Political question. If you had TOTAL & COMPLETE control in............

[mark]

.............getting the U.S. money deficit under control, meaning balancing the budget, just what would you do??

As you know, the gov't spends more money than it's taking in everyday. The politician's answer is to consistently raise our taxes to pay for their binge spending.

So, what would you do to get the budget balanced if you were in charge??

I'll post my thoughts/response if I were in control in a few days.

You'll probably be surprised at my answer.

I'd love to hear your thoughts 1st...............see ya Mark

[tkcomer]

I’ve mentioned this in other posts. Stop trading with dictators and enemies of the United States. This would have to be phased in over a 4 or 5 year period. Then companies could not close down factories here and reopen in countries that are hostile to the United States. Just so they can pay slave wages with no health care and beat this country out of taxes to boot. They would have to bring their factories back if they wanted to stay in business. Then close all overseas bases and bring the solders back home and cut the military budget in half. The military is consuming almost 25% of the budget. No country in the history of the world survived by spending that much on the military. They went bankrupt and collapsed. Just these two things would put us in the black and we could start paying off our debts. But to tie it all together, we have to become energy independent. It can be done. We have the technology. And the money we use to fuel our vehicles with will stay in this country. And this would be just a start.

[Jeremy]

I'm naive when it comes to the bills. The wife pays them. And I don't have all the government's expense records in front of me. But I don't think the problem will be fixed by raising taxes. Honestly, most people can afford a small raise in taxes, but it won't do any good. If there's money there they'll spend it for the simple reason that they have to justify their budget. If they spend $10 one year they have to spend it the next year in order to keep getting the $10.

So you have to cut spending. Now I know that people say cut this thing or cut that thing. I think everything can use a little cutting because it's a huge beauracracy where no one is paying attention or even cares what they are spending money on. We can have a huge militarty budget without spending millions of dollars on a single plane. There's a reason they call it a juicy military contract. It's because the contractor milks it for every penny they can get. The problem gets worse when politicians pass these contracts off to friends in the industry because they know it's juicy, as in the Haliburton case. I think we need some hardcore penny-pinching accountants who actually care about reducing prices of things the government already spends money on.

Also, you need more people who believe in the government who are willing to give. This isn't me, but it's what is needed. During WWII, the government actually had scrap drives where they seized people's cars to use as scrap metal to build war machines. Most people thought it patriotic to give it up. Now I don't really support that, but it is a good example of a nation that blindly believed in their government. I don't think you'd find that in today's climate. A lot of good it did considering the government just exploited the caring of its people. If the government was nicer to its people and showed a real caring of them, I'd be willing to give more.

Finally, I think we need an attitude shift. The United States is a great country, but I think we are a little full of ourselves. We have a duty as a rich country to involve ourselves in the community of the world and do what we can to make it a better place. Still, I think we have over extended ourselves. I winced when the whole war justification switched from looking for weapons of mass destruction to liberating the oppressed Iraqi people. Iraq isn't the only place in the world that has a dictatorship and living conditions in much of the world is just plain crappy. If we go and fight liberation wars for every place that actually needs one there won't be anyone left in this country at all. Not to mention that living conditions in our own country is pretty crappy in some areas. So we need to consolidate more. We gave something like $350 million to the tsunami relief. That's about the cost of 7 airplanes. Military actions are EXPENSIVE!

[kdown]

Eliminate the income tax on corporations and individuals and establish a national sales tax. Eliminate the trade deficit.
Take the cap off social security, leave the rate alone.
Zero based budget for all government agencies. Must justify all expenditures.

[Jeremy]

Would the national sales tax be in addition to the state sales tax? Also, would it include Internet and mail order purchases which in most cases aren't subject to sales tax? Just wondering.

[kdown]

National sales tax would be in addition to state sales tax. Internet sales would be taxable. The biggest hit would be from the people who work for cash and never pay income tax.

