Deficit Reduction: How about 50/50?

[MTAtech]

Originally Posted by monkeywrenching

I could easily cut 90% of the entire federal budget. we just have a bunch of politicians that dont like to make the hard decisions, and that includes obama.

Originally Posted by monkeywrenching

the government does not run the economy. the only reason the UE rate would go to 20% is from all the federal employees losing their jobs. that would make the debt go down as all the extra money coming in would be used to pay it off.

Apparently you are ignorant of the fact that federal employees represent only 3% of federal outlays, the rest are private contractors. Most federal money is spent in five areas Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense and interest on the debt. Since interest on the debt alone is about 10%, that would mean that you would need to cut all those other programs, plus all discretionary spending, like the courts, to zero in order to meet your 90% cut.

Of course, such a massive decrease in spending would cause a massive depression.

[fordlover]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

I don't know the exact figures, but my suspicion is that federal outlays are about 24% of GDP, whereas taxes are about 15% of GDP. Why can't we raise revenues to 19.5% of GDP, cut spending to 19.5% of GDP, and call it good?

The notion that cuts are the only approach seems completely dogmatic and idiotic. We cannot deal with a recession and wrapping up two wars on such low tax rates. And we cannot defend them in huge deficit times. Why not split the difference right down the center?

IRS sent out 5 billion of our tax dollars in fraudulent returns last year.

Yet the solution to our problem is tax the rich guys more? Only after the Fed becomes MORE responsible with the money they take am I going to be ok with them taking more.