What Exactly Does "Smaller Government" Mean?

[g5000]

Anyone paying attention knew disaster administration 2.0 would be one of fraud/scam/grift. A useless, weak orange bag O' shit has installed a cabinet of billionaires to feast on our government and taxpayer resources. What could go wrong?

At least DEI is gone (because that was important to the rubes), inflation will be non existent, gas/egg prices are down to their lowest levels ever, government will never run more efficiently and illegal immigration is solved because... Tariffs! That's it!

Magaturds may be dumb dupes, but at least those libz sure got owned.

This is the wealthiest Cabinet is US history.

 

[g5000]

1) Eliminate all tax expenditures.

2) Raise the Social Security eligibility age to 70 and index it to 9 percent of the population going forward.

There, I not only just balanced the budget, I created a surplus.

Now ask yourselves why the wealthy don't want tax expenditures eliminated. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars bribing our politicians to keep them in place, and to add more every day.

 

[kyzr]

You do realize those tariffs are paid by Americans, right? You do realize those tariffs will raise the price of goods, right?
You want numbers? I've been telling you fools for YEARS that tax expenditures cost $1.6 trillion a year. Not every decade. Every year.
Tax expenditures are a socialist redistribution of wealth UP the economic ladder.
It astonishes me how vehemently so-called "conservatives" defend tax expenditures.
We could easily balance the budget by eliminating all tax expenditures save the EITC which is the only tax expenditure proven to increase productivity.

1. We don't know who pays for tariffs. It could be the producer, the purchaser, the merchant or a combination of the 3

2. Some tariffs will raise the price of goods, some will not, if the sellers want to keep their market share.

3. I believe we had this discussion before. What you call "tax expenditures" we call "tax deductions", correct?

4. One current example are SALT deductions, where high tax blue states want their tax deductions back.

You are correct, not sure what happens if everyone uses the "standard deduction"? We still keep that right?

 

[DGS49]

Has anyone posting here ever worked for a real company that provides goods and services to the public? It doesn't sound like it.

Trump wants to eliminate the debt ceiling because (a) there is no Constitutional or statutory requirement for it, and (b) it is a political hurdle that is pointless, and occasionally used like a bludgeon to force bullshit spending and/or cutbacks. There is nothing nefarious about wanting to do away with this imaginary hurdle. People on both sides of the aisle have proposed it from time to time.

The Federal government, like virtually all governments, is endemically bloated and inefficient. It happens to all large organizations. In the private sector, there are periodic events that bring about trimming of the fat - mergers, being acquired, hiring a new dynamic CEO, bankruptcy. But in the Public Sector, this almost never happens, so the bloat just gets worse and worse. All Musk wants to do is clean house. Force the managers to live with fewer people and facilities, while accomplishing the same mission as before. The danger in my mind is that all of the cuts will be done on a "seniority" basis rather than a productivity basis, thus making things worse.

I have personal experience in these matters, having worked for 8 years in the Department of Defense. I have detailed its inefficiency in other threads here, but suffice it to say that my organization (Defense Logistics Agency) could have been fully functional with 25% of its staff, simply by removing pointless tasks, reporting, and positions.

It is astounding how much political push-back is being created for a program that 80% of the population supports. How surprising is it that the people whose jobs are being eliminated are unhappy and think it's unfair? That is not "news." That is TDS on display.

 

[Dirk the Daring]

All they understand is sloganeering.

They're celebrating hundreds of thousands of layoffs, and they're fine with more and more power going to the very top. The details are simply beyond them. MORE POWER TO THE LEADER.

In America.

If you're base MAGA, you're either a fascist or a "useful idiot". Which one doesn't matter to me.

Layoffs of government employees, whose salaries are already paid for by taxpayers. At least on unemployment we'll be paying them substantially less.

 

[Votto]

DOGE boi said he was going to cut $2 trillion from government spending.

Yet, in December, co-presidents-elect Musk and Trump demanded the Republicans eliminate the debt ceiling. As I pointed out at the time, there is only one reason they would want the debt ceiling eliminated, and that is to allow for unlimited spending without any restraints.

Why have these two completely opposite goals not induced cognitive dissonance in MAGA world?

My guess is that would require cognition rather than blind, unquestioning devotion to the cult leader.

Smaller government? How does that explain the $3 trillion the recently passed House budget will add to the federal debt?

Why is this not ringing alarm bells in the MAGA camp? Is this all some stupid game in their minds?

It isn't a game, folks. Trump is already on track to shatter his previous debt record.

Here's a fact for you. Every president since JFK has left a better deficit situation to their successor than what they inherited. Every Republican president has left a worse deficit situation than they inherited.

House Budget Allows At Least $2.8 Trillion of Deficit Increases​

The budget’s reconciliation instructions pave the way for a bill that could add at least $2.8 trillion to deficits through FY 2034, or $3.4 to $4 trillion of debt including interest costs.


.

You OK with the size and scope of government?

Anyone with a pulse is not.

Right now, all Trump has done is shed some light on the roaches by showing where some of the tax dollars are going.

Who else would have done this?

It may not be much, but at least it is a start

 

[g5000]

Has anyone posting here ever worked for a real company that provides goods and services to the public? It doesn't sound like it.

Trump wants to eliminate the debt ceiling because (a) there is no Constitutional or statutory requirement for it, and (b) it is a political hurdle that is pointless, and occasionally used like a bludgeon to force bullshit spending and/or cutbacks. There is nothing nefarious about wanting to do away with this imaginary hurdle. People on both sides of the aisle have proposed it from time to time.

