Obama's Budget

[g5000]

Breaking down spending in Obama's budget proposal - The Washington Post

I know the article states as much but a note that this is discretionary spending would help. Do you think this allocation is a good balance?

I have stated my solutions to our spending problems many times. A synopsis:

1. Raise the Medicare and Social Security eligibility ages to 70, and index to 9 percent of the population going forward. We are living decades longer than our ancestors who set the age at 65, we should be working longer than they did.

2. Cut Defense spending to sane levels. Our Defense budget, when adjusted for inflation, has not been this high since World War II. It is higher than even during the hottest parts of the Cold War when we faced an actual existential threat. And the last time I looked around, we were not in a World War.

3. Ban all tax expenditures. This is the one which makes even alleged right wingers scream like hippies. They are okay with taking government gifts away from others, but when you come after theirs, they latch onto the government tit even harder. Tax expenditures cost us over $1.2 trillion every year. That is almost equal to the annual deficit.


Enacting these three simple programs would result in trillions of dollars of surplus cash. We could use this surplus to pay down the debt AND lower tax rates. At the same time! And once the debt was paid off, we could lower tax rates even more.

 

[DiamondDave]

How fast would you like him to balance the budget. We could just do away with the estate tax altogether. Money does not rollover. You die you lose it. That should speed things up a bit.

You have no right to ... personal property rights are essential in a free society.. unlike what communistic progtards want

So you believe there should be no personal income tax, or sales tax, or any other tax which would "confiscate the property of others"?

Income is yearly.. not over all wealth you have collected...

While I am no fan of income tax.. I am fine with it on an equal basis (flat tax with no floor, ceiling, exemption, exception, or excuse).... but you do not keep re-taxing on what you have accumulated.... you ave no right to all property... what you are proposing is essentially a 100%tax on every person, since nobody is exempt from death

Try again.. totalitarian asshole

 

[bedowin62]

Debt has skyrocketed under obama. deficits are down from their record highs when Dems held the purse strings with both chambers of Congress

true story

 

[DiamondDave]

And oh.. namvet.. as stated, by the numbers.. there has NOT been a year where the debt total was less than the previous year, since 1957.. that is indeed FACT... Government - Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual

You can claim a balanced budget or surplus all you want... on paper you can say it til you are blue in the face.. when your outlays are more than your intake and you end up more in debt, you are not balanced or in any surplus area

 

[ClosedCaption]

he's NEVER balanced a budget. ever

Neither has Reagan, Bush Sr, or Bush Jr

Nobody has since Ike

Yet.. Obamalama stated that the level of deficit was unpatriotic, while he severely increased it himself.. mainly on the back of entitlement programs that have no business in federal government to begin with

Which is exactly the reason Edge wants Obama to do it. Because...fair and shit

 

[BlindBoo]

Debt has skyrocketed under obama. deficits are down from their record highs when Dems held the purse strings with both chambers of Congress

true story

In 2009 the deficit he was handed was 1.4 trillion. I believe it has gone down nearly every year since. Republicans drive up the deficit and Democrats reign it in.

 

[namvet]

And oh.. namvet.. as stated, by the numbers.. there has NOT been a year where the debt total was less than the previous year, since 1957.. that is indeed FACT... Government - Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual

You can claim a balanced budget or surplus all you want... on paper you can say it til you are blue in the face.. when your outlays are more than your intake and you end up more in debt, you are not balanced or in any surplus area

when your outlays are more than your intake and you end up more in debt, you are not balanced or in any surplus area]

no kiddin' tell it to Obozo and his deficit spending libs. that's how they solve problems. throw money at it. a debt that may take 3 generations to pay.

National debt up $6 trillion since Obama took office. and climbing every year since

link

so tell me. how high do you want it???

 

[RandomVariable]

I have stated my solutions to our spending problems many times. A synopsis:

1. Raise the Medicare and Social Security eligibility ages to 70, and index to 9 percent of the population going forward. We are living decades longer than our ancestors who set the age at 65, we should be working longer than they did.

2. Cut Defense spending to sane levels. Our Defense budget, when adjusted for inflation, has not been this high since World War II. It is higher than even during the hottest parts of the Cold War when we faced an actual existential threat. And the last time I looked around, we were not in a World War.

3. Ban all tax expenditures. This is the one which makes even alleged right wingers scream like hippies. They are okay with taking government gifts away from others, but when you come after theirs, they latch onto the government tit even harder. Tax expenditures cost us over $1.2 trillion every year. That is almost equal to the annual deficit.


Enacting these three simple programs would result in trillions of dollars of surplus cash. We could use this surplus to pay down the debt AND lower tax rates. At the same time! And once the debt was paid off, we could lower tax rates even more.

Sorry to have you repeat yourself, thank you for doing so. There are a lot of posters on this board. Comments on each of your points.

1) I disagree with raising the Medicare and Social Security eligibility ages to 70. As one of those many posters on the board said and as I have heard from several people I have talked with humans may be living long but knees and other joints give out about the same time as they ever have. There are a lot of people who work their body hard enough it they really begin to feel it going past 50. These are also the people who are going to get the most out of those benefits.

2) From what I understand defense spending is headed that way. Prying the money away from the defense contractors is the main obstacle. They put a lot of money into reelection campaigns.

