[Toshi]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html

Make sure to click "Hide mandatory spending" and then see how you'd cut $1.26 Trillion out of what's left.



CN: Anyone who suggests, as the Republicans do, that they'll balance the budget while "preserving" the ridiculous military budget and leaving SS and Medicare untouched is completely full of ****.

 

[sanjuro]

Leave it for the next generation.

 

[Straya]

Put that "the rents are too damn high" dude in charge.

He seems like a straight shooter with upper management written all over him.

 

[jonKranked]

Legalize and tax marijuana.

Divert a portion of military spending to education. More education = smarter next generation, who hopefully won't muck things up so much.

 

[amishmatt]

Cut all Medicare benefits for fat people.

 

[Pesqueeb]

If you cut military spending in half were still spending more than the next 8 highest countries combined. We spend more in military budget overruns than North Korea spends on its entire military. Its time to realize that trying to maintain an empire is unsustainable.

I also like Jonkrankeds idea but I don't think that even begins to generate the sort of cash thats needed.

*edit: Winnar on Amish Matts idea

 

[clarkenstein]

up the death tax to something like 90% and kill off arkansas.

 

[dante]

Deport fat people.



On a serious note, cut $600b from the military and raise taxes to cover the rest.

Done.

 

[jonKranked]

deport fat people? cut health care benefits? please.

Take anyone classified as class II obese (severely obese, next step up is morbidly) and put them to work doing menial labor - farming, manufacturing, etc. They'll take over all the jobs that migrant (read: illegal) workers fill (if all goes according to plan migrants will leave), by doing manual labor they'll lose weight, alleviating health issues ultimately reducing their strain on the medical system. Also, there's enough fatties in the US that we can start doing manufacturing domestically again.

So, to recap:
-put fatties to work, creates jobs.
-fatties working = fattings becoming non fatties
-gets rid of illegals

3 birds, one stone. Boo-ya! Am I good or what? JonKranked for Prez 2012

 

[stoney]

JonKranked + Half military budget + eliminate welfare for anyone who has a kid >10 months after going onto welfare + cut unemployment benefits for anyone who has been off work > 1yr (if you can't find work, either move or work for less - that's life) + end life-time congressional pensions and put them onto a corporate PPO plan (welcome to the real world guys)+ eliminate mandatory 5% YoY increase to budget (freeze numerical value spending) + write laws to force congress (the actual congress people) to read and understand EVERY page of legislation that they put into effect, signing off on the accuracy and understanding of the docs (hello sarbanes-oxley)(this would also slow down the rate of legislation) + Eliminate all govt departments that are not constitutionally mandated + bring the military home, and make the military defend borders and be airport security (double cost savings: no intl wars, and on-site army to prevent terrorist threats - see europe)

 

[amishmatt]

@ JK: Add "BJ's prevent cancer" to your platform, and you've got my vote!

 

[jonKranked]

JonKranked + Half military budget + eliminate welfare for anyone who has a kid >10 months after going onto welfare + cut unemployment benefits for anyone who has been off work > 1yr (if you can't find work, either move or work for less - that's life) + end life-time congressional pensions and put them onto a corporate PPO plan (welcome to the real world guys)+ eliminate mandatory 5% YoY increase to budget (freeze numerical value spending) + write laws to force congress (the actual congress people) to read and understand EVERY page of legislation that they put into effect, signing off on the accuracy and understanding of the docs (hello sarbanes-oxley)(this would also slow down the rate of legislation) + Eliminate all govt departments that are not constitutionally mandated + bring the military home, and make the military defend borders and be airport security (double cost savings: no intl wars, and on-site army to prevent terrorist threats - see europe)

can we take part of the military budget being cut and put it towards education?

 

[stoney]

can we take part of the military budget being cut and put it towards education?

Yes, that. I missed that part.

*edit* better idea, 1/3 military budget, send 1/3 to education, and eliminate remaining 1/3. That would still provide a MASSIVE amount of money to ed, more than enough for personell, and cut overall govt money grabs.

 

[dante]

JonKranked + Half military budget + eliminate welfare for anyone who has a kid >10 months after going onto welfare + cut unemployment benefits for anyone who has been off work > 1yr (if you can't find work, either move or work for less - that's life) + end life-time congressional pensions and put them onto a corporate PPO plan (welcome to the real world guys)+ eliminate mandatory 5% YoY increase to budget (freeze numerical value spending) + write laws to force congress (the actual congress people) to read and understand EVERY page of legislation that they put into effect, signing off on the accuracy and understanding of the docs (hello sarbanes-oxley)(this would also slow down the rate of legislation) + Eliminate all govt departments that are not constitutionally mandated + bring the military home, and make the military defend borders and be airport security (double cost savings: no intl wars, and on-site army to prevent terrorist threats - see europe)

Aside from the $400b that you'd save from the military budget, the rest of your claims add up to *maybe* $100m. Maybe. Unemployment Insurance is already scheduled to be halved for 2011, so you're just mimicking Obama's budget request (ie, no savings). Congressional pensions are worth jack sh!t in terms of real dollars, eliminating mandatory 5% YoY increase doesn't actually *decrease* anything, and just having congressmen read bills doesn't actually decrease anything either. Your "constitutional mandate" argument falls flat, since the Federal Government is constitutionally required to provide for the general welfare of the people:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United State

Military - see original cost savings. Furthermore, using the military as airport screeners? Yeah, I want someone that the US Gov't spent $500,000 training to stand there and watch when my bag goes through the scanner. Awesome use of taxpayer dollars.

Face it, there is NO way that you can balance the budget without raising taxes or massive cuts to the same programs that the GOP has been claiming to want to "save".

 

[jonKranked]

Yes, that. I missed that part.