[tkcomer]

We are no longer a rich nation. We are one of the largest debtor nations in the world. People and the government have got to get that through their heads. The Taxpayers Union once pointed out 30 billion of pork. That’s a lot of money. But our debt for 2005 is what? Around 450 billion dollars? You can’t just trim here and there. Nor do we need higher taxes. The military consumes almost 500 billion dollars. We are 7 TRILLION dollars in debt. Foreign countries that are hostile to us are building up their militaries with our money. They are doing it with money they get from factories that used to be here. This is just plain wrong. And it’s getting worse. China is now a large sponsor of the US government debt. In a few more years, we will owe them so much money, they will be able to tell us what to do. Or throw us into a depression if we don’t. This is dangerous territory. China is going to attack Taiwan. They are no longer even hiding that fact. A democratically elected country. And we will have to stand by and wring our hands. Because if we do try anything, China will wreck our economy. And all those fancy new weapons we bought will be given to the National Guard to patrol this country. To keep us from revolting. All because big business bribed our government officials to let them shirk their responsibilities to build their factories over there. Bring the jobs back home. And our military. Eliminate the national debt. Only then can we begin to help others.

[dpolley]

Here's a novel idea: Stop funding every other country in the world with our tax dollars, and concentrate on balancing the budget and taking care of the AMERICAN PEOPLE. I realize that this will never happen, but it is a simple answer to a complex problem.

[Jeremy]

National sales tax would be in addition to state sales tax. Internet sales would be taxable. The biggest hit would be from the people who work for cash and never pay income tax.

Well the reason I asked is how do you handle Inter-Country sales. I sell a lot to people all over the world. Would products be cheaper for them because they don't have to pay the tax? Or reverse it and say would people in America buy foreign to avoid the tax? I don't understand how that would work.

[annieap]

Here's a novel idea: Stop funding every other country in the world with our tax dollars, and concentrate on balancing the budget and taking care of the AMERICAN PEOPLE. I realize that this will never happen, but it is a simple answer to a complex problem.

dpolley...I agree with you 100%!!

[acoolmom777]

I wouldn't even know where to start, but...some of the following does not make sense to me...
why do I...

Buy a box of band-aids at Wal-Mart for 1.99 but when I go to the hospital it cost me 5.99 for 1 band aide.

Pay 1.99 a gallon for gas, but when it is delivered to the farm it is less then 1.40 per gallon.

Only make 11.00 per hour and bust my butt of 60 hrs per week and still only get by, but a person on capital hill makes approx: 80.00 per hour and sit on his/her butt has drinks and eats dinner (that we as tax payers pay for) gripe about wanting a raise.

Not understand that a prisoner on death row should cost the people over 100,000 per year to feed and cloth...(oh yeah that’s right after a 8 hour work day, they need steak for dinner and their "Steven Meisel" dress uniform to be cleaned).

Have to pay 7.99 for a can of coffee, just because the cocaine industry took a fall this year...(just a joke...coffee up/cocaine down).

Use my tax money to do experiments on animals to see if they are as smart as humans.

I’m sure just making a few cuts here and there would have to make some kind of difference.

And I am a firm believer in using the city/county/state and federal prisoners to do work that needs to be done around their city/county/state areas…at least they would be earning their 100 thousand a year.

[mark]

....................OK, you guys has some great ideas on how to reduce the national debt. Before I tell you mine, here's the running figures you need to see:

http://www.toptips.com/debtclock.html

WOW, those are numbers most of us cannot even fathom. Now for my answer.
Read this 1st:

With the 3.1 percent pay raise, senators and representatives will make $154,700 next year instead of the $150,000 they made this year. Lawmakers' salaries have gone up $18,000 since 1999.
You can read the info here:

http://www.reformpartyct.org/raises_made_easy.html

They made on the average or 154,000 in 2004.....without getting PAC $$ or speaking engagements. Since these politicians are out for giving themselves lot's or raises & making lot's of money, here's a chance for them to make some SERIOUS jack.

Here's the plan.
Since we are trillions & trillions in the hole with no end of spending in sight, I have a wonderful plan for politicians to get richer & the save the U.S. money at the same time.

