White House paints a grim fiscal picture

[Danoff]

How much sense would it make to enact a means test for social security, medicare, medicaid and federal and even private pensions, such that only those under the poverty line may receive them?

One big problem with this is that it violates the constitution. The law is supposed to treat people equally, not benefit certain groups from certain circumstances.

 

[FoolKiller]

One big problem with this is that it violates the constitution. The law is supposed to treat people equally, not benefit certain groups from certain circumstances.

Don't we already have a means test for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that draws a line between some arbitrary middle class and upper class wage point?

 

[Dotini]

One big problem with this is that it violates the constitution. The law is supposed to treat people equally, not benefit certain groups from certain circumstances.

Don't we already have a means test for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that draws a line between some arbitrary middle class and upper class wage point?

Wise and cautious comments, both. But I'm trying to see if anything there's really a problem here (with Debt writ large), to justify truly draconian means to get out from under it.

Respectfully,
Dotini

 

[Danoff]

Wise and cautious comments, both. But I'm trying to see if anything there's really a problem here (with Debt writ large), to justify truly draconian means to get out from under it.

Yea I think it's an enormous problem that we need to address. Some reduction in military activity is obvious. We should keep our promise to the Iraqis and get out of their way, for example. The other thing we should definitely NOT do is all of these stimulus measures which will only make the problem worse later on. We need to allow the market to correct rather than propping up businesses that should have gone under.

If you want to talk about how to shrink the government, I can give you an enormous list of expenses that we don't need (Homeland Security?). But I don't think this will ever happen. Government doesn't shrink.

 

[Dotini]

Yea I think it's an enormous problem that we need to address. Some reduction in military activity is obvious. We should keep our promise to the Iraqis and get out of their way, for example. The other thing we should definitely NOT do is all of these stimulus measures which will only make the problem worse later on. We need to allow the market to correct rather than propping up businesses that should have gone under.

If you want to talk about how to shrink the government, I can give you an enormous list of expenses that we don't need (Homeland Security?). But I don't think this will ever happen. Government doesn't shrink.

Sound and unassailable comment, but sure to involve pain and suffering.

Would you be for a short, quick, easy war (no way to lose), with enormous benefits to immediately accrue? Oil, gold, timber, water, fish, arable land and cattle, full access to the Northwest Passage. It would be a war of unprovoked aggression, for sure, but hey, what's new? Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson wanted to take Canada from the beginning.

Ambiguously,
Dotini

 

[Danoff]

Canada? Couldn't we just offer them some bubble gum and Benigan's coupons?

 

[Northstar]

Canada? Couldn't we just offer them some bubble gum and Benigan's coupons?

Sounds like a plan buddy.

 

[Danoff]

I'm not your buddy, guy.

 

[YSSMAN]

Bush tax cuts aren't the issue. They never were. Bush spending is the issue, and Obama's continuation and exacerbation of the issue makes it even more of an issue.

I see we were on the same wavelength.

 

[FoolKiller]

Sound and unassailable comment, but sure to involve pain and suffering.

Now or later, it will happen. But if it happens now we will be making the country as a whole more economically sound. If it happens later we might not have a country left that is worth keeping.

 

[Omnis]

Thought this was funny:



Who said defensive linemen were dumb?

 

[Danoff]

Awesome budget breakdown.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html?hp

 

[Omnis]

Wow, net interest rose by 1/3. That could have paid for all Agriculture, Science, and DoE expenses.

 

[Danoff]

The really fun thing to do with that budget (warning, this might make you cry), is to click on "hide mandatory spending".

 

[DK]

The really fun thing to do with that budget (warning, this might make you cry), is to click on "hide mandatory spending".

Amazingly, it looks like nearly all of the military spending is unnecessary, with the exception of pensions.

I have also realised the importance of tax cuts. Lower income tax rates may leave more money available for citizens to spend. Lower corporate tax (i.e. a tax on profits) means companies have more money to spend on expansion, stock, overheads etc. But you must balance out the increased public spending in shops with decreased revenue due to decreased taxes.

 

[Danoff]

Amazingly, it looks like nearly all of the military spending is unnecessary, with the exception of pensions.

More importantly, the vast majority of the budget is not "discretionary" - which means it's slightly more difficult to cut back on.