Fixed it for you
Or, how to fix the federal budget:
At some point, the adults will have to realize where the problem is. You can cut all discretionary spending by the US government and the budget will still not balance. For years.
This “fiscal cliff” dog and pony show is about as useful as a cock-flavored lollipop.
You can fix the budget or you can be all things to all people. You can’t do both.
December 10th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
Even completely eliminating Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid wouldn’t be enough.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:01 pm
I tried to do my part.
I asked to be allowed to Opt-Out. I volunteered that if they would just return the money they took from me, with normal interest using official rates, that I would relinquish any claims to Social Security payments, even should I live to be 130 ( ☺ ).
Silly twits said no; said they prefer to play the “longevity game”. I said “OK, but bear in mind that if YOU renege on your promises tome, I will take it back any way necessary.”
Sadly, the politicians think they’re protected from the cold hard facts of math.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:17 pm
I’d settle for the W.H. Taft administration budget, for starters. We could cut from there. People weren’t dying like flies then for lack of federal spending, and they wouldn’t today.
“Sadly, the politicians think they’re protected from the cold hard facts of math.”
Naw, I figure that they know math well enough to know thay we’re all screwed. It’s just that they see more screwing to do, so they’re going to screw until they can screw no more. They know for sure that no one is going to stop them. Am I right? Seriously– are YOU going to stop them? We know that the Republicans are brain-dead cowards, so who’s it going to be?
No; no one will stop them, and so, as long as there is a gravy train, they’ll be riding it. It’ll have to run its course, and even then they’ll be riding it to the bottom, until it stops dead.
Look, for example, at what it actually took to actually stop the Nazis and the Imperial Japs. Mass death wasn’t enough. It took total destruction of the infrastructure, and even then they kept going until there was absolutely no other option.
Can anyone point out to me the thing or the people that will stop this trend before mass destruction steps in?
December 10th, 2012 at 9:23 pm
We’re going over the cliff… Hope you’ve got a spare $5-6 Grand to pay all the new taxes…
December 10th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
If I remember correctly, if you add Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security and interest on the national debt together, it is still about $280 billion more than current revenues. So eliminating discretionary spending will do diddly squat.
December 10th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
The cliff is a Congressional invention which could be repealed. That they don’t is proof that they are more interested in games than in governing.
42% of the budget is borrowed. 60% of the budget is medicare/SS/and something else.
SS proponents state that the Soc Sec fund should not be considered debt as it is a separate funding line. I say…OK. And payouts will be limited to the income of that funding. Period. Same with Medicare.
OR we reform it all and cut.
I say bring on the cliff as that is the only way things will get cut AT ALL.
Its gotten so bad that I don’t care if we cut…how about a spending freeze? Can we just no INCREASE spending for one measly year.
December 11th, 2012 at 1:04 am
You forgot that giant “defense” budget. It grows without oversight, and in most cases, constitutional need.
December 11th, 2012 at 7:12 am
Simple, cut everything. Then make taxes voluntary. Allow Congress to and the president to bloat the government as much as they want, and allow the tax payer to vote with their 1040. Those that do not earn would get no say. Anti war people could choose to not fund dod. Others could choose not to pay for welfare. If we all choose to default on the debt, so be it.
December 11th, 2012 at 10:24 am
Both parties want to bring on the fiscal cliff. That way they can get massive increases in government revenue, albeit not enough to make a dent in national debt, and act like they both tried so very hard to work for their bases, but they other guys just wouldn’t play nice. It’s all a sham. I agree with Old NFO, hope everyone has prepared to budget an extra ~$5 grand to pay the additional taxes next year…
December 11th, 2012 at 11:13 am
As the Medicare and Social Security payout goes 60+% to R voters, nothing is going to change. Any “entitlement” reform a Republican is going to allow will only be for “future recipients”, aka the people that don’t vote for them anyway. I don’t even consider a D cutting entitlements.
