[BurlyShirley]

1. Obviously, cut the ridiculous military spending by at least half.

2. End medicare at 80 years old. You had your run. The rest is between your personal finances and nature. Social security can stay as can funding for hospice care.

3. Institute death panels immediately.

4. Encourage abortion and fund them federally. This will save us a ton in welfare payments down the road.

5. Legalize Marijuana and reduce prison populations by what... half?

6. Take all the military guys and prisoners who need jobs and put them to work dismantling coal plants and hydro dams, and building federally subsidized solar panels, windmills and nuclear plants. We will save money here by not fighting trillion dollar oil wars.

7. End subsidies to the big corn farms and eliminate all taxes on "healthy" foods like vegetables and lean meats so they can compete with the agribusiness unhealthful BS. This will save us a bundle down the road in healthcare costs.

8. Tax churches/Pastor salaries, etc. These f*ckers are making a mint selling NOTHING!

9. End all the wars. Close all the foreign military bases.

10. Tax the ever-loving sh*t out of US based companies building stuff overseas and selling it here... such that it's cheaper to manufacture it in the US. I dont care if the prices go up... people need to learn to get by with less or the world's going to go to sh*t, AND people here need to work... then we can tax them.

 

[X3pilot]

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.

Or, cut out all those horrible contracts that were mentioned and add several hundred thousand MORE unemployed workers out there that won't be paying taxes and will demand their share of entitlement.

Careful what you wish for...

 

[Toshi]

I agree with BS's suggestions but the chances of them being implemented are negligible at best. The Tea Party's agenda, in comparison:

1. Cut taxes.
2. Eliminate separation of church and state.
3. ???
4. Wait for teh rapture, apparently

 

[IH8Rice]

8. Tax churches/Pastor salaries, etc. These f*ckers are making a mint selling NOTHING!

pastors and priests dont get taxed??

 

[Silver]

Or, cut out all those horrible contracts that were mentioned and add several hundred thousand MORE unemployed workers out there that won't be paying taxes and will demand their share of entitlement.

Careful what you wish for...

I'm more worried about them freelancing for criminal organizations and gangs. We've seen that same pattern in other third world countries before.

 

[jonKranked]

pastors and priests dont get taxed??

nope. Religions are tax exempt. There's a lot of people who would like to see scientology get their tax exempt status revoked.

 

[Pesqueeb]

nope. Religions are tax exempt. There's a lot of people who would like to see scientology get their tax exempt status revoked.

Too be clear, do religious leaders (i.e. pastor, priest, whatever) not pay a payroll tax? I know the institutions them selves are tax exempt but are the people on the payroll also tax exempt?

 

[IH8Rice]

nope. Religions are tax exempt. There's a lot of people who would like to see scientology get their tax exempt status revoked.

Too be clear, do religious leaders (i.e. pastor, priest, whatever) not pay a payroll tax? I know the institutions them selves are tax exempt but are the people on the payroll also tax exempt?

thats what i was thinking too

 

[jonKranked]

Too be clear, do religious leaders (i.e. pastor, priest, whatever) not pay a payroll tax? I know the institutions them selves are tax exempt but are the people on the payroll also tax exempt?

idk if they even HAVE a payroll.

 

[BurlyShirley]

What's wrong with you guys' googles?

 

[X3pilot]

Maybe this would help balance it if we stopped this:

Google 2.4% Rate Shows How $60 Billion Lost to Tax Loopholes

 

[FlyinPolack]

It's easy:
Guard the borders with 10,000 border patrol dicks & no immigration at all for 5 years. Not even for school or religious visas.

Those 15,000,000 peeps outta work: Now you are all farmers, janitors & prep cooks, don't like it? Then get some skills...

Cut the senate & house salary & pensions in half. They all started out rich anyway..
Put a stop to the welfare cases that keep popping out kids. Tie their tubes..
Stop foreign aid completely. We send too much $$ out & get none in return.
legalize weed, & tax it. Just a good fvcking idea!
Huge tariffs on anything imported. It's us or them..

 

[valve bouncer]

I think the idea is to balance the budget not turn the place into a third world sh*t-hole. A huge tax on imported goods? Including oil? Of course other countries are going to stand idly by without placing their own restrictive tariffs on US made goods. In the history of dumb ideas this is right up there.
Sure you could turn your country into some kind of provincal backwater fortress, like what is suggsted above. The rest of the world will carry on.

 

[KavuRider]

I think the idea is to balance the budget not turn the place into a third world sh*t-hole. A huge tax on imported goods? Including oil? Of course other countries are going to stand idly by without placing their own restrictive tariffs on US made goods. In the history of dumb ideas this is right up there.
Sure you could turn your country into some kind of provincal backwater fortress, like what is suggsted above. The rest of the world will carry on.

That's the catch, these all sound good on paper...but unfortunately when implemented, they go to $hit.

I have no ideas. I think people are too greedy and self serving for anything to work.

 

[X3pilot]

It's easy:
Guard the borders with 10,000 border patrol dicks & no immigration at all for 5 years. Not even for school or religious visas.

Those 15,000,000 peeps outta work: Now you are all farmers, janitors & prep cooks, don't like it? Then get some skills...

Cut the senate & house salary & pensions in half. They all started out rich anyway..
Put a stop to the welfare cases that keep popping out kids. Tie their tubes..
Stop foreign aid completely. We send too much $$ out & get none in return.
legalize weed, & tax it. Just a good fvcking idea!
Huge tariffs on anything imported. It's us or them..

