What are you willing to give up?

[Joubert[$]]

The U.S. federal budget is a shambles. I had the chance to look at some numbers today and do some reading. We're going into severe deficit mode again -- without the $48 billion in homeland security measures, without senior Rx plans, without the true impact of 8 more years of phased tax cuts.

As you know from your home budget, the choices are simple.

1. You make more
2. You spend less
3. You live on credit

Servicing the debt we're expected to build over the next decade will run in the trillions.

So what are you willing to give up? Homeland security measures? Tax breaks -- or, more appropriately, higher rates rather than the phased-in cuts? Social Security increases?

We can argue all day long about relatively little things. Don't fall for the sophistry involved in an NEA or NASA debate. Those are rounding errors in this budget. What big things are we willing to change?

For me, I guess I would say the tax rate reduction is a gimme. We made do at our old rates and can do so again. Nice idea, but the numbers moved.

What about you? Too much on security measures that may be defeated anyway? Social security and other entitlement programs need to go away earlier (since they are going away by the time the boomers move through the system). God help the first president that is able to establish a firm date. Sure, he can blame Lyndon Johnson (I dunno, felt like picking on LBJ), but that president will be the one with the number.

Okay, commence conversation. But the numbers are a train wreck so the conversation's goal is to say what you are personally willing to give up and why.

[wivabef]

Tax Cuts AND Pork Barrel Legislation.

That is what needs to go first and in tandem. We can no longer justify the tax cuts and we can no longer justify the pet projects of Byrd's best friends.

As a nation, we could all stand for some belt tightening. Live small, live simple, live like Shakers.

Could you imagine this generation during World War II, having to deal with rations? It would all be a rash of people shouting "NOT ME! I'M ENTITLED"

[drmomentum[$]]

Originally posted by wivabef
Tax Cuts AND Pork Barrel Legislation.

That is what needs to go first and in tandem. We can no longer justify the tax cuts and we can no longer justify the pet projects of Byrd's best friends.

As a nation, we could all stand for some belt tightening. Live small, live simple, live like Shakers.

I agree with Elyzabeth.

-JP

[AuntieEmma[$]]

This is sort of off-topic, but I don't understand why we're heading into a deficit. A year ago, there was such a huge surplus that everyone was arguing about how to get rid of it. Where the *#*&#@ did all that money go????

Okay, on topic: Tax cuts, especially retroactive tax cuts to large corporations, have got to go. All corporate welfare, for that matter -- axe it. All payments for doing nothing -- paying farmers not to grow whatever -- axe it.

[phoenixx]

These suggestions are simplified on purpose:

Social Security - I am sick of paying into something I'll never see the benefit of (and that would not be enough to support me in this inflating economy anyway).

Trim down welfare benefits severely - do away with the clauses that allow more money as a kind of "reward" for having more kids, place a time limit on the benefit dispersal, do away with other extraneous benefits that only serve to create needless jobs for endless beaurocrats.

Do away with "pet" projects and "fad" projects of politicians, such as extra taxes on vice items (the money never goes where it is supposed to anyway, and teh poor and middle class tend to suffer most from these senseless taxes). Vice items include junk food, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. In some states they add a tax for eating out. These are just some examples of poorly concieved tax strategies.

I'd have to research doing away with the subsidies for farmers. It sounds like a good idea on the surface, but I would imagine the impact on a huge industry and way of life would be wide spread and negative since it has been done for so long. I think that one would require more forethought and planning to get rid of than some of the things mentioned so far.

Do away with the IRS as we know it. The Federal Income Tax system is a huge monetary drain, and has become so far removed from the original idea of its conception that it is useless. Perhaps a new system is in order, and all of the beaurocrats who would then become jobless could be put to use in helping us manage our money as investment advisors for wall street or other accountancy functions designed to benefit both Americans and America. What new system? I suggest a national consumption tax of no more than 8 to 10% across the board. This would eliminate the need for the income tax and would also be a way to get taxes from the indigent, the poor, the illegal aliens, etc. in addition to the rest of the citizenry.