For 30 years we’ve lived on the lowest tax rates in the developed world, now we reap what we sowed.
December 11th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Mu,
Funny….all those other HIGHER taxed states are ALSO in the same boat.
Maybe its not the amount of the taxes….
December 11th, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Here’s the hard, sad calculus (if you are a federal politician) —
Cut SS/MediCare = old people stage rallies, vote en masse, a few of your buddies lose their seats. Those voted out land in a nice lobby firm with more pay than they had in Congress. 90% are re-elected, as is the case in most elections.
Cut welfare spending = the cities will burn. Period. The press will excoriate you for being a “racist”, and will parade endless pictures of minority babies to slam the cuts you voted for. A few of your buddies will lose their seats, but being tarred as a “racist” will make it harder to land the cushy lobbying gig. 90% are re-elected, as is the case in most elections.
Do you understand yet? Why do you think MediCare was looted (over $700B in cuts) to fund ObamaCare?
The programs that WE paid into will be the first to get cut; the programs used to subsidize the riot-prone will continue to grow at the expense of everything else.
The FEDGOV is buying peace with taxpayer money. Did you really think Rome was just ancient history? We’re living it — bribe the mobs inside the walls, bribe the Barbarians beyond. And pray the gold and grain keeps coming into the imperial treasury.
December 11th, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Sadly, the politicians think they’re protected from the cold hard facts of math.
They are, because the math is that money isn’t there. They already spent it. They couldn’t give it back if they wanted to. All the money in Social Security amounts to a giant IOU.
December 11th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Then make taxes voluntary
We tried that once. The result is our current Constitution. There’s a reason the first Article I power is “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes,” and that reason is the primary weakness of the Articles of Confederation is that it did not allow the national government to raise necessary funds to do things like pay debts and defend the country.
The problem isn’t the power to tax, it’s that they are taxing us for shit the government shouldn’t be doing.
December 11th, 2012 at 11:45 pm
The problem isn’t the power to tax, it’s that they are taxing us for shit the government shouldn’t be doing.
One of the things the government shouldn’t be doing is theft — otherwise known as the power to tax.
46% of that pie chart is funded with “borrowed” money. Knock off those two slices and we’re still %3 short of getting back to a balanced budget. What is the “collateral” that enables all that borrowing? Why, the taxation power, of course. Nice racket, eh? If enough taxpayers get mad enough to obstruct the government politically, just bribe them with goodies on the credit card and stick them and their kids with the tax bill later!
If you want to measure incipient impoverishment, don’t look at tax receipts, debt issuance or any other of that stuff. Look at the spending. That is what the government is eating right now. The government is a rolling disaster, hitting the economy to the tune of about one Hurricane Sandy per **week**.
Apart from the genuine issues with the Articles of Confederation (not the least of which was that the various States were running around sticking their fingers into whatever they wanted, in the manner typical of unconstrained governments that we now know and love as the “states rights” idiocy), I think the evidence is clear that the taxation power “cure” now reaching its logical end-of-road, is far worse than the problems it purported to fix.
Barring a full return to liberty and respect for the principle of property rights, one idea I’m curious about is “taxpayer earmarking”; taxes remain as they are, but every taxpayer is free to “earmark” the dollars to the departments they think are legitimate. You could even put 100% of it towards debt service. I don’t necessarily think this is a good idea (it’s still a type of democracy instead of liberty), I’m just curious to see what patterns would emerge.
December 12th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
@Bryan S. “You forgot that giant “defense” budget. It grows without oversight, and in most cases, constitutional need.”
Really? I guess I dreamed up the House Armed Services Committee.
How do you justify “without… constitutional need”?
And, is the budget itself “giant” because you think so, in comparison to other countries or giant when considering that you have NEVER had to worry about a foreign military landing on the nearest beach and planting its flag?
As someone who has had to deploy with sub-standard equipment, no armor and an M-16 that was older than me I marvel at the shortsightedness of statements like yours.