What Can We Cut to Balance the Budget?

[Dissent]

What Can We Cut to Balance the Budget?

Why's it matter...neither of the 2 idiots are going to balance the budget anyways...they would rather spend spend spend and just drive us over the cliff and wash their hands out it...

 

[SniperFire]

You know, quantity of thread starts is no substitute for lack of quality.

 

[LAfrique]

What Can We Cut to Balance the Budget?

Why's it matter...neither of the 2 idiots are going to balance the budget anyways...they would rather spend spend spend and just drive us over the cliff and wash their hands out it...

I am afraid you are correct that neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney will actually balance the budget by end of 2016; unless of course, government finally realizes sending troops to other nations in attempts to suppress and oppress folks is very expensive and causing the US to sink into economic crisis:

Barack Obama will do what warlike US government wants: Create wars to allegedly generate revenue and create jobs for otherwise hopeless US citizens;

Republican war-loving Mitt Romney will create more wars to intimidate folks in their homelands, and to allegedly generate revenue and create jobs for otherwise hopeless US citizens.

 

[g5000]

I have no doubt in my military mind that we will still have budget deficits in 2016 no matter who wins the election.

When you hear Romney say "revenue neutral" when talking about his tax plan, that means the existing budget $trillion+ deficit cannot be brought down with extra monies. It will have to be brought down solely by spending cuts, and I don't see that happening to the level necessary.

No way, no how.

So a plague on both their houses.





1. We need to raise the Social Security and Medicare eligibility age to at least 70. We are living longer, we should be working longer. If life expectancy climbs to 100, are we going to be spending one third of our lives living on federal entitlements?

When Social Security was enacted, average life expectancy was 60. It is Social Security Insurance. Insurance means not everyone collects. Somewhere along the way, "insurance" became entitlement. Quite a hat trick they pulled.

When Social Security was enacted, 6 percent of the US population was over the age of 65. Today, 13 percent are over the age of 65. That is literally a more than doubling of our Social Security entitlement load.

If we raise the retirement age by five years, that is five more years you pay in, and five less years you take out.

That would result in an astronomical savings.


2. The mortage interest tax deduction must go. Virtually every economist of every orientation believes this. This is a hugely regressive tax, and the deduction is built into the price of a house. Take it away, and the price of houses will drop, making them more affordable without government incentives.

For those who already own a house which had the deduction priced in, you grandfather their deduction. Take away the deduction for all new purchases going forward.



3. The employer provided health insurance tax exemption must go. ObamaCare actually embedded this deduction even deeper into the tax law. Obama took a broken machine and made it even more broken.

Take away the exemption and buy insurance for yourself. Instead of your employer funding $10,000 of your insurance, he pays you that in salary instead. This way your hands won't be tied to two or three plans provided by your employer. You pick what options you want and what options you don't want, just like you do with your life, auto, and home insurance.

Right now, the US taxpayer is subsidizing every American who receives employer provided healthcare.

Take that subsidy away, and we can support those who have catastrophic illnesses that actually need help.


4. The more you tax something, the less of it you get. Stop taxing production and labor, start taxing consumption.



The solutions are not that difficult. Finding enough politicians with the courage to enact them appears to be impossible.

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[Sinjorri]

What Can We Cut to Balance the Budget?

Why's it matter...neither of the 2 idiots are going to balance the budget anyways...they would rather spend spend spend and just drive us over the cliff and wash their hands out it...

I am afraid you are correct that neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney will actually balance the budget by end of 2016; unless of course, government finally realizes sending troops to other nations in attempts to suppress and oppress folks is very expensive and causing the US to sink into economic crisis:

Barack Obama will do what warlike US government wants: Create wars to allegedly generate revenue and create jobs for otherwise hopeless US citizens;

Republican war-loving Mitt Romney will create more wars to intimidate folks in their homelands, and to allegedly generate revenue and create jobs for otherwise hopeless US citizens.

ask the soliders if they have a problem taking out the evil people on this planet.

 

[waltky]

Granny says spendin' more money to balance the budget makes about as much sense as havin' more guns to bring about gun control...

Balancing the Budget: ‘The President Asked for Money for Stimulating the Economy’
December 20, 2012 – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, “We have to make sure that the country is expanding” with stimulus spending, when asked Thursday what year his fiscal plan would balance the budget.

CNSNews.com asked Reid during a press conference on Capitol Hill about both his and the president’s plans to avert the so-called fiscal cliff at the end of the year. CNSNews.com asked: “The president said yesterday that under his proposal he’s put forward it would ‘stabilize our deficit and debt for a decade.’ Does that mean that we would see more than $1 trillion deficits for the next 10 years? And what year would we see a balanced budget under your plan or his plan?” “Well, it’s quite the opposite,” Reid said. “Even a fiscal hawk like Kent Conrad [D-N.D.] realizes that we have to do something with the deficit.” “But,” Reid said, “We also have to make sure that the country is expanding. “And that’s why the president wants to make sure that we take care of the people who’ve been out of work for such a long period of time, renew the unemployment compensation,” Reid said. “That’s why the president asked for money for stimulating the economy,” he said. “The president’s plan is one that virtually all economists except Grover Norquist agrees with,” Reid added.

