Vote today... Mitt Romney or Barack Obama
- Thread starter Peter Breuninger
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Great point Andre, blah, blah , blah ... Err, I must have missed the point where you stressed reduced spending , Yes , it must have slipped by, I wait patiently for your spending cut solutions...
Unless you enjoy feeding our wasteful corrupt Washington machine ...
Oh, since I am on a roll..Mr. Darth Cheney gleefully proclaimed "Deficits don't matter". LOL.
I would LOVE to know where all these Republican Deficit Hawks were during the Bush Admin.
Goose stepping along.
---- That is so true! :b
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"The things that are the most valuable are free." - Bob (me) :b
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Now it gets interesting!
What programs would you be willing to cut and by how much?
Absurd questions. There would have to be an honest analysis of the waste.
Not to mention an overhaul of the pork allotments and bridges to nowhere.
Social programs..sure..the ones that DON'T work. Military? You bet.
Government contractors bilk billions. Halliburton anyone?
Nothing is off the table. If you think I am a bleeding heart liberal..you are very mistaken.
Is there a budget to look at to see where the cuts could be made?
I just read that the TSA gets an annual uniform allowance that exceeds that of US military personnel by a considerable margin.
I would almost start from scratch and ask what's essential.
But, we are talking about a vast number of jobs that are either supported directly by the government, as in federal employees, or through government contracts with third party vendors.
I've long thought that mandatory military service for 18 months after high school would be a good thing in this country and not just for defense- it would provide skills, and training and discipline. Not being fascistic about it, just thinking about the considerable number of young people who may be unskilled or working at underpaying jobs. And, even for kids who intend to go to college, or become doctors or engineers, an 18 month stint could mature them and add to their skill set.
Why, if our infrastructure is crumbling (and it sure seems to be here around metro NY even before the hurricane), is there no equivalent to the WPA?
These are admittedly unoriginal, and disjointed ideas. And in some ways, would cost money. But there are real dividends that could help us get out from under the current economic duress, provide jobs, training and add to growth or renewal.
By all means A. Wayne please educate us or maybe you can tell us how deep we must dig to unearth such .. Since my reading is sooo lacking do tell me how the Iraq war was payed for? Also do also tell me about this theory of how the Iraq invasion saved the dollar? The solution to save the national currency was to invade a sovereign country? Please, please do tell us.. Saddam indeed seemed to have had weapons of Financial if not mass destruction ..
Tell us I think we are all eyes on this board.
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They are not absurd questions. They are difficult questions.
Again, from time immemorial, politicians have vowed to reduce waste. Yet it never happens. Does anyone really think that Congress is going to reign in pork to any degree? Even if they did, it doesn't begin to address the fundamental issues. IMO, any plan with reducing waste and pork as its centerpiece is not really a reasonable plan.
The two main drivers of the budget are Social Security and Medicare. To have any meaninful impact on the long term spending trajectory of the Federal Government, you have to cut the rate of growth in these programs.
IMO, Medicare and Social Security need to be converted to means based programs with benefits directed to those who are truly in need. It will never happen.
Sorry, I meant absurd to ask me...Even liberals have look at the harsh reality. If that means phasing out benefits that generations past have become accustomed to, then it is what it is.
Good post. A lot of food for thought.
BTW, I will repeat, Bush hired more Federal employees than ANY other President in the history of the country.
He is utterly delusional. Let's tell the families of the 5000 American dead, and untold maimed they "saved the dollar". Oh, and the same for the 100,000 Iraqi civilians.
For the record, what he is alluding to is a theory that the real reason behind the invasion of Iraq is Sadam intent to demand payment for oil in Euros, hence weaking the position of the dollar as de facto standard currency to settle international trade and eventually the role of the dollar as the global reserve currency.
If this were indeed the reason for the invasion of Iraq, G.W., Cheney and co. should be executed for high treason, or at least dragged before the international criminal court as war criminals. But in A. Wayne's world I guess we should thank them a thank you note for "saving the dollar".
There is a similar theory that Khadafi's demise was a result of his plan to create a Gold dinar, another global currency dollar substitute. I believe A. Wayne also subscribes to this theory as well.
For the record, I am agnostic on either theory. Just providing some context.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998512,00.html
http://politicsontoast.com/2011/11/03/the-real-reason-behind-gaddafi’s-demise/
Let the Bush tax cuts expire. All of them. They were passed as a temporary stimulus. Let them complete their cycle.
