2009 Federal Budget Deficit

Blimey! with those sort of figures I'd go and invade a country and blame it on them...

Ohhh, wait, that's already been tried hasn't it?

John

Ohhh...where to start and how to bite my cynical tongue?

One thing worth noting up front, I'm not sure this pie chart clearly reflects any of the cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, since not one penny of either has never been included in a budget. All off-budget supplemental spending requests.

Also, what's contained in that 5% "Global War on Terror" slice? Is that the aforementioned war funding? Or just what the US spends on snacks at the "undisclosed locations"?

But anyway, unless the space aliens recently revealed by that former Apollo astronaut care to lend a hand with a total reboot of the American political system, that chart is going to look a lot like it currently does for a long time to come. Although should universal health care (or, if you're a Conservative, "treasonous commie socialized death care") comes to pass then some of the big slices will surely change.

As for all the lesser agencies...sharing staplers isn't gonna make a measurable dent. Even just throwing up your hands and disbanding the ones which are from a practical sense currently not particuarly useful, effective or else are completely broken (DOJ / DOI / DOT / DOA / DOE / NASA, etc) doesn't liberate much change out of the couch cushions does it?

You didn't offer a solution.

This is what drives me crazy. We complain, and complain, and complain, and don't offer any solutions. In this thread I'm asking for solutions, not finger pointing. So if you have a solution, throw it out there.

I think the solution is obvious isn't it?

Stop your government spending so much.

John

Congress doesn't get paid and everyone forfeit their return until we're solvent.

Slash everything in half except SS and Medicare. (and I don't even pay into SS)

Kick the global war on terror to the curb.

Kick Homeland "security" to the curb.

Get the unions out of the Government kitty. Taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for unions.

That would be a good start.

I'm not sure that's a good idea (kicking global war on terror to the curb). Then again, maybe it is. This the problem, I guess I really don't know what to do.

Roger,

You've asked a biased question. There are two solutions: cutting the size of the pie (perhaps slice by slice) and raising revenues. The tax cuts of the past seven years had a lot to do with the size of that pie. But, leaving that aside for the moment, there are some things we can do.

1) Reduce social security by having people work longer. This would require a substanial effort by the authorities to deal with continuing education, age discrimination (getting fired or not getting hired when you get old), and workplace accomodation. These are quite doable and not terribly expensive.

2) Reduce Medicaid/Medicare through some rational Universal Health Care plan. We currently pay almost double what we should for health care and a fair amount of that spills over into the federal deficit, whether directly or through a potion of income shielded from taxes.

3) Forget reducing the military for awhile. We've pissed off a fair amount of the world, so we need to keep at least the military we have. There are some wasteful projects that can be cut, however.

TVP45,

You are correct and I didn't mean to bias it. Raising taxes is also a solution and certainly worth discussion. Raising taxes could be its own discussion, as in "how is the best way to raise taxes?" By the way, the value of the dollar will probably take a hit with this announcement.

To your points, I believe they've already started doing #1 and I think its a great idea. In older societies these men and women were respected for their wisdom, in our own they are often put out to pastuer (And its our loss).

#2, to be honest, I have no idea. There are so many moving parts, I just don't have the right to give an opinion. I can however give an anectdote. I work for a good company who were kind enough to let me go part time to grad school and keep my job. The catch? I couldn't keep the insurance more than 18 months afterward and I had to cover that premium on my own. After 18 months (suprisingly it takes more than 18 months to get a Ph.D.), I was responsible for my own healthcare. The cheapest premium I could find was around $800 per month. Needless to say, I went without health insurance for three years. There definitely is a problem with the system, damned if I know how to fix it.

#3- Agreed. The problem is, the soldiers don't get nearly enough of the money we shell out to the military. I think the next president shouldn't cut funding to the military but rather go over their books and stop paying mercs and shelling out tons of money that never makes it to the soldiers.

Taxes as a Percentage of Income

I think the governments 30.8% of my dollar is enough. Cut spending is the only option we should give them.

If 10% is good enough for God, it should be good enough for Uncle Sam.

So what do you suggest they cut?

congressional salaries, to start with. then make those rich bastards fund their own retirement, rather than feeding them from the public trough until death.

then start killing ALL laywers. they are nothing but leeches and cheats for the most part.

You still haven't offered a real solution, have you? Do you have any practical suggestions?

everything....except SS and Medicare. If we manage Universal HC then medicare will be merged with medicaid.

Slash military spending by 1/2.

Let's see here, you want to raise my taxes, I already pay 50% of my gross to up-front taxes, not counting the "hidden" many. Then I'm suppose to work till I drop.

So I can continue to support people like these:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545

The only sacrifice they've made is they just can't buy as much ice cream now.

We should have been out of Iraq long ago, however Iraq oil should be paying the tab.

I didn't say I want to raise your taxes. I just want a balanced budget, that's all.

You wrote: "Iraq oil should be paying the tab"

You do realize that even if iraq gave us every single dollar of iraqi oil profit it would still be well under 100 billion dollars. What do we do for the remaining 400 billion?

This is classic, I ask a simple question and no one gives me answer. Everyone loves to hate politicians, but they really can't do better, can they? C'mon people, I know that you are smarter than this, lets have a real discussion on this. What should we cut?

Oh, well, sorry, I was just on a rant. But I think it's crazy to expect me to work longer and foot the bill whilst people who could work, don't. I'm supporting a "don't work, won't work", self-perpetuating culture.

Social services is a huge piece of the pie, and the system is broken.

We need a comprehensive education system that really addresses the needs of the people. It's a "give a fish, learn to fish" situation.

Yes, but how? For instance, are you aware that Warren Buffett's tax rate is around 17.7% because his income is mostly from dividends? Is that fair? He doesn't think so:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062700097.html

I don't think anybody is suggesting raising taxes across the board. I think that some segments like Warren's needs an increase.