On Wednesday President Barack Obama said he has offered a proposal—which included $1.6 trillion in tax hikes on the wealthy as well as at least $50 billion in additional stimulus spending—that is “balanced.” “If you look at the package that I’ve put forward, it is a balanced package by any definition,” he said. “We have put forward real cuts in spending that are hard to do in every category. “And by any measure, by any traditional calculation, by the measures that Republicans themselves have used in the past, this would be a -- as large a piece of deficit reduction as we’ve seen in the last 20 years,” Obama said. “And if you combine that with the increased revenue from the wealthy paying a little bit more, then you actually have something that would stabilize our deficit and debt for a decade, for 10 years.”

Under President Obama, the government has operated on budget deficits topping $1 trillion for four straight years. Talks to avert the fiscal cliff—or the automatic across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts to take effect on Jan. 1—have reached a standstill, leading House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to float “Plan B.” Under Boehner’s proposal, which will be voted on in the House Thursday afternoon, the marginal tax rate for people earning $1 million or more per year would rise to 39.6 percent, and certain deductions and loopholes would end. The White House has rejected the proposal. Reid and other leading Senate Democrats said during a press conference on the fiscal cliff Thursday that “Plan B” would be “dead on arrival,” in the Senate, urging Boehner to resume talks with the president.

Reid on Balancing the Budget:

 

[Avatar4321]

Everything

 

[Billo_Really]

What Can We Cut to Balance the Budget?

Why's it matter...neither of the 2 idiots are going to balance the budget anyways...they would rather spend spend spend and just drive us over the cliff and wash their hands out it...

We could cut the defense budget in half and end these 2 bullshit wars that are costing us $12 billion a month.

 

[g5000]

What Can We Cut to Balance the Budget?

Why's it matter...neither of the 2 idiots are going to balance the budget anyways...they would rather spend spend spend and just drive us over the cliff and wash their hands out it...

We could cut the defense budget in half and end these 2 bullshit wars that are costing us $12 billion a month.

Yep. We have more than doubled the Defense budget since 9/11.

The wars are over. Time to return to pre-war level spending. There simply is no excuse for not doing so.

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[Billo_Really]

Yep. We have more than doubled the Defense budget since 9/11.

The wars are over. Time to return to pre-war level spending. There simply is no excuse for not doing so.

.

I wonder how much the Dept of Homeland Security costs us every year?

 

[g5000]

Yep. We have more than doubled the Defense budget since 9/11.

The wars are over. Time to return to pre-war level spending. There simply is no excuse for not doing so.

.

I wonder how much the Dept of Homeland Security costs us every year?

Well, they save a lot of money by not getting warrants...

.

 

[Billo_Really]

Well, they save a lot of money by not getting warrants...

.

I guess it would?

"Okay, you...........you............and you, with the Cindy Sheehan t-shirt,
all turn around and put your hands on your head..........NOW!"​

 

[jwoodie]

Freeze all per capita federal expenditures (no COLAs) until inflation and/or economic growth balances the budget. Guaranteed to work, but would probably require a Constitutional Amendment to enforce.

 

[Politico]

Cut everything. And eliminate all deductions.

 

[Gadawg73]

Immediate audits of everyone on Social Security Disability. After the audit end the checks to the 60% of those folks imiiediately.
Immediate audits of retiring and end of duty military. We know of many retired military on almost full disability PLUS their retirement pay and they are now working as contractors in Afghanistan. Sprained ankles during training 17 years ago can qualify you for extra benefits if the paper trail afterwards is worked. And NO politician has the guts to tackle this increasing problem. 50% of those troops are applying for some kind of this disability now. We need to fund the ones that are hurt but this has to end.
End all retirement funds for all Congress and Federal politicians.
End all government unions
Close obsolete military bases.
Eliminate all grants to cities and municipalities and states.
End Medicare and go to health clinics.
End all health benefits to any government employee that smokes.
End free lunch programs at schools. States and charities can fund that.
End food stamps. See above.
Just the start.

 

[g5000]

Immediate audits of retiring and end of duty military. We know of many retired military on almost full disability PLUS their retirement pay and they are now working as contractors in Afghanistan. Sprained ankles during training 17 years ago can qualify you for extra benefits if the paper trail afterwards is worked. And NO politician has the guts to tackle this increasing problem. 50% of those troops are applying for some kind of this disability now. We need to fund the ones that are hurt but this has to end.

Yep. I just recently was asked to give my feedback on some veterans' issues. I specifically mentioned that during the transition training I was given just prior to my retirement, we were all coached on how to apply for disability. It really pissed me off. We were taught how to apply for disability for physical impairments that are part of the normal aging process.

As you said, there are vets who have real and serious disabilities as a result of their military service. But there are a great number who are receiving disability for completely bogus reasons.

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