How would you fix the United States' budget problem?

[Wamitoria]

First, reform our tax code to make a flat rate so corporate companies and high end businesses have less of a tax burden and can expand and hire.

No.

First off, flat rates are regressive. Second, demand creates jobs. Cutting the taxes of corporations does not increase demand.

[Parpolitic Citizens]

First, reform our tax code to make a flat rate so corporate companies and high end businesses have less of a tax burden and can expand and hire.

No.

First off, flat rates are regressive. Second, demand creates jobs. Cutting the taxes of corporations does not increase demand.

At this point I don't think they believe it decreases unemployment. It's just a nice lie they tell so they can concentrate the wealth more.

[Wamitoria]

No.

First off, flat rates are regressive. Second, demand creates jobs. Cutting the taxes of corporations does not increase demand.

At this point I don't think they believe it decreases unemployment. It's just a nice lie they tell so they can concentrate the wealth more.

Don't underestimate how fervently someone can believe in an ideology.

If the Democrats win big in November and the economy recovers by the next election, expect the entire Republican campaign to center around how horrible the economy is and how they could get unemployment to 2% by firing all government employees.

[Arkinesia]

As someone who has to commute 40 miles each way to work I would immediately vote out anyone who voted in favor of eliminating oil subsidies. Gas prices skyrocketed when ethanol subsidies were killed. How much worse will it be if oil subsidies go?

That sounds like a personal problem to me.

I live in an on-campus house, drive an economy car, lack adequate storage for all of my (and my parents') belongings, and I applied to everywhere in the closest town first only to get no dice.

I have to eat, man. I don't get a meal plan during the summer.

[Greed and Death]

First, reform our tax code to make a flat rate so corporate companies and high end businesses have less of a tax burden and can expand and hire.

No.

First off, flat rates are regressive. Second, demand creates jobs. Cutting the taxes of corporations does not increase demand.

No flat tax rates are flat.
Regressive rates start high and get lower, like existed in late feudal Europe where nobility could buy an exemption to taxation.

[Wamitoria]

No.

First off, flat rates are regressive. Second, demand creates jobs. Cutting the taxes of corporations does not increase demand.

No flat tax rates are flat.
Regressive rates start high and get lower, like existed in late feudal Europe where nobility could buy an exemption to taxation.

Unless flat taxes are done like they are in Estonia, they will involve the poor paying much more of their income then they can afford while the rich pay a pittance compared to their actual income.

[Greed and Death]

First, reform our tax code to make a flat rate so corporate companies and high end businesses have less of a tax burden and can expand and hire.

No.

First off, flat rates are regressive. Second, demand creates jobs. Cutting the taxes of corporations does not increase demand.

Raising corporate taxes does not produce much revenue as they can just write off a new private jet for executives.
However a lower corporate tax rate would make it harder for corporations to justify not paying dividends which are far easier for the govnerment to tax.

[Genivaria]

increase reduction of troops in iraq and afganistan
reduce our nuclear arsenal
reduce the naval fleet
cut the overall size of the military
raise the tax rate on capital gains
eliminate tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry
create a public health care option

Here's a weird idea: Ask France and Europe on advice for Healthcare and Education respectively.
*gasp* Asking Europe for HELP!?
US to Finland: We will give you large sums of money IF you can take our single most poor and troubled school and get it within the top 5 within 4 years.

[Greed and Death]

No flat tax rates are flat.
Regressive rates start high and get lower, like existed in late feudal Europe where nobility could buy an exemption to taxation.

Unless flat taxes are done like they are in Estonia, they will involve the poor paying much more of their income then they can afford while the rich pay a pittance compared to their actual income.

By definition a flat %, is a flat %.
Progression is increasing rates, regression is decreasing rates, and a flat rate is just flat.

Just because a policy happens to hit lower income groups harder does not make it regressive. For instance if measured in the absence of other income tax rates the FICA tax could be called a regressive tax because it is ~ 7.5% until about ~ 100,000 dollars in income then it becomes ~2.5%.