It's simple.
For every 100 million dollars a politician CUTS ( not cuts in rate of growth-actually cutting ) he will personally earn a $50,000 bonus to his annual paycheck. The next 100 mil gets another $50,000 added to his check & so on. I would rather spend a few million dollars in bonuses that spend the billions of dollars they are pork spending currently anyway.

These guys can actually earn a lot of serious jack with the strokes of their pens. They used them to get us in the hole, they can very well use those same pens again to get us out of the hole & earn some $$ at the same time.
Think how wonderful it would be to offer politicians this REAL incentive to cut the national spending till it gets back into a balanced budget. What politician would turn this plan down?? Hmmm, they get richer & we get a balanced budget.

Before you guys beat me up on where to make cuts, it doesn't matter where the cuts comes from, it's out of control in ALL aspects of the budget anyway.
Start cutting spending & make serious jack. It doesn't get any better than that, right ??

With all the greedy politicians we have these days, I think it's a wonderful plan.
Probably NEVER happen but sounds good anyway.

Comments??...................see ya Mark

[Jeremy]

I love your idea Mark and I have only one suggestion to add to it in order to cut down on the political fighting of where to cut funds (Republicans wanting to cut Democrat budgets and vice versa).

In order to get the bonus, they must cut something that they would normally, for partisan reasons, support. So a conservative might be required to cut military spending. A liberal might be required to cut environmental spending. To further add to this, and reduce the bickering of who gets credit from a particular cut, perhaps they should be required to cut something from their own portfolio. As an example, a politician who called for $300,000 to fund national parks might only get the bonus if he or she cut that number down to $200,000 or $150,000.

The only drawback to this plan is I see some shady politicians inflating the budget in the first proposal so that they can cut the budget in the second proposal to get the bonus and line their own pockets. Maybe someone else can wrap their heads around that one and figure out a way to keep the politician honest (good luck!).

This is a practical solution, which is why I support it. Theoretically, though, I don't see why we should reward these guys for doing something they should be doing in the first place. In a perfect world, they should WANT to make the future better for their children and get rid of the debt that generations from now will be paying back.

I don't really know, but maybe the problem is that only rich people are in Congress. I mean you can't really get there being poor and destitute. Maybe they just can't grasp the idea of bankruptcy. After all, they just passed a law that forces people who file bankruptcy to pay the debt off anyway. Sounds to me that they can't understand the concept of "no-money". Since I have never been rich nor come from a rich family, I know that no-money means NO MONEY. To them no-money means borrow-money.

Poor people might handle this budget cutting better. Tell Bill Gates that such and such project will cost $300,000 and he signs a check. Tell a poor person that it will cost $300,000 and they say "WHAAAAA?" and start crossing things off the shopping list.

[acoolmom777]

Why don’t we the people get to vote on what to cut…
Say once a year we get a list of say 12 different departments and we get to choose two…?

We need a plain ole layman/laywoman to run for office....maybe a small business person. One that knows the struggle of making it work...wait how about an equal of congress or state like ...where this seat passes the list to the people...ouch I pinched myself...I was dreaming...they would become corrupt also...it's a money thing.

[tkcomer]

We don’t need to bribe our politicians to do their job. We the people could correct this mistake in a few short years. All you have to do is never, ever vote for an incumbent until the national debt was paid off. But for years people have been voting for morals instead of economics. Morals won’t feed your family. When NAFTA passed, not one politician that voted for that should have been re-elected. And that is just one example. But one of the reasons we are in this shape is the media. The way these politicians are bankrupting this country should be front-page news every single day. It is the media’s responsibility to inform us. They’re not. And I’m not sure it would do any good. Not when people line up behind politicians that say we need the 10 Commandments in school. While those same politicians are destroying the future of those children. And ours. We are doing this to ourselves. We are still blaming evil corporations for shipping our jobs overseas when it was our politicians that passed the laws that allowed it. We even re-elected a president that lied to us about going to war. How sorry can that be? And if we choose to put a man back in office who is responsible for the deaths and injuries to hundreds of thousands of people based on those lies, I fear we will be standing in soup lines before we finally wake up.