Phase out the free military security we provide to much of Europe, Japan and Korea (or charge them well for it).
Cut military bases and weapons programs, based on military need instead of Congressional pork.
Stop starting wars.
Tax all income at the same 3 - 4 modest, moderately progressive rates, regardless of the source of that income (capital gains, inheritance, wages) and eliminate all deductions and shelters. Yes, all of them. Or don't eliminate the deductions if it's too hard. But the rate tiers will have to rise more steeply and you must stop taxing investment income at half the rate of wages. It's stunningly unfair, counter-productive and stupid.
Lower corporate income taxes and eliminate all deductions, shelters and permanent government subsidies for private businesses.
Eliminate Social Security and welfare payments to the wealthy. Spending social safety net money on people who would live in luxury without it is just dumb.
You're done. You just saved all your social programs and found plenty of revenue for education reform and infrastructure development.
Tim
Phase out the free military security we provide to much of Europe, Japan and Korea (or charge them well for it).
Cut military bases and weapons programs, based on military need instead of Congressional pork.
Stop starting wars.
Tax all income at the same 3 - 4 modest, moderately progressive rates, regardless of the source of that income (capital gains, inheritance, wages) and eliminate all deductions and shelters. Yes, all of them. Or don't eliminate the deductions if it's too hard. But the rate tiers will have to rise more steeply and you must stop taxing investment income at half the rate of wages. It's stunningly unfair, counter-productive and stupid.
Lower corporate income taxes and eliminate all deductions, shelters and permanent government subsidies for private businesses.
Eliminate Social Security and welfare payments to the wealthy. Spending social safety net money on people who would live in luxury without it is just dumb.
You're done. You just saved all your social programs and found plenty of revenue for education reform and infrastructure development.
Tim
Let's see, Brookings Inst. did a study on Romney's plan to reduce the tax rate and limit deductions to $25,000. Guess what they found? It would add 3.7 trillion to the national debt. Reducing the deductions to 15,000 only reduced the load to the national debt to 3.4 trillion dollars. So how would eliminating deductions not add to to the national debt? It's great to espouse stuff but one has to do the numbers crunching. Hmmmm....did someone else say that?
The real issue is what is considered rich ? Obama's version at $200K per individual ? That is middle class in Manhattan, Chicago and other major cities. Is rich above $5million in annaul income, less, more ? Perhaps those are the ones (the real rich), especially billionaires who you could tax at 90% and they would still have billions to spend. Maybe Warren Buffet should shut his phat hick trap and put his money where his mouth is and do the right thing and pay up. Nothing worse than some billionaire telling other successful people how much they should pay in tax.
No, almost done. You've found enough to partially eliminate the current deficit, but a lot more was left on the table.
Eliminate all assistance to those who refuse to work, or who are habitually addicted to the system. Also, refuse help to illegal aliens who have never put a dime into the system, and include those who have worked within the system, but under false pretenses. This includes all medical and educational assistance of any sort. Deny any benefit or assistance to any criminal element, US citizen or otherwise.
Put time limits and caps on assistance for able-bodied people, regardless of circumstance.
Means test all government employees, and pay them prevailing wages based on the private sector equivalents and geographic region, including retirement benefits. Make the retirement part retroactive. Include all elected officials, and stop retirement programs for all elected officials, altogether. (Public servants, my ass. We're the servants.)
Stop bailing out union pensions, too. Why should we carry those guys?
Next, sell all excess public lands and properties at absolute auction to parties inside The United States. Example: Thirty-five miles of Southern California beachfront property owned by the Federal Government would go for big bucks. The maintenance alone on some of this property amounts to billions, I suspect.
Change how budgets are managed by various agencies, so that they cannot waste money at the end of each fiscal year, military included.
Eliminate useless, inefficient, detrimental or wasteful agencies. There are bunches of forgotten agencies scattered around the country, not to mention some of the big ones. Two ladies surfing the internet in a little office in a backwoods town with a copy machine each? Gimme a break. I can give you other examples.
Trim out-of-control agencies, and make them stick to their original charters. USDA...Now there's a prime example.
Stop worthless programs. Head Start comes to mind, as does whoever does those PSA commercials.
Eliminate discretionary spending entirely.
Sell TVA. TVA is insanity at its finest.
Stop starting wars...Oh, you said that already!
Add it all up, we are talking real money that could be put to uses like you mention.
Now, we are done...maybe.
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