Well, let’s get cuttin’, then!
So, where do we cut?
Ten years might as well be 100. Balance the budget NOW.
The EXEMPT, as always, will first consider:
How can we profit from this and protect our King?
In other wordsw we will never get to balance. It’s a runaway train with nothing to stop it but that cliff in the distance.
Cut the budget to the bone except for the military, national security, roads, highway budgets.
Pure Fantasy, there is no such thing as a budget for a term greater than 1 year.
No Legislative body is bound by the acts of a previous legislative body.
If you put Americans back to work you can close that gap pretty easily. You’d be getting a lot more payroll taxes, and fewer government outlays.
But if you continue to allow American industry to be offshored, you’re payroll taxes will continue to shrink and your government outlays will continue to rise.
Federal employees owe $3.3B in back taxes
And how many employees do our government agencies have:
IRS = 110,000
DHS = 240,000
HHS = 80,000
SSA = 60,000
EPA = ??
The budget will never balance.
They will tank the currency, and divide by ten and start over.
Republicans have shown no interest in fiscal sanity and there is nothing to suggest that will change anytime soon. They won’t make any cuts other than tiny symbolic ones. Increases in spending are already baked into the budget and the military will require higher spending as it has been gutted.
The status quo will continue and people who think it can’t continue long enough for this crop of congress critters to retire are wrong.
What academic nonsense.
the next recession, which will occur eventually regardless of all the Fed money printing, zero interest rates and government spending, will easily push the deficit back well over $1 Trillion.
The USA is on the verge of losing economic primacy and world reserve currency status.
“GOP is warned: ‘$5.5 trillion to get us to balance in 10 years’”
As they get ready to pass another credit resolution adding to the debt. “My job is to fund government” senator thad cochran republican Mississippi.
Get started...
Did they factor in another war and that will be the end of us?
Any 10 middle class citizens with basic accounting skills could sit down with the budget numbers and produce a balanced budget within a day. Here are some thoughts:
1) An immediate 10% reduction across the board in federal employment.
2) Eliminate the following departments and agencies - Commerce, Labor, HUD, EPA, OSHA, most of HHS, Transportation, Agriculture. Privatize the transportation security function of Homeland Security and fund it through user fees. Combine the US Forest Service and the Department of Interior. Disband Homeland Security and move the essential law enforcement functions to other departments or agencies. Eliminated departments and functions can be taken on by the states, or not, at their discretion.
3) Increase tariffs to 30% on all imported goods.
4) Fund activities of the Federal government with user fees wherever the direct cost can be determined.
5) Repeal the ACA. Establish a national health insurance marketplace.
6) Place a three year sunset on all government regulations and executive actions. Congress must approve any renewal.
7) Reduce discretionary authority for all federal departments to 2% of budgeted expenditure (all other line items to be included in budget approved by Congress). All cabinet secretaries are required to divulge and explain all discretionary spending quarterly to the appropriate oversight committee of Congress.
8) Concurrent with #7, slash most government grants to outside organizations and individuals.
9) Simplify the individual and corporate tax codes by eliminating all deductions and credits. Replace with a flat tax or fair tax. Tax the income earned by non-profits and foundations. Encourage the rebuilding of US manufacturing by charging a 0% tax on income earned from US manufacturing for ten years.
10) End the Federal Reserve. Issue legal tender, backed by gold and silver, from the US Treasury.
11) Withdraw most US troops from around the world within 5 years particularly Europe and Asia. It is long past time for the US taxpayer to subsidize the defense of wealthy countries.
12) Slash foreign aid. Withdraw from the UN and most international agencies.
13) Sell most public lands or give to the states.
14) Break up the “too big to fail banks” by bringing back Glass Steagall. End bank bailouts. If a bank gets in trouble, force it into bankruptcy, pay the depositors from the assets and FDIC up to the FDIC limits. Let the shareholders and bondholders take the hit.
15) Eliminate the Social Security cost of living adjustment. Tighten eligibility requirements for SS disability and prosecute physicians identified to be certifying extraordinary numbers of disability conditions.
16) End all grants and subsidy payments to the states. They can either fully fund activities, shut them down, or reduce services.
17) Bring revenue in line with expenses for the coming fiscal year through cuts and or revenue increases. A five or 10 year plan to eliminate the annual deficit is a fools game. Bite the bullet now.
18) Once the budget is brought into balance (year 1) begin budgeting a surplus for future years of at least $200 billion which will be used to retire accumulated debt.
The tightrope of managing the shrinkage of the economy will fail. The government class doesn’t have ten years.
Repudiating liabilities, sinking the currency and abolishing state and local zoning, planning and building regulations to allow tens of thousands of fresh, tiny manufacturing starts on American soil would be the only way to even try.
Federal funding to states, counties and cities would have to be stopped.