[kcredden]

[clapclapclap] Good point, TK, good point. What would you expect from a bunch of hypocrits? I can remember when Clinton was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, one of the biggest outspoken critiques was Henry Hyde. Well is' it ironic he too was eventually caught with his pants down?

Hmmm...

Well guess we'll have to starve, and have no jobs before people learn. Guess I better move up to Canada.

We don’t need to bribe our politicians to do their job. We the people could correct this mistake in a few short years. All you have to do is never, ever vote for an incumbent until the national debt was paid off. But for years people have been voting for morals instead of economics. Morals won’t feed your family. [snipped]

[tkcomer]

Speaking of Canada, I saw a comic on TV a few weeks ago. Lewis Black. He made a comment about people who have never stepped foot outside this country and are jumping up and down saying, “We’re the greatest country in the world!” He went on to say, “How would you know? There could be other countries giving stuff away. Like Canada. They give away health insurance!”

[kcredden]

[chuckles] Yes that's true. We never know what we're missing till we loose it. I learned that with my diabeties, and I can see so much of what I lost, and can loose.

Speaking of Canada, I saw a comic on TV a few weeks ago. Lewis Black. He made a comment about people who have never stepped foot outside this country and are jumping up and down saying, “We’re the greatest country in the world!” He went on to say, “How would you know? There could be other countries giving stuff away. Like Canada. They give away health insurance!”

[mark]

........you know, TK is right to a point:
Here's a response in his post:

We don’t need to bribe our politicians to do their job. We the people could correct this mistake in a few short years. All you have to do is never, ever vote for an incumbent until the national debt was paid off.

I wish it were true, but the problem is......that method doesn't work. We all know politicians promise you the world till elected...........then.........those promises are forgotten. I wish ALL incumbents weren't reelected. Hey, for that matter, term limits ( 1 term--max ) would be even better but I live in the real world & realize that will never happen either.

I still say my far fetched realistic plan would work. Politicians are greedy folks & now they have a REAL reason to go after their greed.........and........we get a balanced budget!!

Let the cuttin' begin!!

As they say....It don't get no better than that, right ??!!??.........see ya Mark

[tkcomer]

Ah, but politicians will sell their souls to hang on to their jobs. It’s a big ego trip when you get to play king. How do you think they would react if the middle class actually banded together and voted economics? Half would be out on the next election. If the other half did not change, they would go too. But it will never happen. The biggest voting block is the people over 55. And they are voting Social Security regardless of what this bunch is doing. What the news media ought to doing is hammering in their heads is no one will get SS if this bunch keeps driving the country to insolvency. The media needs to hammer into their heads that taxes from jobs is what keeps SS going. And both sides has let millions of jobs leave this country. And the media needs to enlighten them on how this huge military juggernaught is rapidly draining their SS trust fund. I hear a lot of people at work say we need to kill all those people “over there.” You ought to see the dumbfounded look on their face when I ask if they’re ready to give up their SS to do this. If the media would only report THAT on a daily basis, I bet those old folks might rethink that “Bear any burden.”

[GirlColumbo]

"Only make 11.00 per hour and bust my butt of 60 hrs per week and still only get by, but a person on capital hill makes approx: 80.00 per hour and sit on his/her butt has drinks and eats dinner (that we as tax payers pay for) gripe about wanting a raise."

Now there you go coolmom, the average joe who actually works for a living and knows how to stretch a dollar to make ends meet should be put in office...................you know maybe one of us kind of people who has to decide whether to pay the electric bill or put food on the table and in the same week have to buy little susie a new pair of shoes and little bobby some more school supplies.

Sometimes i think all that lottery money no one wins could probably make a big difference in the deficit, and even have some left over to put a humane society in each county.

