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All this posturing about raising the debt ceiling by Republicans is pure political theater. They have already signaled they will raise the debt ceiling by voting for Paul Ryan's budget. Ryan's budget doesn't balance the budget until 2040, which means that the debt ceiling has to be raised to put the budget they voted in place.
All this posturing about raising the debt ceiling by Republicans is pure political theater. They have already signaled they will raise the debt ceiling by voting for Paul Ryan's budget. Ryan's budget doesn't balance the budget until 2040, which means that the debt ceiling has to be raised to put the budget they voted in place.
All this posturing about raising the debt ceiling by Republicans is pure political theater. They have already signaled they will raise the debt ceiling by voting for Paul Ryan's budget. Ryan's budget doesn't balance the budget until 2040, which means that the debt ceiling has to be raised to put the budget they voted in place.
So if Obama doesn't sign the new budget , no more borrowed money ?
my first cut I would to freeze funding of congressional staffers.
next I would be all interest payments to wall street. $200 billion yearly savings.
next I would freeze payments to every defense department weapons program. Layoff all defense contractor workers. at least $300 billion yearly savings.
next I would end all foreign aid. at least $50 billion savings
next I would shut down the CIA and the state department.
my guess is after the first cut congress would stop playing politics.
Those wouldn't be my cuts, but at least you put out some ideas. I don't want to see the debt ceiling raised, but since the political gridlock in Congress won't allow for the cutting of programs, the cutting of spending, and the tax increases that are necessary, then we have no choice and it has to be raised.
http://www.dawsondaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/US_Budget_4-7-2011.jpg (broken link)
If people are actually serious about cutting the budget, they you've got to solve the biggest five items the Federal Government spends money on:
1.) Social Security
2.) The Military
3.) Welfare and welfare related expenses
4.) Medicare
5.) Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program
That's over 75% of the Federal Budget annually, so if you ignoring the biggest 5 items you're never going to balance the budget. Here's why:
Almost half of the annual budget is borrowed money. If we completely eliminate everything but those 5 items, you still won't ever balance the budget. And raising taxes just to pay for things we think we can't live without just wreaks havoc on the economy.
If I were a politician I'd doom my re-election hopes by saying this, but let's just state the obvious: The big ticket social programs account for 56% of the budget all on their own. You could nearly balance the budget immediately by eliminating them -- bear in mind that you'd lose the revenue as well as the expense. The remainder of balancing the budget can be done via trimming the military and the remaining list of smaller items in the "everything else" 1/4th of the overall pie.
But that's political suicide: Nobody can get elected and/or re-elected without pretending these 4 of these 5 items aren't the real issue. It is literally impossible to balance the budget without doing something to significantly reduce the cost of those four programs.
What we're seeing right now is the politicians hacking at the leaves and small branches of the tree.
If people are actually serious about cutting the budget, they you've got to solve the biggest five items the Federal Government spends money on:
1.) Social Security
2.) The Military
3.) Welfare and welfare related expenses
4.) Medicare
5.) Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program
That's over 75% of the Federal Budget annually, so if you ignoring the biggest 5 items you're never going to balance the budget. Here's why:
Almost half of the annual budget is borrowed money. If we completely eliminate everything but those 5 items, you still won't ever balance the budget. And raising taxes just to pay for things we think we can't live without just wreaks havoc on the economy.
If I were a politician I'd doom my re-election hopes by saying this, but let's just state the obvious: The big ticket social programs account for 56% of the budget all on their own. You could nearly balance the budget immediately by eliminating them -- bear in mind that you'd lose the revenue as well as the expense. The remainder of balancing the budget can be done via trimming the military and the remaining list of smaller items in the "everything else" 1/4th of the overall pie.
But that's political suicide: Nobody can get elected and/or re-elected without pretending these 4 of these 5 items aren't the real issue. It is literally impossible to balance the budget without doing something to significantly reduce the cost of those four programs.
What we're seeing right now is the politicians hacking at the leaves and small branches of the tree.
GREAT post!
I keep saying that HHS and DOD are two of the biggest gov't expenditures and need to be cut back but nobody (here) wants to believe me (they say I'm an evil conservative war monger who wants children and seniors to starve to death on the streets ).
Obviously Medicare and SS are gigantic problems as well, and I think everyone knows this but is at a loss as to what to do since the baby boomers are going to be demanding their checks starting right about now.
All of it needs to be cut drastically but politicians generally don't have the balls to get it done. This may possibly by the only non-partisan post you will ever see from me...but neither side is ultimately doing what is in the best interests of our country. The Republicans at least have the right idea but they will never get it passed, even if they do come up with a bill that cuts all of these items.
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). 
