Budget deficit

[David S]

According to Alan Greenspan the budget deficits pose a danger to the nation's long-term economic health. The deficit for 2005  is expected to be $427 billion. The estimated spending for 2005 is $2.479 trillion and the estimated receipts from all sources is $2.052 trillion. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/sheets/hist01z1.xls If the federal government raised all taxes by 21% that would provide the extra $427 billion to balance the budget. Would you be willing to raise your taxes by 21% to balance the budget or would you prefer to cut spending. The 21% increase would have to apply to income tax, social security tax, medicare tax, corporate taxes, federal excise tax on gasoline, and all other federal taxes.



Greenspan: Budget Deficits Pose Danger
Thursday, April 21, 2005 1:04 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By JEANNINE AVERSA
Bloated budget deficits pose a danger to the nation's long-term economic health, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned anew Thursday. He issued a fresh call to policy-makers to move swiftly to put the government's fiscal house in order.

[David S]

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg1833.cfm

1. Freeze non-defense discretion­ary spending through 2009,
2. Cap farm subsidies for wealthy farmers,
3. Reduce Medicaid growth rate to 5 percent,
4. Replace the Medicare drug bene­fit with the drug card, and
5. Reduce entitlement spending by 3 per­cent by targeting waste, fraud, and abuse.

Thats a step in the right direction but according to the Heritage article that only cuts the deficit in half. It doesn't eliminate it.

[David S]

That 21% figure is silly. Simply roll back the Bush tax cuts and we'd be seeing surpluses again.

The 21% figure is exactly what you would need if you apply it to all federal taxes. Do the math yourself if you like. BTW if there really were surpluses during the Clinton adminstration then the national debt would have been reduced. But the debt went up every year Clinton was in office. So there never were any real surpluses.

[David S]

I would:
1. Temporarily repeal Bush's tax cuts
2. End pork barrel spending
3. Cut funding for and/or eliminate certain programs and bodies: e.g., the Peace Corps, the TVA, Amtrak, the National Ice Center, the Appalachian Regional Commission
4. Cut farm subsidies
5. Abolish the Department of Education. (The Dept does not help build schools, hire teachers, determine curricula, or set educational standards for students; it only transfers money from the federal government to other bodies. I hardly think that we need a department to funnel money from pt A to pt B.)

Any idea how much that would affect the deficit?

[David S]

Get out of Iraq and cut the military budget in half.  Increase taxes on those making over $200,000/year to at least 50%, and possibly add a rate of 60 or 70% over $500,000/year.

Opebo your tax plans are always neatly crafted to exclude you from any tax hikes. My question was phrased to mean if we all have to chip in to make it work how much more would we be willing to pay.

[David S]

That 21% figure is silly. Simply roll back the Bush tax cuts and we'd be seeing surpluses again.

The 21% figure is exactly what you would need if you apply it to all federal taxes. Do the math yourself if you like. BTW if there really were surpluses during the Clinton adminstration then the national debt would have been reduced. But the debt went up every year Clinton was in office. So there never were any real surpluses.

 And Clinton did start paying down the national debt; I recall in 2000 it was about $216 billion. It wasn't much but it was a start.

This is from the Bureau of the public debt; What year did it go down?
Answer -It didn't.
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdhisto4.htm
Date                          Amount            
          
09/30/2000   $5,674,178,209,886.86      
09/30/1999   5,656,270,901,615.43      
09/30/1998   5,526,193,008,897.62      
09/30/1997   5,413,146,011,397.34      
09/30/1996   5,224,810,939,135.73      
09/29/1995   4,973,982,900,709.39      
09/30/1994   4,692,749,910,013.32      
09/30/1993   4,411,488,883,139.38      
09/30/1992   4,064,620,655,521.66      

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The tax cuts caused part of the deficit but spending went up much faster during the Bush administration than the Clinton administration so that's a factor too.

[David S]

3. We don't even know how $9 billion in Iraq got spent. It was dispursed in unmarked bills. There's definitely ways to reduce spending without hurting anyone but the corrupt.

Just imagine the mind-boggling corruption that must be going on over there, and in the military, right now!  Makes me think of Milo Minderbinder.  From Catch-22:
"This time Milo had gone to far. Bombing his own men and planes was more than even the most phlegmatic observer could stomach, and it looked like the end for him...Milo was all washed up until he opened his books to the public and disclosed the tremendous profit he had made."
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/c22/QUO.htm

Ah yes I remember old Milo. C02 cartridges for inflating life rafts turned up missing. Seems Milo appropriated them to make sodas in the officers club. Funny book, but just a book.