Ya'll didnt say how big we could dream

[lackocash]

we should cut out all taxes to the rich, let the lazy starve ,kick the welfare queens to the street put their ******* children in work camps ,quit paving roads, fire all activist judges who want to give homosexuals and mexicans rights or who make rulings based in law, tax churches ,bomb the middle east, let rednecks patrol the borders in lynch mobs,create laws to fit uncomfortable situations(unconstitutional laws preferbly) then fly to washington in airforce 1 knowing that a judge (activist gay loving i am sure)will overturn it then fly back to texas on airforce 1 at taxpayers expense of course,destroy american unions abolish social security, oh i am sorry that is what the big W man is doing and it is destroying our economy hmmm. sorry mark no real good solutions here see ya

[mark]

......................I actually agree with some of those points you've made.
Sorry to disagree, but there is a solution here but the politicians won't do anything about it.

If they balanced their checkbooks like they do the gov't, they wouldn't have any $$ either.

The answer is simple, cut the spending till the budget is balanced & the rest will take care of itself. The last time that happened was in 1969.
There will be a lot of weeping but it's the only way.

They must learn someday that $$ actually doesn't grow on trees........see ya Mark

[GirlColumbo]

yea put those little children right in those work camps, and starve their mothers, that is just what this hate filled worlds needs. geez boardering on the verge of another holocost sound humanizing.....................

sadly those who are starving are children, so we had better make the little fellers work like dogs so they can have an extra bowl of gruel...........

[mark]

..............maybe I should elaborate. Here is what I do agree with ( in part):

we should cut out all taxes to the rich,

When you cut ( not all ) taxes to the rich, they will invest & start new business.
Guess what?? Jobs are created.
The rest I have some problems with.

Sorry, I never worked for a poor man & probably most everyone reading this hasn't either.............see ya Mark

[GirlColumbo]

Mark I agree about the taxes, but i get cold chills when i see the lynch mobbing and bombing, and the idea of starving others....................

lackocash, tell me you couldnt be that cruel

[tkcomer]

Hmmm. Seems like every time we cut taxes for the rich, they take that money and move jobs overseas. Remember, the middle class cannot pay for it all. Not with real world wages going down.

[lackocash]

i aint that cruel ........ cuting taxes for the rich....i dunno about that...lynch mobs....these are all neoconservative ideas... i am just a po boy see ya ha ha ha

[lackocash]

******* is a discriptive term.... a boy born out of wedlock....no need to censure should be a seventh grade spelling word much like niggardly as we all know it is anglo saxon or very old english it means a job not well done the conservatives want to keep it i am sure most americans use this word at least.....twice a week...i myself find it well ...not very nice "see ya" as mark would say

[GirlColumbo]

not sure what you are trying to say

[mark]

..........sorry, I don't use those terms................see ya Mark

[lackocash]

what part girlcolumbo???

[lackocash]

you are a censure mark a rightwing extremist.....a facist....a red chinese....a bathist...a taliban defender....a liberal...you would rather silence the voices of oposition than hear them ....you would rather sugar coat than face the ugly truth...so disengenuous...so unamerican...so shamefull

[annieap]

I'm sorry, but this seems to be getting way out of line!

[lackocash]

sorry annie

[GirlColumbo]

All of that mumbo jumbo lackocash, are you saying we are all of those things? I would say it is safe to say no one on here even comes close to being any of those. And anyway how can you judge someone that you dont even know?
We are after all just plain folks trying to see some rhyme and reason, thinking out loud if you will, on one of the toughet topics of all time..............

Yes we may buy Wal-Mart, but there you go, we have to live, and you have to agree that we are between a rock and a hard place..............I dont think there are enough caves for us all to become hermits. Only as hermits could we get by without participating in the purchase of products from other countries

Maybe you could change that name to Stackocash if you were not so bitter. Hey we all would like to see some real changes in our government, and the way this world is going

but has hate/bashing helped us in any way.


I think not. And i am not naieve by any stretch of the word.

We face the ugly truth everyday when we wake up, but we have to live on this planet as caring humans, not ones who thrash and bash and go about our day with so much hate in our hearts and minds.

As bad as it is, there is still something to be grateful for.....................oh yes there is,