*edit* better idea, 1/3 military budget, send 1/3 to education, and eliminate remaining 1/3. That would still provide a MASSIVE amount of money to ed, more than enough for personell, and cut overall govt money grabs.

here's a thought, what if we mandated that the military budget must be fiscally responsible / efficient, restore proper bidding for contracts - and all contracts must be scrutinized for pork, etc (i know i know, pipe dreams). If we did this I bet the military could run just was well on a quarter of the budget it has now.

 

[Heidi]

So, to recap:
-put fatties to work, creates jobs.
-fatties working = fattings becoming non fatties
-gets rid of illegals

3 birds, one stone. Boo-ya! Am I good or what? JonKranked for Prez 2012

Best quote of the day.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Face it, there is NO way that you can balance the budget without raising taxes or massive cuts to the same programs that the GOP has been claiming to want to "save".

I also should have added "raise taxes". Although I have not the math skills to know how much you would have to do that if we were spending 355.5 billion dollars less a year on the military.

 

[jonKranked]

i think we could be ok without raising taxes across the board if we added another tax bracket up top.

 

[dante]

I also should have added "raise taxes". Although I have not the math skills to know how much you would have to do that if we were spending 355.5 billion dollars less a year on the military.

Current deficit: $1.3 trillion

So..... you'd only have to come up with an extra $1 trillion or so, give/take a hundred bil.

 

[dante]

i think we could be ok without raising taxes across the board if we added another tax bracket up top.

Why not make the top level taxes dependent on the rich/poor gap? The bigger the gap between the highest 2% of earners and the median income, the bigger the tax is on those 2%. That way it'll give an incentive to CEO's and upper management to actually pay their lower-end workers better...

 

[jonKranked]

Why not make the top level taxes dependent on the rich/poor gap? The bigger the gap between the highest 2% of earners and the median income, the bigger the tax is on those 2%. That way it'll give an incentive to CEO's and upper management to actually pay their lower-end workers better...

that sounds like redistribution of wealth, and that's SOCIALIST!!!

 

[Pesqueeb]

that sounds like redistribution of wealth, and that's SOCIALIST!!!

Why do you hate Freedom® Dante?

 

[jonKranked]

actually its a really good idea. it may not coerce them to raise worker wages, but might get them to drop their own wages to reduce the gap, or possibly increase charitable donations (reduces taxable income).

 

[stevew]

i wouldn't.

 

[dante]

actually its a really good idea. it may not coerce them to raise worker wages, but might get them to drop their own wages to reduce the gap, or possibly increase charitable donations (reduces taxable income).

I got the idea from the ESOP structure, a 100% capitalist way to transfer company ownership from it's founders to the workers (and avoid paying taxes for a LOOOOOONG time). If there's ever an unequal distribution of "ownership" shares of the company, there has to be a redistribution to reduce it. It's a way to prohibit a few of the top management from grabbing most of the company ownership while not compensating the rest of the employees...

 

[moff_quigley]

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[IH8Rice]

Why not make the top level taxes dependent on the rich/poor gap? The bigger the gap between the highest 2% of earners and the median income, the bigger the tax is on those 2%. That way it'll give an incentive to CEO's and upper management to actually pay their lower-end workers better...

horrible idea

 

[ridiculous]

start over or completely eliminate dept of education.
people 55 and over get all the entitlements promised, everyone else has time and therefore must take some sort of a cut.
combat tax neutrality.
Significant changes to incentivize domestic energy production.
Start enforcing the law. (SEC, FDIC need to step it up)
Reduce defense budget.

 

[ridiculous]

Why not make the top level taxes dependent on the rich/poor gap? The bigger the gap between the highest 2% of earners and the median income, the bigger the tax is on those 2%. That way it'll give an incentive to CEO's and upper management to actually pay their lower-end workers better...

Isnt that the point of originally having corporate tax rates at 39% or so? As that encourages companies to spend more on equipment, give bonuses, wage increases etc.

 

[jonKranked]

drug tests for unemployment / welfare / food stamps

 

[amishmatt]

And mandatory sterilization if you're receiving welfare and have kids.

 

[stoney]

drug tests for unemployment / welfare / food stamps

F.T.W.

 

[Silver]

I'm all for cutting the military, but what are you going to do with a bunch of newly unemployed paid killers roaming the country bored?

They can't all be policeman, you know.

 

[MikeD]

I'm all for cutting the military, but what are you going to do with a bunch of newly unemployed paid killers roaming the country bored?

They can't all be policeman, you know.

Hell's Angels are always hiring.

 

[jonKranked]

I'm all for cutting the military, but what are you going to do with a bunch of newly unemployed paid killers roaming the country bored?

They can't all be policeman, you know.

maybe we can finally keep illegals from coming in down at the border

 

[Silver]

Hell's Angels are always hiring.

Yeah, but how many more shows can the Stones realistically play?

 

[syadasti]

maybe we can finally keep illegals from coming in down at the border

You mean up at the border. According to Sharron Angle the problem is the Canadian border

 

[jonKranked]

You mean up at the border. According to Sharron Angle the problem is the Canadian border

they're trying to get away from all that free socialist healthcare

 

[ohio]

Make sure to click "Hide mandatory spending" and then see how you'd cut $1.26 Trillion out of what's left.

How mandatory is the "mandatory" spending? Really. The claim is that it's fixed by law, and not part of the budgeting process, but that doesn't mean we can't rewrite the laws... that's supposedly what congress does, right?

My take away is that we need to re-evaluate military spending AND what we treat as mandatory (in addition to raising taxes).

 

[ridiculous]

Roughly all of the money we borrow goes to paying for things outside of entitlement spending. So entitlements are the area that needs some major rework. That and actually increasing revenue (not just taxing the rich, more so fixing the middle class).