Do away with corporate subsidies (which someone else said much more eloquently than I could a few posts up).

Spend a little more on border control. I'm not opposed to immigration to America, only to illegal immigration to America, which drains jobs and mucks up wage levels. A little extra expenditure here would lessen other monetary drains in the long run.

Leslie

[pisces]

Re: "Okay, on topic: Tax cuts, especially retroactive tax cuts to large corporations, have got to go. All corporate welfare, for that matter -- axe it. All payments for doing nothing -- paying farmers not to grow whatever -- axe it." --AuntieEmma

Fine, but then don't go cryin about unemployment, downsizing, mergers, and layoffs.

[erik_kosberg]

Democrats in Congress who want to roll back the first round of tax cuts are probably deluding themselves if they think they have a chance; they just don’t have the votes. Bush wants even more tax cuts (“permanent”, whatever that means in Washington), but he’s also deluded; not gonna happen. If cuts have to be made, I’d gut Rumsfeld’s pet SDI project, slash agricultural subsidies, and eliminate corporate welfare (probably not going to happen, but a boy can dream).

[realtraveller]

Do away with the Department of Education. The states do all that anyway. And aren't they the department that can't account for billions of dollars lost and not found in their audit. Sort of like a governmental Enron.

[poseidon]

I have to agree. Get rid of the Dept. of Education. The Dept. of Education educates nobody. Education is done at the local level, not the national level.

Get rid of pork projects. Perhaps an independant and non-partisan (good luck) entity should review all the projects that are on the table and truly recommend which ones are worthless pork and Congress in turn should get rid of them.

I have to agree... trim welfare. Find out who the morons are who are abusing the system and cut them off -- today. It can't really be that difficult, my guess is that the system is set up to pay fraudulent recipients.

[frazzledspice]

I could have given up the $15 billion airline bailout.

When unemployed individuals ask for 13 extra weeks to get a job, the government says, "tough...."

When airlines ask for $15 billion, the government says "sure."

They lay off as many people anyway (those ones the government says don't need 13 extra weeks to find a job....)

They get to avoid lawsuits (the government pays the WTC victims instead.)

The common man needs some high paid lobbyists, methinks.

[realtraveller]

I agree with that regarding the airline bailout. United Airlines is just one strike away from bankruptcy proceedings anyway. All the airlines are losing money EXCEPT Southwest.

[mshawpyle]

Adhering as I do to that Late XVIIIth Century view that 'no man, or set of men, is entitled to exclusive separate public emoluments or privileges but in consideration of public services,' I say:

1. End all entitlements, aid, and welfare programs, except benefits for veterans and public employees. This includes farm subsidies, Social Security, corporate welfare, the lot.

2. Scrap the Internal Revenue Code and institute a national sales tax.

3. Recognize campaign promises of 'benefits' as what they are: attempts to bribe the electorate. Prosecute accordingly.

4. Abolish any and all Federal agencies and departments not directly related to national security or veterans's affairs that have been established since Hoover's administration. The States should be doing these things anyway. (Remember the Ninth and Tenth Amendments? I have never thought that '80' was a passing grade on the Bill of Rights.)

That should do for starters.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Originally posted by mshawpyle

1. End all entitlements, aid, and welfare programs, except benefits for veterans and public employees. This includes farm subsidies, Social Security, corporate welfare, the lot.

By this do you also mean child welfare, as in the removal of abused/neglected children from their parents and placement in non-familial homes, where the are provided medical and other care until they are adopted, returned to parents, or emancipated? Because while the states run the programs, the states are given federal funds to accomplish this mission.

mj

[mshawpyle]

Originally posted by mjfrombuffalo
By this do you also mean child welfare...?

That's ancillary to a legitimate police function. I have no major problems with it.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

But the money used to pay for the care of the children comes from welfare block grants, entitlement programs like Medicaid, etc...

mj

[vania]

Originally posted by mshawpyle

2. Scrap the Internal Revenue Code and institute a national sales tax.

Hear, hear!!



I second that.