[Greed and Death]

increase reduction of troops in iraq and afganistan
reduce our nuclear arsenal
reduce the naval fleet
cut the overall size of the military
raise the tax rate on capital gains
eliminate tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry
create a public health care option

Here's a weird idea: Ask France and Europe on advice for Healthcare and Education respectively.
*gasp* Asking Europe for HELP!?
US to Finland: We will give you large sums of money IF you can take our single most poor and troubled school and get it within the top 5 within 4 years.

I prefer the Canada way, make funding for local governments to provide health care so long as it is universal coverage( some other conditions too).

The Finish have a great education system, thought it wont work with one school, they would need an extensive network of schools because their secret is school choice whether private or public. That is strangely enough one of the ideas the Republicans propose but has always been blocked by the Democrats.

[Laissez-Faire]

Some of these would require me to have dictatorial powers I don't particularly want.
1. Go back to 1940 tax code, adjusted for inflation.
2. Shut down all US military installations abroad, bring all US troops home, and repeal the Monroe and Bush Doctrines.
3. Push a constitutional amendment prohibiting any military action outside the United States without a duly declared state of war.
4. Decriminalize all drugs and treat drug abuse as a public health issue and not a criminal justice issue.
5. Pardon anyone convicted of drug possession.
6. Fix the infrastructure.
7. True socialized medicine à la Britain's NHS.
8. Massive expansion of mass public transit.
9. Resurrect the tariff. Use it on countries with low labor standards.
10. Eliminate all industrial subsidies. This means oil too.
11. Pour money into scientific research and education.

Yes, because the Smoot tariff worked well.

[Grand Britannia]

Looking back...

Taking the economy away from China is prolly a good idea.

[Laissez-Faire]

No.

First off, flat rates are regressive. Second, demand creates jobs. Cutting the taxes of corporations does not increase demand.

At this point I don't think they believe it decreases unemployment. It's just a nice lie they tell so they can concentrate the wealth more.

Not many consciously desire to concentrate wealth. Taxation is foremost a matter of principle. If government exists, then it takes the minimum fair rate for it's services, and certainly it does not use taxation as a social mechanism.

[Hittanryan]

That sounds like a personal problem to me.

I live in an on-campus house, drive an economy car, lack adequate storage for all of my (and my parents') belongings, and I applied to everywhere in the closest town first only to get no dice.

I have to eat, man. I don't get a meal plan during the summer.

Gas prices will continue to increase forever with or without the subsidies. Increased global demand and speculation are responsible for rising prices, so the oil subsidies are literally completely useless for keeping gas prices down. We hit $5/gallon gas every summer with the subsidies already in place, for fuck's sake.

[New Rogernomics]

1. Rewrite the Constitution.
2. Suspend the Senate and Congress, and make a single legislative body.
3. Shut down all the intelligence agencies and merge them into a new single one.
3. Shut down 2/3rds of the bureaucracy and remove programs like medicare,etc.
4. Cut military funding by half.
5. Use the money saved to provide universal health-care and free education for all Americans.
6. Profit???

[Cameroi]

stop bailing out big corporations, especially the shuck and jive, otherwise known as financial, economic sector. stop making war on everything. and spend instead on infrastructure in harmony with nature and putting people to work building and maintaining it. the budget problem is less a budget problem then a thinking its a budget problem problem. its not the little green pieces of paper that are unhappy.

[Divair]

increase reduction of troops in iraq and afganistan
reduce our nuclear arsenal
reduce the naval fleet
cut the overall size of the military
raise the tax rate on capital gains
eliminate tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry
create a public health care option

Here's a weird idea: Ask France and Europe on advice for Healthcare and Education respectively.
*gasp* Asking Europe for HELP!?
US to Finland: We will give you large sums of money IF you can take our single most poor and troubled school and get it within the top 5 within 4 years.

May I suggest public works programs?

[Grenartia]

This is addressed to all of those who are calling me out.