Ignorance can be corrected, stupid is forever.

 

[Silver]

I think the idea is to balance the budget not turn the place into a third world sh*t-hole.

Yeah, that ship may have started to pull away from the docks already...

 

[kidwoo]

Cut the senate & house salary & pensions in half.

[Kool aid man]OOHHHH YEAHHHH[/Kool aid man]


I just saw our national deficit drop by thousands of dollars.....maybe TENS of thousands of dollars!

 

[Pesqueeb]

Yeah, that ship may have started to pull away from the docks already...

I realize this is mostly snark, but I've been thinking a lot more lately along these lines. If its not too late already we surely must be pretty close to it.

 

[Straya]

[Kool aid man]OOHHHH YEAHHHH[/Kool aid man]
I just saw our national deficit drop by thousands of dollars.....maybe TENS of thousands of dollars!

Not to mention the fine crop of top quality new candidates queuing up to cash in on those mighty fine wages. The senate will be in good hands for decades to come.

 

[ire]

I realize this is mostly snark, but I've been thinking a lot more lately along these lines. If its not too late already we surely must be pretty close to it.

As a percentage of GDP, our Federal debt has been higher; during WWII our debt was about double what it is now. What will make this debt crushing is if the economy stagnates for the next 5 to 10 years. The current administration has been pumping money into new industries through grant programs, and that is a good strategy. If anything we need more investment in industries that have the potential to generate jobs before we focus on cutting debt. We've spent a good chunk of the last 20 years financing our economic growth through consumer debt and spending. We need more of that growth to come from new industries and job creation.

 

[DaveW]

A mate of mine blogged on your budget problems recently, his take on it?.....

The US is the new Greece

I found it quite an interesting comparison.

 

[Toshi]

A mate of mine blogged on your budget problems recently, his take on it?.....

The US is the new Greece

I found it quite an interesting comparison.

The big difference is that the US is able to still borrow at very low rates. Greece has hit the wall in that regard.

 

[stoney]

The big difference is that the US is able to still borrow at very low rates. Greece has hit the wall in that regard.

For now

 

[Toshi]

For now

Ah, an "invisible bond vigilante", I see

Reality:

 

[johnbryanpeters]

1. Obviously, cut the ridiculous military spending by at least half.

2. End medicare at 80 years old. You had your run. The rest is between your personal finances and nature. Social security can stay as can funding for hospice care.

3. Institute death panels immediately.

4. Encourage abortion and fund them federally. This will save us a ton in welfare payments down the road.

5. Legalize Marijuana and reduce prison populations by what... half?

6. Take all the military guys and prisoners who need jobs and put them to work dismantling coal plants and hydro dams, and building federally subsidized solar panels, windmills and nuclear plants. We will save money here by not fighting trillion dollar oil wars.

7. End subsidies to the big corn farms and eliminate all taxes on "healthy" foods like vegetables and lean meats so they can compete with the agribusiness unhealthful BS. This will save us a bundle down the road in healthcare costs.

8. Tax churches/Pastor salaries, etc. These f*ckers are making a mint selling NOTHING!

9. End all the wars. Close all the foreign military bases.

10. Tax the ever-loving sh*t out of US based companies building stuff overseas and selling it here... such that it's cheaper to manufacture it in the US. I dont care if the prices go up... people need to learn to get by with less or the world's going to go to sh*t, AND people here need to work... then we can tax them.

1) Include police spending with that. In particular, armored vehicles and all the other gubbins that goes with the SWAT mentality.

2) Base it on some measure of usefulness...

3) No.

4) Yes.

5) Yes.

6) Yes.

7) End subsidies to all farms. Phase it in over 20 years to minimize transient effects.

8) Yes.

9) Yes.

11) Eliminate insurance, again, over 20 years.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Necro Bump

8. Tax churches/Pastor salaries, etc. These f*ckers are making a mint selling NOTHING!

I wonder if this could ever happen in my lifetime here.

The Church currently pays tax on several properties it owns that are commercial enterprises but is exempt if at least some of the activities on the property are "non-commercial" - for example a chapel in a hotel.
"The regulatory framework will be definite by January 1, 2013 - the start of the fiscal year - and will fully respect the (European) Community law," Prime Minister Mario Monti's government said in a statement late Tuesday.
In February, the government had amended Italy's property tax law to end the Church's privileges amid rising calls for the Vatican to share in debt crisis sacrifices and in the face of intense scrutiny from the European Commission.
On Monday the Council of State, Italy's highest ranking court for administrative litigation, rejected the decree. But the government insisted everyone would pay property tax, Church included.
In 2010 the EU opened an investigation into whether tax breaks enjoyed by some Church properties in Italy could be classed as illegal state aid.
The extra revenue from these exempt properties - including hotels, restaurants and sports centres - could be €25.5m a year in Rome alone, La Repubblica daily reported, citing official figures.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9598148/Italian-church-to-be-stripped-of-tax-exemption-from-2013.html

 

[dante]

Highly doubtful. Here in Madison it's even worse... Basically the state legislature exempts properties from being on the city's tax rolls. So all an organization has to do is bribe an Assemblyman/Senator into exempting something (and why should the state care, it's the *city* that's losing tax revenue) and suddenly the city can lose ~$200k in property tax revenue...