3) I agree that some tax expenditures could be eliminated. These might be one of those things where there is obviously unnecessary expenditures but getting rid of those only reduces the $1.2 trillion by a billion whereas taking out the child deduction would reduce the $1.2 trillion to $0.1 trillion which I am against. This is where I turn to the CBO testimony before the House to really give me an idea what trade offs are being made. I don't know when or if the CBO will give testimony on the President's budget.

I also believe we can pay down the debt and lower taxes. I think the first is going to take a few years however.

Personally on the budget I think what is getting increased should be increased by a whole lot more. I think we should be jamming every dime we can pull into this country's future. As was shown in the Clinton years a thriving economy with do wonders for budgets. We absolutely need the education. As I have stated before the only reason the tech boom ended was because of capital greed. The power of technological innovation has just barely begun. We can do it again as soon as we set our mind to it. What I could go with a grant or two would blow some people's mind. We absolutely have to guard against capital greed again or the cycle repeats itself.

 

[RandomVariable]

You have no right to ... personal property rights are essential in a free society.. unlike what communistic progtards want

So you believe there should be no personal income tax, or sales tax, or any other tax which would "confiscate the property of others"?

Income is yearly.. not over all wealth you have collected...

While I am no fan of income tax.. I am fine with it on an equal basis (flat tax with no floor, ceiling, exemption, exception, or excuse).... but you do not keep re-taxing on what you have accumulated.... you ave no right to all property... what you are proposing is essentially a 100%tax on every person, since nobody is exempt from death

Try again.. totalitarian asshole

Besides that last line I have absolutely no idea what you just said.

 

[kwc57]

he's NEVER balanced a budget. ever

Neither has Reagan, Bush Sr, or Bush Jr

Pointing to other people's failures is no excuse for your own.

 

[RandomVariable]

Quote: Originally Posted by Edgetho View Post
Maybe there is Global Warming. Maybe it's because compared to a FUCKING ICE AGE we think it's warmer. Maybe human ARE contributing to GW.
Maybe pollution of the air, rivers, streams and oceans of the world are having an adverse effect on our environment and everything in it.
But before I'd let stupid motherfuckers like leftist scum have any more control over us, I'd rather see us implode in a ball of fire.

These are the minds we are left to deal with

Most of what Edge says there is nonsense but that last part.... I LIKE IT!!!

 

[TakeAStepBack]

Frankly, the hyperpartisanship of the debt/deficit debate makes it void. Both sides act like noise cancellation devices. It's always blame the other side, then go about doing the same thing yourself. Until the day people have actually had enough and stop electing the same empty toolshed every 2 and four years respectively, I don't think anyone has any ground to stand on in the blame game.

 

[cutter]

I'm sure glad we don't have a spending problem. NOT. I hate to think what a liberal would call too much spending. I guess it would be anything that would keep people from being liberated from their jobs.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Oh'boy you are pissed as it doesn't cut science, infrastructure or education. You see you can't stand that we invest within our own country.

Obama is cutting the one giant sink = military. I hope he closes a large percentage of those bases...Talk about a giant sink.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

I'm sure glad we don't have a spending problem. NOT. I hate to think what a liberal would call too much spending. I guess it would be anything that would keep people from being liberated for their jobs.

They have fully embraced the Neo-Keynesian stimulus fallacy. There is never enough spending and taxing in the liberal lexicon of policy making. That's just what they do. On the other hand, we have asshole conservative liars that are constantly talking about deficits and debt, being fiscally responsible, etc...then they turn around and spend just like the liberals they accused. Round and round we go. If anything, I give liberals more credit on this debate because they are honest. At least, to the point you KNOW where they actually stand on it. They want to tax and spend the place into oblivion. Where as the republicans will straight up lie in your face about it. Plus liberals have shown to be economically inept. So you have to cut them slack. Republicans seem more knowledgeable but the lying is just well, entirely discrediting to them.

 

[RDD_1210]

It's funny to watch conservatives pretend as if they are anti-spending.

One look at the military budget tells you they are definitely not anti-spending. They're just anti-spending on the programs they don't like.

 

[cutter]

Oh'boy you are pissed as it doesn't cut science, infrastructure or education. You see you can't stand that we invest within our own country.

Obama is cutting the one giant sink = military. I hope he closes a large percentage of those bases...Talk about a giant sink.

It's just too bad that with all this funding for science, infrastructure and education they still can't create a job that pays more than minimum wage.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Honest question:


When did the percent of spending on infrastructure, science and r&d add to the debt when considering inflation the past 20 years? Maybe a little in 2009 after tarp with infrastructure but at least we're were spending on ourselves instead of a country half a world away....This kind of spending is called investment and can grow the economy = why Haiti isn't going anywhere with the no investment mindset.

This isn't our problem. If you were to attack welfare you'd be right to do so. It is a fucking drain.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

It's funny to watch conservatives pretend as if they are anti-spending.

One look at the military budget tells you they are definitely not anti-spending. They're just anti-spending on the programs they don't like.

Yep. And the same applies to liberals., or democrats. They want to tax and spend on their special interest voter bloc items just the same as republicans. In the end, fiscall sanity exited the building decades ago and there is no going back. We ride this bus till the wheels fall off.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Oh'boy you are pissed as it doesn't cut science, infrastructure or education. You see you can't stand that we invest within our own country.

Obama is cutting the one giant sink = military. I hope he closes a large percentage of those bases...Talk about a giant sink.

It's just too bad that with all this funding for science, infrastructure and education they still can't create a job that pays more than minimum wage.

Every one of those areas pays well and helps strengthen our middle class. What are you talking about?