Do away with Social Security (temporarily),

What the fuck?

Social security is not a handout. Social security is, by design, a contract. A contract offered by government to inviduals, and only accepted by individuals in the very indirect way of some of them voting for it, and few of them voting against it, over successive governments since it was implemented more than half a century ago. A "social contract" which was written down, and signed by at least one party to it: government.

Yes, it's probably necessary to rewrite that contract, with or without the consent of the direct beneficiaries. People who've been paying in for all their working lives, accepting costs in the expectation of future returns, will get somewhat screwed.

There's no right way to do that. Government programs shouldn't be made that way in the first place. Government should not make promises it cannot keep. It would have been better to simply institute an Old Age Pension, and a range of charitable handouts for those in need. For no more reason than it's the decent thing to do, and without any implied promise to continue it forever.

There's no right way to contain the growth of social security costs. It was a promise made by government, which government just cannot keep. Someone's going to get screwed.

There is no right way. But there is a wrong way, and it's what you just said. "Do away with Social Security".

slash the military budget, use the money not going towards those departments to pay the debt. Improve education, give companies incentives to relocate to America, where they can provide jobs, and legalize same-sex marriage.

Whatever. Cut military spending, increase education spending, some rubbish about being a business haven with some implied trickle-down nonsense, and be nice to you.

It's all inconsequential, after the horrendous breach of trust you suggested first up. You might as well bin government. You've certainly binned your own reputation as someone who thinks before they post.

"Do away with Social Security" ... it doesn't matter what you say after that. Nothing can make that right.

Stop assuming shit about my motives behind me saying what I said.

From my understanding (admittedly very limited), the two things our government spends the most on is SS and the military.

The way I figure, if we don't cut social security, pretty soon, we won't be able to afford to pay it anyways. So, either way, all the peopel who depend on it are going to get screwed. The question is, do we cut it now, and give ourselves a chance to get back on our feet economically as a whole, and then reinstate it with some provisions to prevent out of control spending again, or do we allow EVERYBODY in America to get screwed over? I realize this problem probably has more than these two solutions, so if anybody can give me a solution that will be a decent compromise, then I will gladly support that solution.

[Kilobugya]

1. Divide by 10 the army's budget. USA is spending as much as the rest of the world combined, while it only account for less than 5% of the world population. Scrap all foreign military bases.

2. Re-instore the taxation policy of New Deal - post-WW2 period, with a highest tax rate at 90% for the wealthy.

3. Nationalize all the banking and insurance sector.

4. Instore a single-payer, public, social security system like we have in France.

Would be a good start.

[Laissez-Faire]

1. Divide by 10 the army's budget. USA is spending as much as the rest of the world combined, while it only account for less than 5% of the world population. Scrap all foreign military bases.

Bad idea, particularly with R&D.

2. Re-instore the taxation policy of New Deal - post-WW2 period, with a highest tax rate at 90% for the wealthy.

Where will the wealthy and the capital depart then?

3. Nationalize all the banking and insurance sector.

The beneifts of those sectors are that they, in some manner, are controlled by the private market

4. Instore a single-payer, public, social security system like we have in France.

Would be a good start.

Would not work in America.

[Kilobugya]

The way I figure, if we don't cut social security, pretty soon, we won't be able to afford to pay it anyways.

Only if we don't do anything else. But cutting off the already very limited social security you have would be an absolute disaster for millions of people.

So, either way, all the peopel who depend on it are going to get screwed. The question is, do we cut it now, and give ourselves a chance to get back on our feet economically as a whole,

Austerity doesn't work, and never worked. Look at Argentina in the 90s, or Greece nowadays. If you cut social spendings in time of crisis, many people are so poor they can't buy anything anymore, and apart from increase of crime, it makes the whole economy to collapse. Capitalism is inherently unstable : when there is growth, people have money, they buy, so there is more growth; when there is recession, people have no money, they don't buy, so more companies go bankrupt, and there is more recession. The only way to stabilize such a system is to do a counter-cyclic policy : the government should spend **more** in time of crisis than in time of growth.

