How would you fix the United States' budget problem?

[Atalem]

1. Reverse Bush-Era tax cuts, going back to the Clinton scale.
2. Close all business tax exemptions on all businesses with public stock options, and all deductibles and loopholes for top percentile earners.
3. Halve the Military Budget. Including and especially from DARPA.
4. Temporary freeze on salaries and new jobs for all government branches. This includes interns and pages.
5. Slash NASA's budget and remove non-essential staff.
6. Remove FCC's indecency policies altogether, halving their budget and limiting them to enforcement of unauthorized airwave use and willful interference of airwaves.
7. Invest monies from 5 and 6 into clean fuel solutions.
8. Legalize (but regulate with the same standards as alcohol) all narcotics. Cutting the DEA and leaving regulation enforcement to the ATF.
9. Mix of free basic universal healthcare while leaving private businesses to offer private premium care, while making it a federal offense to deny care or increase rates due to medical history.
10. Amend the Constitution to redact the antiquated Letters of Marque and Reprisal clause, effectively ending use of PMCs on taxpayer dime.

1. I don't really care.
2. That's fine.
3. NO. DO NOT TOUCH DARPA, THEY ARE WORKING ON THE FUTURE.
4. I don't really care.
5. NO. Do you WANT us to stagnate technologically? Outer space is the future, NASA's been gutted enough as it is.
6. Do you REALLY want 2-year-olds witnessing gratuitous sexual action? Because that is what will happen if you do that,
7. Take the money for clean energy from new taxes on the oil industry.
8. NO. I live near some bad neighborhoods as it is.
9. Sounds OK.
10. Wait, what?

[Sideonia]

NUKE

[Ifreann]

1. Reverse Bush-Era tax cuts, going back to the Clinton scale.
2. Close all business tax exemptions on all businesses with public stock options, and all deductibles and loopholes for top percentile earners.
3. Halve the Military Budget. Including and especially from DARPA.
4. Temporary freeze on salaries and new jobs for all government branches. This includes interns and pages.
5. Slash NASA's budget and remove non-essential staff.
6. Remove FCC's indecency policies altogether, halving their budget and limiting them to enforcement of unauthorized airwave use and willful interference of airwaves.
7. Invest monies from 5 and 6 into clean fuel solutions.
8. Legalize (but regulate with the same standards as alcohol) all narcotics. Cutting the DEA and leaving regulation enforcement to the ATF.
9. Mix of free basic universal healthcare while leaving private businesses to offer private premium care, while making it a federal offense to deny care or increase rates due to medical history.
10. Amend the Constitution to redact the antiquated Letters of Marque and Reprisal clause, effectively ending use of PMCs on taxpayer dime.

1. I don't really care.
2. That's fine.
3. NO. DO NOT TOUCH DARPA, THEY ARE WORKING ON THE FUTURE.

If you try and take money from DARPA they'll set their prototype Battlemechs on you.

[Death Metal]

3. NO. DO NOT TOUCH DARPA, THEY ARE WORKING ON THE FUTURE.

Okay, tell me how important a billion dollar a head flying fortresses with DEATH RAYS are to the future.

Not everything in DARPA is gold.

5. NO. Do you WANT us to stagnate technologically? Outer space is the future, NASA's been gutted enough as it is.

Outer space can wait until we fix shit here.

6. Do you REALLY want 2-year-olds witnessing gratuitous sexual action? Because that is what will happen if you do that,

Either you're saying things like Dora The Explorer will become pornography (which is laughable), or blaming media for what parents should be watching out for. Most TVs have parental controls, you know.

8. NO. I live near some bad neighborhoods as it is.

Prohibition is what encourages crime. Look at the 1920s. Allowing narcotics and prostitution would lower the crime rate significantly.

10. Wait, what?

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution:

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

What I would suggest is to remove the "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" clause, an antiquity dating back when we had practically no naval forces. It gives Congress (and to an extent, the military) the power to contract private mercenaries. This is unnecessary for the country even with a reduced military, and the current hires (such as the former Blackwater) have been shown to be detrimental to our missions both strategically and diplomatically.

[AiliailiA]

NUKE

That's not how you spell "LOOT"

[AiliailiA]

Military secrecy makes most of the DARPA-type research rather useless.

I'm not sure if it was a DARPA idea, but I must say that GPS is fucking brilliant. I rarely have anything good to say about US military spending (it's an arms-race against no-one, and strongly encourages other nations to get in the game simply to defend their own sovereignty, doing a lot more harm than just the bill to the US taxpayer). But GPS really is fucking good.

