US deficit down 9%

[mrsleeve]

Cut off Medicare and Medicaid? That's a tall order. Hope you've outlawed the AARP before you strike out on that one.

Yeah I know, but there is plenty of room to trim it a long ways

The 2010 dept of education budget was $46.7B, that doesn't quite pencil out. But I wouldn't mind seeing all the $ spent of standardized test and such being cut. Things like student loans and grants, however, need to be strengthened not cut. Every $1 you put in to educating someone comes out 100x fold in their contribution as a worker/taxpayer

Please consult the graph

http://www.federalbudget.com/

oh and educating and making loans so people can attend secondary education are supposed to be the responsibility of the federal govt and the tax payer.

Agreed, for the most part. Some of what Homeland Security does has become indispensable however, such as airline security. Someone has to run that stuff.

The TSA really, Have you been to an airport recently?????

Good luck getting that past the ultra-conservative farm lobby.

Yeah I know that I grew up on a farm. I know all about it. Most of the neighbors were getting paid not to farm, to save the environment Via the CRP programs in the 80's

Neither are possible. Someone has to make sure the country doesn't end up a toxic sludgepool with arsenic being put in your family's drinking water, that's the EPAs job. And do you really think either party is going to kill it off? Or the IRS? Nothing short of a +60% Libertarian congress and a libertarian president are going to do that. American's are overwhelmingly in favor of progressive taxes.

EPA is a weapon nothing more nothing less, Its out lived its usefullness and either needs to go away, or be defunded to the point where it can only do what it was intended to do, over see and enforce things NOT WRITE NEW POLICY. IRS again a weapon, and has been since the beginning.

You can't blame anything currently going on on the 'Greenies', sorry. They didn't have a damn thing to do with the subprime crisis, or wall street, or any of that. The infrastructure does need a lot of work though. But now you're looking at hundreds of billions more for thousands of new roads, bridges, pipelines, etc. And when Obama tried to push a transportation infrastructure spending bill a few months back the Republicans went insane. We would have new bridges going up right now if it weren't for them.

Right greenies have not caused the sub prime deal (govt still did that though). But greenies have made it so its near impossible to make infrastructure upgrades and what not.

And fracking should be illegal, good for PA for trying to stop it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAAHHAAHAHHAAHAHAH

Again talking out your ass about something you obviously have NO CLUE about. You were watching that Douche bag actor on the Dykes show on MSNBC last week weren't you???? Even the EPA has deemed the process safe.

Oh its not a Frack job either, I am not rig hand.

In the end it all comes down to, 'will this help or hurt my chances of re-election?' That's what drives a huge part of current lawmaking. Not what's best for the country or the people, but what will look best on the next TV clip.

Agree 100% has nothing to do with what is right, or whats best for the nation but what is RIGHT to keep me in power. This is not how our govt is supposed to work.

[pureaudio]

Education can stand to take a huge hit still, all that schools have done in this economy to cut costs is to cut the jobs that will make the biggest difference so they have a reason to gun for increased budgets. Never mind the admins stroking each other off with bigger raises and stipends that fall under "confidential" pay lists.

In the end it all comes down to, 'will this help or hurt my chances of re-election?' That's what drives a huge part of current lawmaking. Not what's best for the country or the people, but what will look best on the next TV clip.

Absolutely correct.

[CorvallisBMW]

Dept of Heath and Human services (entitlements other than SSI) Has a larger budget that the DoD then the Interest on our debts.
CUT THEM OFF, OTHER THAN BARE LIFE ESSENTIALS

Cut off Medicare and Medicaid? That's a tall order. Hope you've outlawed the AARP before you strike out on that one.

You could cut the waffleswaffleswaffles by 50% and save 50b Right there.

The 2010 dept of education budget was $46.7B, that doesn't quite pencil out. But I wouldn't mind seeing all the $ spent of standardized test and such being cut. Things like student loans and grants, however, need to be strengthened not cut. Every $1 you put in to educating someone comes out 100x fold in their contribution as a worker/taxpayer

DHS can go bye bye and save another 50b

HUD can go bye bye too and save a good 25b

Agreed, for the most part. Some of what Homeland Security does has become indispensable however, such as airline security. Someone has to run that stuff.

End farm subsidies there is a good 75B

Good luck getting that past the ultra-conservative farm lobby.

Kill the EPA 12b

Kill the IRS and go to a 1-2 page tax code and get every one to pay taxes no matter the income level Via the flat tax or Better the Fair tax.

Neither are possible. Someone has to make sure the country doesn't end up a toxic sludgepool with arsenic being put in your family's drinking water, that's the EPAs job. And do you really think either party is going to kill it off? Or the IRS? Nothing short of a +60% Libertarian congress and a libertarian president are going to do that. American's are overwhelmingly in favor of progressive taxes.