I realize this problem probably has more than these two solutions, so if anybody can give me a solution that will be a decent compromise, then I will gladly support that solution.

Scrapping military spendings, and going back to much more progressive tax code. The problem of the US (and the rest of the "western world") is not that there is no more wealth or money - there never have been so much. It's that the wealth is very badly shared. Just one example : during the period of growth from after WW2, the average wage of a CEO was 40x the lower salary of the same company. Nowadays it's 400x. Everything is like that. The problem of USA, and of Europe, is an explosion of inequalities. Which means lots of people live in poverty, and can't spend money, while a few own enormous amount of money - but they don't spend it (once you've a few mansions, a private jet and two yachts, what else do you need ?), they use it to speculate. So instead of having money circulating to make the economy alive, money is actually used in a destructive way : by speculating on housing, on land, on raw materials, on companies shares. And when I say "speculating", I say "speculating", not investing. High-frequency trading on markets, hoarding to make prices go up and then massively selling, ...

[Enjuku]

Enacted strict anti-corruption laws to reduce crony capitalism
Reduce taxes on the poor and middle class
Increase taxes on the rich
Force businesses that have 30% or more foreign employment to transfer those jobs to Americans who fit those position requirements
Gradually reduce military spending
Gradually bring the troops home and station them at our borders
Enact stricter illegal immigration laws
Cut all corporate handouts and subsidies
Cut all prison and corrections subsidies
Legalize and regulate all narcotics
Invest in nuclear energy
Create public service jobs for the remaining unemployed
Increase tariffs on Chinese goods
Sell military arms and offer alliances to potential trade partner nations
Invest in better public education by having smaller classes, more teachers, cutting school lunches, and making physical education an elective
Increase Social Security age to 70

[Ragnarum]

Kill everyone.

[Laissez-Faire]

The way I figure, if we don't cut social security, pretty soon, we won't be able to afford to pay it anyways.

Only if we don't do anything else. But cutting off the already very limited social security you have would be an absolute disaster for millions of people.

Not if there is a proper way to curb reliance on such programs before we have to damage mass-wellbeing.

So, either way, all the peopel who depend on it are going to get screwed. The question is, do we cut it now, and give ourselves a chance to get back on our feet economically as a whole,

Austerity doesn't work, and never worked. Look at Argentina in the 90s, or Greece nowadays. If you cut social spendings in time of crisis, many people are so poor they can't buy anything anymore, and apart from increase of crime, it makes the whole economy to collapse.

Who said social programs are the entire afront to the people's income stability or lack thereof?

Capitalism is inherently unstable : when there is growth, people have money, they buy, so there is more growth; when there is recession, people have no money, they don't buy, so more companies go bankrupt, and there is more recession.

Companies go bankrupt when the moral hazard acting on the economy tanks them by the volatile market. That's a factor of a government-manipulated market, not a free market.

The only way to stabilize such a system is to do a counter-cyclic policy : the government should spend **more** in time of crisis than in time of growth.

Then where does the road end? Larger revenues and big spending will never solve structural market problems.

[Kilobugya]

1. Divide by 10 the army's budget. USA is spending as much as the rest of the world combined, while it only account for less than 5% of the world population. Scrap all foreign military bases.

Bad idea, particularly with R&D.

Invest half of the saved money on real R&D, spread between fundamental research, new materials, computers, biology and space conquest. That'll be much more efficient than the few technological side-effects of the military. And without the death.

3. Nationalize all the banking and insurance sector.

The beneifts of those sectors are that they, in some manner, are controlled by the private market

They are "too big to fail", so they play risky games, and when things go badly, they are bailed out by the government because not bailing them would mean a total collapse. So they must be public from start, not private when they are lucky, but bailed out by the government when they aren't.

4. Instore a single-payer, public, social security system like we have in France.

Would be a good start.

Would not work in America.

Why, they aren't humans ? It will work everywhere.