But if you go researching stuff with an eye on weaponizing it, you research stuff you can't just tell everyone about. If you discover a nifty way to make fusion power work, and it is discovered under military secrecy, the military will strongly oppose releasing it because other countries could use it for military purposes.

Military secrecy is rather much the opposite of science. Science is collaborative (standing on the shoulders of others). Military is combative (standing on the necks of others).

[Ifreann]

Military secrecy makes most of the DARPA-type research rather useless.

I'm not sure if it was a DARPA idea, but I must say that GPS is fucking brilliant. I rarely have anything good to say about US military spending (it's an arms-race against no-one, and strongly encourages other nations to get in the game simply to defend their own sovereignty, doing a lot more harm than just the bill to the US taxpayer). But GPS really is fucking good.

The intertubes is also fun.

[Grand Britannia]

Okay, tell me how important a billion dollar a head flying fortresses with DEATH RAYS are to the future.

Not everything in DARPA is gold.

We need those things to fight China when they get their airborne aircraft carriers.

[Divair]

1. Reverse Bush-Era tax cuts, going back to the Clinton scale.
2. Close all business tax exemptions on all businesses with public stock options, and all deductibles and loopholes for top percentile earners.
3. Halve the Military Budget. Including and especially from DARPA.
4. Temporary freeze on salaries and new jobs for all government branches. This includes interns and pages.
5. Slash NASA's budget and remove non-essential staff.
6. Remove FCC's indecency policies altogether, halving their budget and limiting them to enforcement of unauthorized airwave use and willful interference of airwaves.
7. Invest monies from 5 and 6 into clean fuel solutions.
8. Legalize (but regulate with the same standards as alcohol) all narcotics. Cutting the DEA and leaving regulation enforcement to the ATF.
9. Mix of free basic universal healthcare while leaving private businesses to offer private premium care, while making it a federal offense to deny care or increase rates due to medical history.
10. Amend the Constitution to redact the antiquated Letters of Marque and Reprisal clause, effectively ending use of PMCs on taxpayer dime.

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
4. Yes.
5. No. Never. In fact, increase it.
6. No opinion.
7. Or end oil subsidies and use those instead.
8. Sounds good.
9. Yes, epic.
10. Unsure on this one.

[Pootania]

Kill all the rich
Eat the rich
Give all the rich's money to the poor
Redistribute our military and nukes evenly among Cuba, Palestine, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and Al Qaeda
Give NASA to the Russians
Tax everyone 99% except the rich who get a 100% tax
Make the rich pay their fair share (100%) by enacting the buffet rule
Give all energy/electricity that isn't generated by windmills or solar panels to Mexico for free
End the Bush tax cuts
Arrest George Bush
oh and .. Forgive all debts

[Death Metal]

Arrest George Bush

Well, I guess you could make a case that by willfully ignoring intelligence that Bin Laden was in Pakistan, Bush 43 was aiding and abetting an international fugitive...

Don't see how that would affect the budget though.

[Herskerstad]

I love how some users try to 'fix' the budget problem by enacting tax raises mainly targeted at the rich and just cutting the military. While ignoring the near 60% entitlement spending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 8WQ#t=157s

There, you've solved the yearly budget, and destroyed the economy.

Disingenuous right wing claptrap propaganda. Returning the military to pre-9/11 expenditure, instating single payer, returning to the pre-Bush tax rate, and lifting the cap on fica taxes would eliminate leave us with a surplus.

We can save the rich for dessert.

Initiating single payer as it was originally proposed would only by no standards help the prices to any significant level. IF moved away from the nanny state direction, it might or might not bring prices down. *Norway has a higher cost via GDP than the US has, and the US could never afford to go that far as 60% roughly goes into entitlements* Paternally-Nationalizing said service under Obama's path, aside from being a huge general tax increase *Obamacare's taxes will be kicking in soon, and Obamacare, doing just about nothing, costs a shitload long term* will only continuously add to the debt. Might cost money to repeal, but compared to the 10 year cost it's absolutely nothing.



Seeing how the military and all their combined operations takes about 25% of the budget. Returning that to 2000 would see spending fall and end up around 16%. I don't mind that too much as long as the annual military raises remain on a nominal level and inflation get's taken heed too, but it would add to the unemployment. And with China and Russia announcing their biggest military spending programs since well, ever. I don't think it's the right response.