Get the Greenies in govt appointments outta the way and the EPA and streamline the permitting process for infrastructure retrofits and upgrades. After all the biggest share of the Infrastructure in the country is dam close or well past life expectancy since we have put the lions share of monies into Social programs rather than Infrastructure we will start see lots more issues like the I35 Bridge in Minneapolis, or the PG&E pipeline blow out in CA last month. I have been waiting on a job to go in PA for 5 months, the person in charge of enviro permits for the state is dragging their feet on getting them done and holding up about 350 people form going to work, on a 14 month project THAT IS PRIVATELY FUNDED.

You can't blame anything currently going on on the 'Greenies', sorry. They didn't have a damn thing to do with the subprime crisis, or wall street, or any of that. The infrastructure does need a lot of work though. But now you're looking at hundreds of billions more for thousands of new roads, bridges, pipelines, etc. And when Obama tried to push a transportation infrastructure spending bill a few months back the Republicans went insane. We would have new bridges going up right now if it weren't for them.

And fracking should be illegal, good for PA for trying to stop it.

Across the board cuts, everything takes a hit.

15% at least, is it going to suck? Yes.
Be difficult? Yes.

But it needs to be done, right now politicians basically treat entitlements and defense as untouchable which leaves an incredibly small portion of the budget with which to make significant progress.

And working in Defense I can tell you so much money could be saved or we could get so much more from what we do spend if there weren't such a "union, that ain't my job type mentality."

That's tough though, are you going to cut 15% from Medicaid and expect to get re-elected? Hell no. Seniors will boot you out of office so fast your head will spin. The union thing can suck, yes, but you work for a private company which has obviously allowed unions within their business. It's not the DoDs responsibility, they just give you the contract(s) after bidding, correct?

In the end it all comes down to, 'will this help or hurt my chances of re-election?' That's what drives a huge part of current lawmaking. Not what's best for the country or the people, but what will look best on the next TV clip.

[z31maniac]

So where do you all propose we cut spending from? Defense? Education? Medicare? Food safety?

Every single conservative I've talked to loves to rally and bitch about how the government needs to cut back spending. But not a single one, NOT ONE, has been able to give me a specific cut they would make.

So how about it guys? Where are you going to find $500bn next year to cut? You can't cut the Stimulus, it's already over. Same with the bailouts, TARP, etc. I don't care if you want to cut from discretionary, non-discretionary or both (yes, you can cut from non-discretionary spending, there are ways to do it)

Across the board cuts, everything takes a hit.

15% at least, is it going to suck? Yes.
Be difficult? Yes.

But it needs to be done, right now politicians basically treat entitlements and defense as untouchable which leaves an incredibly small portion of the budget with which to make significant progress.

And working in Defense I can tell you so much money could be saved or we could get so much more from what we do spend if there weren't such a "union, that ain't my job type mentality."

[mrsleeve]

Dept of Heath and Human services (entitlements other than SSI) Has a larger budget that the DoD then the Interest on our debts.
CUT THEM OFF, OTHER THAN BARE LIFE ESSENTIALS


You could cut the waffleswaffleswaffles by 50% and save 50b Right there.

DHS can go bye bye and save another 50b

HUD can go bye bye too and save a good 25b

End farm subsidies there is a good 75B

Kill the EPA 12b

Kill the IRS and go to a 1-2 page tax code and get every one to pay taxes no matter the income level Via the flat tax or Better the Fair tax.

DOT could be down sized and streamlined and save 30% or better on its budget of 80b

Dissolve Fannie and Freddie and that black hole of impending economic doom

There are plenty of place to cut spending from and place the money on the debts to pay them down and lower the amount paid to service it thus getting 500b back in the budget. Look at that I have just saved 200B I bet there is at least 3 times that that could be cut in other areas

All while leaving taxes the same or even lower them a little more, thus bringing stability as to what Washington is gonna do and allow people to take risks, hire, start or expand business. All which is what is needed to get people to spend money STABILITY, and put people back to work lowering the U/E rates, and put more money back into the economy.

Get the Greenies in govt appointments outta the way and the EPA and streamline the permitting process for infrastructure retrofits and upgrades. After all the biggest share of the Infrastructure in the country is dam close or well past life expectancy since we have put the lions share of monies into Social programs rather than Infrastructure we will start see lots more issues like the I35 Bridge in Minneapolis, or the PG&E pipeline blow out in CA last month. I have been waiting on a job to go in PA for 5 months, the person in charge of enviro permits for the state is dragging their feet on getting them done and holding up about 350 people form going to work, on a 14 month project THAT IS PRIVATELY FUNDED.

[CorvallisBMW]

over 60% of the Budget as it is now is ENTITLEMENTS. thats a good place to start.

Bail outs, Earmarks, Pork in general, unnecessary travel, Govt employee Unions (aka Collective bargaining agreements) Education (return that to a state and locally run programs and not a federal agenda, The schools are not shitty from being short on cash)

Shall I continue.

Yes, please continue. Bailouts are done and over, you can't count those. How are you going to eliminate the dept of education? How are you going to limit pork and earmarks? How much will it save?

