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The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

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Harvey

The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Administrator

This post was updated on .

Here's what we spent last year by percentage:

Here's how we paid for it:

The total taken in was 3.4 trillion, the amount spent was 3.8 trillion. So in a good year (economy doing ok) we spent about 10% more than we took in. Assume you need to cut 15% to account for economic slowdown and to start paying the debt down.

What would you cut? Even bigger: how would you sell it to Congress.

"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp

tjf1967

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Easy cut every department 15 percent and let them figure it out. And I think there is a coul ple trillion from SSI that does not get into that chart. It just magically appears on our deficit one per year.

PeeTex

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

In reply to this post by Harvey

We have to cut the Defense budget, Obama has increased defense spending.
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/03/02/trump-is-right-about-defense-spending-and-that-should-scare-you/

Don't ski the trees, ski the spaces between the trees.

MC2 5678F589

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Agree. Cut defense budget, but not soldiers' pay. Cut dumb weapons programs, cut new aircraft carriers, etc.

Take off the cap on social security tax so that everyone pays the same percentage, regardless of income (obviously business owners would have to pay the employer side, too).

Make a new tax bracket at about $5 million in earnings - 50% on money earned over that amount.

Make corporations pay all the money they owe us when they keep their profits offshore.

Make it possible for the government to negotiate prescription drug prices.

Harvey

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Administrator

This post was updated on .

Maybe the idea of 15% across all let them figure it out, although you want to see lobbying....

Peetex is this info false:

"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp

MC2 5678F589

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

So you guys want to see social security recipients get 15% less and Medicare/Medicaid pay doctors 15% less? People on food stamps would get 15% less? Farm and oil subsidies would be 15% less? (Actually, I'm in favor of that one).

Seems like that would never, ever happen though.

tjf1967

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

It has a better chance happening than picking and choosing.

Harvey

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Administrator

Agree: It's not so much want as selling it to Congress.

Personally I think the biggest spend we have with negative ROI is defense.

"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp

tjf1967

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

In reply to this post by tjf1967

And how the departments handle the 15 cut is up to then. May be they reduce buildings. Employees whatever is up to them just get it done.

MC2 5678F589

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Judging by how they shut down the most publicly used services whenever the government shuts down (parks, museums, etc.), I'd say that the cuts that they'd make would be very public and visible.

Michaeltokyo

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

This post was updated on .

In reply to this post by Harvey

Six years ago, President Obama created the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to address our nation's fiscal challenges. Attached is their report. Ignored by both parties. This report makes so much sense, but totally ignored by Obama and Congress.

https://www.fiscalcommission.gov/sites/fiscalcommission.gov/files/documents/TheMomentofTruth12_1_2010.pdf

PeeTex

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

In reply to this post by Harvey

Harvey wrote

Peetex is this info false:

I think that is pretty accurate.
2014 was 640B and 2015 was 600B
As I said, Obama increased defense spending. It has only now gotten back to where it was at the end of Bush 2.
This seems to be a hot button issue with you (and it should be), the truth is that getting Bush out did not help, it got worse.

Don't ski the trees, ski the spaces between the trees.

Harvey

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Administrator

I guess that is the partisan bubble. What I see is Bush relentlessly driving it up and Obama slowly getting out of Iraq and turning the ocean liner around.

As far as it being a hot button issue with me:

Government spending is incredibly inefficient, and every purchase is latent with waste and/or corruption.

When you spend on defense, much of it is used to destroy infrastructure, kill innocent people and create new and expensive enemies.

When you spend on Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Social Security — almost everything else on the list — a shit ton is also wasted. But what isn't wasted feeds people, helps them when they are unemployed, gives them health care, etc. The amount that slips through actually helps people.

I don't understand how you put Hillary's corruption above and beyond that of Bush. He was an incredibly corrupt, foolish and stupid American.