And the rich pay just about half the costs as it stand while 'hoarding' 40% of the nations wealth. Whereas lower income brackets, just about half, pay no income tax at all. Reforming the tax system would be vital as it's turned into a clusterfuck with low general efficiency. It was not tax cuts, as much as the tax base collapsing that lead to said increased debt as all programs still were getting more and more money each year. It was not reversed under Bush, it just picked up more momentum. Same with Obama. Who's meager cuts do nothing towards the trillions of additional spending he demands annually, as that in any sense could be sustainable long term, or done much for the short term even.

There's no 'magic pill' for the budget. Certainly not turning the stars into a hammer and sickle. What's necessary is a long list of reforms and cuts. Tax increases may be necessary, but they slow the economy down by definition. So if they are initiated at all then they should be spread around. Reforming the 800 pound gorilla in the room, being medicare and medicaid, being the most important thing in the room. *The social security bracket itself does just fine financially, as long as you don't merge it with said two above and unemployment benefits* Medicare, medicaid and multiple other programs have risen tremendously in cost since 2000 would be more susceptible to cuts than anything. And requiring them to be reformed regardless. Tax increases you mentioned would bring in only tens of billions, which is nothing to even dent something above a trillion dollar recession.

[Our Most Resplendent Goddess Sen]

First on the agenda: streamline the fucking tax system. And when I say streamline, I actually mean throw it the fuck out and start over, because the current system is a byzantine nightmare governed by nearly twenty thousand pages of regulations. What we need is something leaner, something without loopholes that you can steer a supertanker through. We'll still need to raise taxes even with loophole elimination, so we'll go with a more progressive tax with much more numerous tax brackets. Oh, and fuck sales taxes. Seriously, in addition to being wildly annoying they are nothing more than a highly regressive income tax.

Second: The military. It is going to get cut in half. This won't won't reduce the cost by half, since I will be retaining all military R&D, but it should take a nice, large chunk out while still leaving us with what is probably the most capable military around. Oh, and I would attempt to reform military procurement and logistics, but this might well be more difficult than the tax code. Naturally, our overseas dalliances in Iraq/Afghanistan will be ended, but in this thread that's a given.

Third: Single-payer health care. Yes, yes, that's increasing government size, but a streamlined single-payer healthcare system will still result in overall cost savings for pretty much everyone compared to the trainwreck that is the current US system. While this would result in increased taxes, this should be less than people pay for insurance now.

Fourth: I'm sure that you've noticed by now that I like to use the words "streamline" and "reform". Guess what's up this time? The welfare system! I'm sure that you could make a lot of structural changes to reduce cost and increase efficiency while remaining as or more effective than the current system.

Fifth: This time it's the education system that's up for reform. Despite spending more money per student than pretty much everybody else on the planet, our educational system simply is not performing at the level it should. Look at what works in other systems and see what we can do to fix ours.

Sixth: Take a good, long look at business subsidies. By objectively analyzing the costs and economical/societal effects of any given subsidy, we should be able to more effectively allocate subsidy money. We'll need to do this anyways, since part of the tax reform will be the elimination of "subsidies" in the form of tax breaks due to how easily they can be abused.

Seventh: Heavily increase funding for science, research, and space. In fact, don't just add to the budget going to those things; multiply it. Innovation is what fuels economic growth, and allowing ourselves to fall behind would be disastrous in the long term. But if we corner new markets before anybody else even realizes they exist... well.

[New Abooutland]

just print more money, its bloody simple

[Wolfine]

I would burn it to the ground and totally rebuild it. Then it would have that nice, new country smell everyone likes.

[Divair]

First on the agenda: streamline the fucking tax system. And when I say streamline, I actually mean throw it the fuck out and start over, because the current system is a byzantine nightmare governed by nearly twenty thousand pages of regulations. What we need is something leaner, something without loopholes that you can steer a supertanker through. We'll still need to raise taxes even with loophole elimination, so we'll go with a more progressive tax with much more numerous tax brackets. Oh, and fuck sales taxes. Seriously, in addition to being wildly annoying they are nothing more than a highly regressive income tax.

Second: The military. It is going to get cut in half. This won't won't reduce the cost by half, since I will be retaining all military R&D, but it should take a nice, large chunk out while still leaving us with what is probably the most capable military around. Oh, and I would attempt to reform military procurement and logistics, but this might well be more difficult than the tax code. Naturally, our overseas dalliances in Iraq/Afghanistan will be ended, but in this thread that's a given.

