a coherent argument because you haven't got the remotest clue, go back to your book by the political operative and see if he says we should cut 11% of GDP all at once, which is what not raising the debt ceiling means. Try and understand the difference between cutting spending over time and cutting 11% of GDP all at once, you moron. Then go out and learn how to read a balance sheet and an income statement and THEN come back and give us something other than an ignorant and uneducated opinion.

Toroshit,

Apparently, in addition to your other MONUMENTAL shortcomings, you don't know how to read.

Go back and READ what I stated instead of orchestrating a fantasy series of strawmen.

Then READ Dick Morris's books: "REVOLT" & "CATASTROPHE" because I cited and agree with Mr. Morris 100%.

Whatever you claim Dick Morris is, he DID successfully Macro & Micro Manage Slick Willy's political doings.......AND, DICK MORRIS IS VOCIFEROUSLY AGAINST THE CATASTROPHIC MARXIST AGENDA OF THE EX-COMMUNITY ORGANIZER FROM THE CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE "ACORN"........AND THE "SHINING STAR" WHO WHIZZED THRU THE RANKS OF THE MOST NOTORIOUSLY CORRUPT COMMIE/MAFIOSO LADEN CHICAGO POLITICAL MACHINE WHERE EVEN A DOG-CATCHER CAN'T GET ELECTED WITHOUT THE OK OF THE TOP CROOKS !!!!

........or, are you going to somehow obfuscate and distort those IRREFUTABLE FACTS also ?!?!?!?

C'mon you phoney Obamarrhoidal fart......I want to hear your Toroshit regarding Obami Salaami and his political qualifications to make his BIZZARO, & IDIOTICALLY DISASTROUS SOLUTIONS !!!

 

[Toro]

Citing and agreeing with a renown political expert Dick Morris, who successfully Macro & Micro Managed Slick Willy's political career causes this Obamarrhoidal meaningless fart, Toroshit, to continue to babble like a lobotomized baboon.

But, then that would be what one would expect.

gaytardma

Since you are completely incapable of articulating a coherent argument because you haven't got the remotest clue, go back to your book by the political operative and see if he says we should cut 11% of GDP all at once, which is what not raising the debt ceiling means. Try and understand the difference between cutting spending over time and cutting 11% of GDP all at once, you moron. Then go out and learn how to read a balance sheet and an income statement and THEN come back and give us something other than an ignorant and uneducated opinion.

Toroshit,

Apparently, in addition to your other MONUMENTAL shortcomings, you don't know how to read.

Go back and READ what I stated instead of orchestrating a fantasy series of strawmen.

Then READ Dick Morris's books: "REVOLT" & "CATASTROPHE" because I cited and agree with Mr. Morris 100%.

Whatever you claim Dick Morris is, he DID successfully Macro & Micro Manage Slick Willy's political doings.......AND, DICK MORRIS IS VOCIFEROUSLY AGAINST THE CATASTROPHIC MARXIST AGENDA OF THE EX-COMMUNITY ORGANIZER FROM THE CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE "ACORN"........AND THE "SHINING STAR" WHO WHIZZED THRU THE RANKS OF THE MOST NOTORIOUSLY CORRUPT COMMIE/MAFIOSO LADEN CHICAGO POLITICAL MACHINE WHERE EVEN A DOG-CATCHER CAN'T GET ELECTED WITHOUT THE OK OF THE TOP CROOKS !!!!

........or, are you going to somehow obfuscate and distort those IRREFUTABLE FACTS also ?!?!?!?

C'mon you phoney Obamarrhoidal fart......I want to hear your Toroshit regarding Obami Salaami and his political qualifications to make his BIZZARO, & IDIOTICALLY DISASTROUS SOLUTIONS !!!

gaytardma

Thanks for repeatedly proving that you're not batshit crazy. You have no idea what we're talking about.

 

[gautama]

gaytardma

Since you are completely incapable of articulating a coherent argument because you haven't got the remotest clue, go back to your book by the political operative and see if he says we should cut 11% of GDP all at once, which is what not raising the debt ceiling means. Try and understand the difference between cutting spending over time and cutting 11% of GDP all at once, you moron. Then go out and learn how to read a balance sheet and an income statement and THEN come back and give us something other than an ignorant and uneducated opinion.

Toroshit,

Apparently, in addition to your other MONUMENTAL shortcomings, you don't know how to read.

Go back and READ what I stated instead of orchestrating a fantasy series of strawmen.

Then READ Dick Morris's books: "REVOLT" & "CATASTROPHE" because I cited and agree with Mr. Morris 100%.

Whatever you claim Dick Morris is, he DID successfully Macro & Micro Manage Slick Willy's political doings.......AND, DICK MORRIS IS VOCIFEROUSLY AGAINST THE CATASTROPHIC MARXIST AGENDA OF THE EX-COMMUNITY ORGANIZER FROM THE CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE "ACORN"........AND THE "SHINING STAR" WHO WHIZZED THRU THE RANKS OF THE MOST NOTORIOUSLY CORRUPT COMMIE/MAFIOSO LADEN CHICAGO POLITICAL MACHINE WHERE EVEN A DOG-CATCHER CAN'T GET ELECTED WITHOUT THE OK OF THE TOP CROOKS !!!!

........or, are you going to somehow obfuscate and distort those IRREFUTABLE FACTS also ?!?!?!?

C'mon you phoney Obamarrhoidal fart......I want to hear your Toroshit regarding Obami Salaami and his political qualifications to make his BIZZARO, & IDIOTICALLY DISASTROUS SOLUTIONS !!!

gaytardma

Thanks for repeatedly proving that you're not batshit crazy.

Toroshit,

Is THIS your way of weaseling out of the checkmate, you Obamarrhoidal arsehole ????

And, BTW..... I notice that you added to your preceding post the SECOND sentence. You're kinda fucked up aren'tcha ????

 

[Toro]

Toroshit,

Is THIS your way of weaseling out of the checkmate, you Obamarrhoidal arsehole ????

You have no idea what we are discussing. You are completely clueless.

And you have a weird scatalogical obsession.