Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Want to reduce debt
Well lets think about this for a moment. I am going to assume that all of us want to reduce the rising debt that we now have from lots of Administrations. I am also going to assume that anyone with a brain the size of a Nat can figure that you can't spend you way out of debt. If you believe in these two ideas then wouldn't it make sense that for our economy to flourish, and for our government to pay down debt that the American people need to have more money in their pockets to spend and invest so that through these success the government would receive more revenue from these success that they could pay down debt. Of course the other assumption you have to make is the people in power would have to commit to smaller government and drastically cutting spending for this to work. Taxing the crap out of people and corporations is not going to work, unless you believe in bigger government involvement in your life, more tax's that would ultimately drive down the incentive for people to invest and spend resulting in less revenue for the government to reduce the debt.
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7 comments:
Okay Riegel -
What big programs are you going to cut and how much? Take a look at the budget and tell us how you would balance the books solely through spending cuts.
Baxter...It would not be an easy job, but I am sure you would agree that there is a ton of waste in our current programs that could be cut out. Department of energy...dept of transportation...dept of education..how many people do you really need to run these programs...if industry can cut and be efficient and reduce expenses I would think the government could do the same at the same time reduce its size..lets start with the admitted 50billion of waste in the Medicare/Medicade system...and by the way I did not say totally through spending cuts...I know this goes against everything you believe but how about cutting tax's across the board so people would spend more and the government would get more in tax revenue and use a large percentage of that increased revenue to reduce the debt, not spend it on BS programs
Riegel -
With all due respect, you are not familiar with this topic. I challenged you to identify the specific budget cuts so that you would discover that mere spending cuts will not get the job done. Tax cuts will only increase the deficit, as demonstrated by Reagan and Bush. Art Laffer himself would tell you to expect $.35 for every $1.00 of across the board tax cuts. So - if your objective is to balance the budget, why would you cut taxes?
Seriously - take a look at the budget online. Inform your opinion. You can significantly cut all the programs you mentioned and you still won't balance the budget. If you care about long term fiscal rectitude, you will realize that we need a lot more government revenue - not just a little.
Every president I can remember has decried waste. If you have specific ideas that will result in cost savings, lets hear them. Big businesses (which I stipulate are more efficient than government) also have a good deal of waste. But they can't eliminate it by simply cutting a budget. I am not aware of a line in the chart of accounts that reads "Waste, Fraud & Abuse".
So - my budget challenge remains in place for all the righties on the board. Are any of you up to it?
I really do not have to go through the budget line by line. Common sense needs to take place. Lets look at some of the progressive states, which the vast majority of them are failing, starting with CA it is only 541 billion in the red, but has some of the highest tax's on the planet,either 10 or 11% personal income tax, then there is MI over a cliff never to recover...run by Dems for year, and high tax's..granted it had a one product industry that has failed, and started to fail about 30 years ago,but the Unions and Management of that industry were had their heads so far up their ass they rolled around like a ball. then you can go to MA another high tax state, then OR another high tax state. Seems that all these states with high tax rates seem to be failing and people moving out like mad...gee I wonder why. Then you can jump to the Federal employees in our wonderful wage system...lets see I think the average American earns around 40K while the average Government employee makes 70K, and then talk about the benefits for federal employees, it makes Medicare/SS and other programs mice nuts in comparison. Not sure if I am right but a one term senator gets a retirement program to die for I understand... Maybe we should model ourselves on a state like TX...live within your budget and there is no personal income tax..what a thought. So don't tell me Baxter that I have to go through the budget to find lots of places to cut...get in the game, and get off the Bush Regan wagon that is getting old. Good luck in November.
Riegel -
If you want to discuss this subject, you will need to look at the budget. You can find a two-page summary online or in the 2010 World Almanac and Book of Facts.
We can all agree that there are opportunities for budget cuts. My point - that you are missing - is that we still need a lot more tax revenue. We are $1.4T upside down right now. You would need to cut government spending 35%, which would eviscerate Defense, Medicare and Social Security. Can we agree that is not going to happen? So then - what else can we do? Well - raise taxes when we can afford to.
I do not advocate any new taxes until we are unequivocally out of recession and back to growing jobs. I am quite okay with the Bush tax cuts sunsetting for those with >$250K incomes.
Riegel - your opinion will change once informed merely by reviewing a two-page budget summary. Its not that tough or time consuming.
OK I will check out the budget...but what about the idea of everyone paying their fair share...it is my understanding that around 45-50% of people earning 50k or less pay no tax. I think we should all contribute to the system even if it is only 2% of your adjusted income.
Riegel - I agree 100%.
I will note that it is Bush that took many off the income tax rolls with the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. It gave him political cover to give 85% of the tax cut savings to the wealthy.
If you include payroll taxes (FICA + Medicare) the vast majority of Americans are taxed. Your 45-50% number specifically refers to the income tax. Nonetheless, I agree with you.
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