Posted on 04/26/2010 6:33:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Along with getting rid of the departments, I’d get rid of the concept of sending money to Washington then letting them divide it up and sending it back to the states if you play by their rules.
On the other post....it is ALL in my dreams since none of them will be closed.
Getting rid of what departments? All of them?
When we talk about significant spending cuts we're talking about entitlements.
Repubs will NEVER cut entitlements in a meaningful way unless they get general Democrat support. If they did it would be death sentence for them in the following elections which would just initiate MORE Democrat entitlements spending.
Those are just the facts.
a “cut” is simply a reduction in the rate of increase.
....ahhhh how right you are!! That’s why I always thought a great suggestion is to freeze spending, afterall, no one died last year so let’s just freeze spending for a few years and GDP growth might catch up and get us to a surplus...but I belong to the stupid party so it will never even get an airing ...
ymmv
"Provide for the common defense", etc. - And if maintaining a standing army in strategic locations worldwide is the best way to do that, then it's fine. The countries who host us don't mind, or we'd leave.
If the numbers being calculated are the amount of spending vs. GNP, the person yapping about deficits is ignorant or misleading you.
No one can compare ANY amount spent by the Republicans with the amount spent by the Democrats. Ever.
If Congress and the POTUS can include defending half the world as part of the “common defense” of the 50 states how far can Congress go to provide for the “general welfare”, the other part of that section of the constitution? social security, medicare, medicaid, obamacare, environmental laws, minimum wage laws and such all arguably “provide for the general welfare”.
the fact is, when you stretch part of the constitution to get results you like, other people do the same. As a result we have a gargantuan warfare and welfare state costing trillions of dollars.
Key word: "general". Providing for the welfare of everyone equally (see also: equal protection clause) is perfectly legitimate. Police, fire departments, infrastructure and basic utilities are all in this class.
It's all the stuff that benefits only one group or class of Americans (or illegals), at a disproportionate cost to another group or class that is out of line. The laws you list are not promoting the general welfare, but transferring money from one class to another. That's unconstitutional and wrong.
If the distributed military defends our allies and projects the degree of power necessary to deter aggression against all of them as well as us, then we all win. Doing it that way is much cheaper than fighting wars, for both sides.
Because the hysteria that results from even discussing something like that drowns out everything else. Witness W's minor privatization proposal that would have allowed people to split their 7.5% FICA into a privately made investment of 2% and the remaining 5.5% into the Social Security system. The world stopped on its axis over that.
Add the DoE and BLM, and you have a nice start indeed!
Sorry. Check post #18.
But there is also the problem of agencies and programs being cut that end up not really being cut but simply transferred to another agency or department.
Yes, there is no comparison in spending between the Dem-bulbs and the Pubbies but when push comes to shove both parties will still spend - more for Dems less for Pubbies - on unnecessary, unconstitutional, unconservative crap. When Dems want to spend the Pubbies only disagree on how much, not if it needs or is allowed to be spent in the first place.
Spending vs. GNP/GDP was at a more responsible level years ago but now the idea seems to be “let ‘er rip!” and “spend like there’s no tomorrow!”.
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