"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp

MC2 5678F589

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

In reply to this post by PeeTex

Well, there's this, too:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/11/us-public-defrauded-hidden-cost-iraq-war

The most striking fact about the cost of the war in Iraq has been the extent to which it has been kept "off the books" of the government's ledgers and hidden from the American people. This was done by design. A fundamental assumption of the Bush administration's approach to the war was that it was only politically sustainable if it was portrayed as near-costless to the American public and to key constituencies in Washington. The dirty little secret of the Iraq war – one that both Bush and the war hawks in the Democratic party knew, but would never admit – was that the American people would only support a war to get rid of Saddam Hussein if they could be assured that they would pay almost nothing for it.

The most obvious way in which the true cost of this war was kept hidden was with the use of supplemental appropriations to fund the occupation. By one estimate, 70% of the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2008 were funded with supplemental or emergency appropriations approved outside the Pentagon's annual budget. These appropriations allowed the Bush administration to shield the Pentagon's budget from the cuts otherwise needed to finance the war, to keep the Pentagon's pet programs intact and to escape the scrutiny that Congress gives to its normal annual regular appropriations.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20budget.html

As for war costs, Mr. Bush included little or none in his annual military budgets, instead routinely asking Congress for supplemental appropriations during the year. Mr. Obama will include cost projections for every year through the 2019 fiscal year to cover “overseas military contingencies” — nearly $500 billion over 10 years.

Not sure if those graphs and numbers include Bush's "off the books" stuff.

Harvey

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Administrator

In addition, plenty of cost from that war is falling into the period after Bush left office. Even if you leave ISIS out of it, you have a continued presence in Iraq. That force would never now be there if not for Bush, in fact Cheney is saying we blew it by getting out in "a hurry."

Then you have the cost of all our injured and dead soldiers.

Plus interest on the money borrowed.

What else am I missing?

And what did we get for our money? Name me one legitimate positive thing that came out of it. Don't give me... we got rid of a brutal dictator. He was keeping Iran in check, for free. Now the whole thing is on us. What a huge fuckup.

"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp

PeeTex

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

In reply to this post by Harvey

Harvey wrote

I don't understand how you put Hillary's corruption above and beyond that of Bush. He was an incredibly corrupt, foolish and stupid American.

I don't think Bush was corrupt but I do think he was completely incompetent. His current Net Worth is only $20M and all of that is easily traceable to his oil dealings and baseball franchise. This pales in comparison to the Clintons which made more than that in "Speeches" alone.
What evidence do you have that Bush was corrupt and don't confuse corruption with incompetence?

Don't ski the trees, ski the spaces between the trees.

Harvey

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

Administrator

http://bfy.tw/7NdT

"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp

PeeTex

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

In reply to this post by Harvey

I can't believe you guys, are you serious. Obama had 8 fucking years. Hell, Nixon got us out of Vietnam and cut the defense budget by over 20% from the Johnson era and he did it in less than 6 years. In fact we were spending less under Nixon than we did under Kennedy. We didn't try to "fix" Vietnam, we just let the communists have it. Bush was bad but Obama didn't do us any favors.

Don't ski the trees, ski the spaces between the trees.

PeeTex

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

In reply to this post by Harvey

Harvey wrote

http://bfy.tw/7NdT

And that was Chenny and not Bush. So show me where Bush profited.

Don't ski the trees, ski the spaces between the trees.

MC2 5678F589

Re: The US Budget: How Would You Fix It?

In reply to this post by PeeTex

Wow. You're seriously asking that question?

US Attorney scandal:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismissal_of_U.S._attorneys_controversy

Yellowcake Uranium/Valerie Plame:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair

Torture (and subsequent deletion of millions of official emails):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_interrogation_techniques

https://www.aclu.org/news/cia-releases-dozens-torture-documents-response-aclu-lawsuit

Warantless surveillance:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_(2001–07)

If you have any doubts that any of those things were corrupt, just imagine how you would feel if Hillary did them.

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