The Federal government, like virtually all governments, is endemically bloated and inefficient. It happens to all large organizations. In the private sector, there are periodic events that bring about trimming of the fat - mergers, being acquired, hiring a new dynamic CEO, bankruptcy. But in the Public Sector, this almost never happens, so the bloat just gets worse and worse. All Musk wants to do is clean house. Force the managers to live with fewer people and facilities, while accomplishing the same mission as before. The danger in my mind is that all of the cuts will be done on a "seniority" basis rather than a productivity basis, thus making things worse.

I have personal experience in these matters, having worked for 8 years in the Department of Defense. I have detailed its inefficiency in other threads here, but suffice it to say that my organization (Defense Logistics Agency) could have been fully functional with 25% of its staff, simply by removing pointless tasks, reporting, and positions.

It is astounding how much political push-back is being created for a program that 80% of the population supports. How surprising is it that the people whose jobs are being eliminated are unhappy and think it's unfair? That is not "news." That is TDS on display.

Trump's random slashing and burning is not well thought out.

In fact, he's going to hurt the very people who voted for him.

Most of the attacks are on the poor. It's clear Trump is doing the bidding of the oligarchs.

It has nothing to do with making America great. This is just going to concentrate wealth more than it already is.

 

[kyzr]

1) Eliminate all tax expenditures.
2) Raise the Social Security eligibility age to 70 and index it to 9 percent of the population going forward.
There, I not only just balanced the budget, I created a surplus.
Now ask yourselves why the wealthy don't want tax expenditures eliminated. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars bribing our politicians to keep them in place, and to add more every day.

1. Is that just for personal income taxes, or business taxes too? IMHO we need to keep business deductions to expense/deduct investments as "depreciation".

2. 70 is too old to retire, keep 67, but raise the early retirement age from 62 to 63 or 64. It makes sense to get it closer to the 65 eligibility age for Medicare, otherwise you are paying thru the nose for health insurance.

3. The wealthy have tax accountants and lawyers and lobbyists to bribe pols for those tax loopholes. Which party wants to piss-off the "donor-class"?

 

[Tumblin Tumbleweed]

You forgot to say that MAGA is racist.

It goes without saying.

 

[sartre play]

1) Eliminate all tax expenditures.

2) Raise the Social Security eligibility age to 70 and index it to 9 percent of the population going forward.

There, I not only just balanced the budget, I created a surplus.

Now ask yourselves why the wealthy don't want tax expenditures eliminated. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars bribing our politicians to keep them in place, and to add more every day.

WHY would we want the working man to work longer, SO the rich & comfortable do not have to pay more taxes?

 

[IDIOCRACY]

Smaller Government means that citizens receive less services for their tax dollars.

Less healthcare, less education, worse food and environmental protections, poor suffer more, worse infrastructure

All so that billionaires will pay less in taxes

Wow, you're such a deep thinker. Helps explain why you're Democracked.

 

[DGS49]

Trump's random slashing and burning is not well thought out.

In fact, he's going to hurt the very people who voted for him.

Most of the attacks are on the poor. It's clear Trump is doing the bidding of the oligarchs.

It has nothing to do with making America great. This is just going to concentrate wealth more than it already is.

Campaigns like this (I personally went through several) ALWAYS take out a few good people. That is because it must be done quickly and decisively. It always happens that some people are hired back; that's just the way it works. If Trump & Musk tried to do this slowly and studiously, it would never happen. All the Leftist interest groups would tie them up in knots.

There is unfairness in life. Who promised otherwise? Deal with it.

 

[g5000]

Wow, you're such a deep thinker. Helps explain why you're Democracked.

I'm not a Democrat. I'm a Reagan conservative. A Never Trumper.

MAGA world is so far off the conservative reservation, they are becoming far left liberals.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Smaller Government means that citizens receive less services for their tax dollars.

Less healthcare, less education, worse food and environmental protections, poor suffer more, worse infrastructure

All so that billionaires will pay less in taxes

No, small govt means the citizens can take of themselves without a worthless inefficient big brother lurking over them 24/7.

 

[g5000]

Campaigns like this (I personally went through several) ALWAYS take out a few good people. That is because it must be done quickly and decisively. It always happens that some people are hired back; that's just the way it works. If Trump & Musk tried to do this slowly and studiously, it would never happen. All the Leftist interest groups would tie them up in knots.

There is unfairness in life. Who promised otherwise? Deal with it.

You are weaving a myth.

The Republican Congress and Bill Clinton put together legislation which not only balanced the budget, it provided a surplus which could have paid off the debt.

They didn't act willy nilly like a couple of clowns.

Dubya decided to fuck it all up by passing tax cuts instead of paying off the debt. The end result was he doubled the debt.

Musk and Trump are amateur hour and they are going to make a real mess of things.

 

[rightwinger]

No, small govt means the citizens can take of themselves without a worthless inefficient big brother lurking over them 24/7.

Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society
Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

[IDIOCRACY]

I'm not a Democrat. I'm a Reagan conservative. A Never Trumper.

MAGA world is so far off the conservative reservation, they are becoming far left liberals.

Right, and I'm Peter Pan

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society
Oliver Wendell Holmes

I've got no problem paying my taxes.

 

[g5000]

Right, and I'm Peter Pan

Nice to meet you, Pete.

 

[g5000]

I've got no problem paying my taxes.

The problem is you are paying a radically different amount of taxes than your neighbor who earns an identical income as yours.

Thanks to tax expenditures.