You're still just blowing out hot air.

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say that "Earmarks, Pork in general, unnecessary travel, Govt employee Unions" cost about $50bn per year put together. Congrats, you've cut about 2%. Care to try again?

[mrsleeve]

So where do you all propose we cut spending from? Defense? Education? Medicare? Food safety?

Every single conservative I've talked to loves to rally and bitch about how the government needs to cut back spending. But not a single one, NOT ONE, has been able to give me a specific cut they would make.

So how about it guys? Where are you going to find $500bn next year? to cut?

over 60% of the Budget as it is now is ENTITLEMENTS. thats a good place to start.

Bail outs, Earmarks, Pork in general, unnecessary travel, Govt employee Unions (aka Collective bargaining agreements) Education (return that to a state and locally run programs and not a federal agenda, The schools are not shitty from being short on cash)

Shall I continue.

[CorvallisBMW]

So where do you all propose we cut spending from? Defense? Education? Medicare? Food safety?

Every single conservative I've talked to loves to rally and bitch about how the government needs to cut back spending. But not a single one, NOT ONE, has been able to give me a specific cut they would make.

So how about it guys? Where are you going to find $500bn next year to cut? You can't cut the Stimulus, it's already over. Same with the bailouts, TARP, etc. I don't care if you want to cut from discretionary, non-discretionary or both (yes, you can cut from non-discretionary spending, there are ways to do it)

[z31maniac]

What's your suggestion? That companies pay no taxes? Hate to break it to you, but government needs revenue to function. And government, whether you're willing to admit it to yourself or not, is critical to the economy.

Yep. The FairTax eliminates all corporate income tax, imagine how much more competitive our industries/companies would be if you lopped 35% off the bottom line? Or if guys like blunt no longer had to pay the 12.5% self-employment tax? What do you think he could do with the cost of parts? Go lower to be even more competitive and sell more things?

The thing that blows my mind that you don't get. All corporate income taxes are taxes on the American PEOPLE, not the corporations. Corporations will not take the hit to the bottom line when taxes are raised, what do they do? The raise the price of the product and pass it on to the consumer.

With the GDP and revenue as low as they are, spending would have to be cut pretty massively to balance the budget. And besides, how would that assist the economy?

By putting more money in people's pockets. If people that have money would start spending again, it would go a long way toward getting us back on the right track.

Source?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/motors/3160797/Car-firm-Lotus-in-vow-to-quit-UK.html

The one about Lotus is more about the Gov't backed loan, which is a crock in my opinion. If they can't get financing on the open market, why is that the gov'ts and taxpayers problem?

But then there are these........

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...r-Germany.html

http://topnews.us/content/222213-zurich-leaving-uk-lighter-tax-regime

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/67714,business,one-in-five-firms-consider-leaving-uk-because-of-tax

[joshh]

http://stimuluswatch.org/2.0/

Cuts would be huge if Congress and the President were willing to actually be responsible and stop thinking they can spend all they want. Much of it on nonsense.
You keep giving them more=more nonsense spending.

No one is saying no taxes. But when waste is at the level it is, cutting comes first.

[Kansas]

would be a waste of my time.

Well then why bother saying anything at all?

taxes are punitive and a hindrance to business. You raise them business will pull in the effort. thus making the economy slow even more, lowering tax rolls. Thus they will be raised again, and shit will get wose.

What's your suggestion? That companies pay no taxes? Hate to break it to you, but government needs revenue to function. And government, whether you're willing to admit it to yourself or not, is critical to the economy.

Study the great depression then get back to me.

I would suggest the same to you.

No, leave taxes where they are, and cut SPENDING.

With the GDP and revenue as low as they are, spending would have to be cut pretty massively to balance the budget. And besides, how would that assist the economy?

I guess Lotus and other companies are threatening to leave for Germany because a 50% income tax rate is a GOOD thing.

Source?

Yesssss 2 pages in a row where I get to reference the 1920 Depression that never happened. We could compare what was done in the 1920's to what FDR did in the 1930's and 40's. I'm just saying we called the 1920's the roaring 20's and what did we call the 1930's and 40's? Oh yeah the Great Depression. Hey don't blame me for paying attention to history. When history shows me a better way I will claim that way to be the way:)

That was just a post-WWI recession. Not a full blown stock market crash and bank failure.

[reelop19]

Yesssss 2 pages in a row where I get to reference the 1920 Depression that never happened. We could compare what was done in the 1920's to what FDR did in the 1930's and 40's. I'm just saying we called the 1920's the roaring 20's and what did we call the 1930's and 40's? Oh yeah the Great Depression. Hey don't blame me for paying attention to history. When history shows me a better way I will claim that way to be the way:)

[z31maniac]

I guess Lotus and other companies are threatening to leave for Germany because a 50% income tax rate is a GOOD thing.

[mrsleeve]

What else would you call them there my commie Canadian counterpart.

[Massive Lee]

taxes are punitive and a hindrance to business.