Third: Single-payer health care. Yes, yes, that's increasing government size, but a streamlined single-payer healthcare system will still result in overall cost savings for pretty much everyone compared to the trainwreck that is the current US system. While this would result in increased taxes, this should be less than people pay for insurance now.

Fourth: I'm sure that you've noticed by now that I like to use the words "streamline" and "reform". Guess what's up this time? The welfare system! I'm sure that you could make a lot of structural changes to reduce cost and increase efficiency while remaining as or more effective than the current system.

Fifth: This time it's the education system that's up for reform. Despite spending more money per student than pretty much everybody else on the planet, our educational system simply is not performing at the level it should. Look at what works in other systems and see what we can do to fix ours.

Sixth: Take a good, long look at business subsidies. By objectively analyzing the costs and economical/societal effects of any given subsidy, we should be able to more effectively allocate subsidy money. We'll need to do this anyways, since part of the tax reform will be the elimination of "subsidies" in the form of tax breaks due to how easily they can be abused.

Seventh: Heavily increase funding for science, research, and space. In fact, don't just add to the budget going to those things; multiply it. Innovation is what fuels economic growth, and allowing ourselves to fall behind would be disastrous in the long term. But if we corner new markets before anybody else even realizes they exist... well.

This plan. I like it.

[Free South Califas]

A useful and well-cited work on a radical approach to macroeconomics:

An Anarchist FAQ, Section I.3: What could the economic structure of an anarchist society look like?

[Parpolitic Citizens]

@Herskerstad:



Take a hard look at that chart. The military MUST be cut. Taxes MUST RISE FOR EVERYONE. Obviously not right now, I don't do austerity. But when employment stabilizes we must begin fazing in higher taxes and fazing out military spending.

[New England and The Maritimes]

@Herskerstad:

(Image)

Take a hard look at that chart. The military MUST be cut. Taxes MUST RISE FOR EVERYONE. Obviously not right now, I don't do austerity. But when employment stabilizes we must begin fazing in higher taxes and fazing out military spending.

Unemployment won't "stabilize" on its own. We need a massive temporary expansion of the civil service, with no heed to who we hire, and we need it 3 years ago.

[Divair]

@Herskerstad:

(Image)

Take a hard look at that chart. The military MUST be cut. Taxes MUST RISE FOR EVERYONE. Obviously not right now, I don't do austerity. But when employment stabilizes we must begin fazing in higher taxes and fazing out military spending.

Unemployment won't "stabilize" on its own. We need a massive temporary expansion of the civil service, with no heed to who we hire, and we need it 3 years ago.

Public works programs ftw.

[New England and The Maritimes]

Unemployment won't "stabilize" on its own. We need a massive temporary expansion of the civil service, with no heed to who we hire, and we need it 3 years ago.

Public works programs ftw.

We need to expand the civil service(obligatorily if need be, using selective service numbers,) and use it for everything. We need to repave every road, reset every rail, do major repairs or replacements on every bridge, expand every highway, update our electrical infrastructure(with an eye on integrating renewable energy and an absolute moratorium on new fossil fuel based infrastructure,) and probably do some real public housing deal to get people off the streets and out of roach motels.

[Divair]

Public works programs ftw.

We need to expand the civil service(obligatorily if need be, using selective service numbers,) and use it for everything. We need to repave every road, reset every rail, do major repairs or replacements on every bridge, expand every highway, update our electrical infrastructure(with an eye on integrating renewable energy and an absolute moratorium on new fossil fuel based infrastructure,) and probably do some real public housing deal to get people off the streets and out of roach motels.

You read my mind.

[Suidwes-Afrika]

Sell the country to the highest bidder in exchange for taking care of the budget.

[Yandere Schoolgirls]

I would fix the US budget, by slashing spending, loosening regulations, gutting welfare programs and completely abolishing income and corporate taxes. Furthermore I would support an amendment paying off 20 % of all tax revenue to paying off our debts, and then have the entire Obama administration tar and feathered on live tv for their incompetence. It would be called the tar & feather big budget spenders amendment.

[Milks Empire]

I would fix the US budget, by slashing spending, loosening regulations, gutting welfare programs and completely abolishing income and corporate taxes. Furthermore I would support an amendment paying off 20 % of all tax revenue to paying off our debts, and then have the entire Obama administration tar and feathered on live tv for their incompetence. It would be called the tar & feather big budget spenders amendment.

But I suppose Baby Bush, Papa Bush, and Reagan are off the table.