ST Alpha - "since its semi-controversial conversation day: There are 4 ways to reduce the deficit, which do you favor." (Reading a Post)

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since its semi-controversial conversation day: There are 4 ways to reduce the deficit, which do you favor.

Posted by tRuMaN (aka Truman) Oct 15 '10, 11:30

1. Raises Taxes.
2. Cut Military spending.
3. Cut SSI
4. Cut Entitlements (medicare, etc)

some might suggest cutting discretionary spending, and if so, i suggest they review the actual federal budget. even cutting the Education department harder than Regean did back in the 80s would only save a couple hundred billion, which is chump change compared to these 3 spending areas.

Responses:

1, 2, 4, 3 -- nm - znufrii Oct 15, 11:49
Regarding #4, is the Health Care reform going to have some impact there? - celedhring Oct 15, 11:44 1
- We pay a lot more for the same services -- nm - Lon_cHaneY Oct 15, 11:48
2-definitely. From all I've read, there would be no reason to raise taxes if laws agains tax havens were created and/or enforced. Andorra can't hold - Trish Oct 15, 11:42 11
- I don't really understand corporate taxes. Their customers pay the costs of the tax, really. -- nm - mara Oct 15, 11:53 3
  - [deleted]
  - companies charge what the market will bear. -- nm - Reagen Oct 15, 11:59
  - [deleted]
- per the financial statements, in 2008, GE paid a consolidate tax rate of 5.5% -- (link) - tRuMaN Oct 15, 11:47 4
  - [deleted] 2
    - technically it does, as they are including their deferred tax benefits in that calculation, if I read it right. -- nm - tRuMaN Oct 15, 12:02 1
      - [deleted]
  - and the provision for income taxes was $1,052 (in millions) per the same document. -- nm - tRuMaN Oct 15, 11:48
- Why do you hate small businesses, Trish? -- nm - Don Homer Oct 15, 11:43 1
  - Heh, small businesses actually PAY their taxes. :) -- nm - Trish Oct 15, 11:46
tax political ad spending at 10,000% -- nm - stewie Oct 15, 11:40 4
- the problem is you have to have some way of getting the public to know what the candidates are about otherwise you only get the rich and famous electe - Don Homer Oct 15, 11:41 2
  - Fine. Exempt an ad featuring a candidate speaking to the camera in person. - stewie Oct 15, 11:43
  - (and it's not like the media is worth a damn.) -- nm - Don Homer Oct 15, 11:42
- heh. -- nm - tRuMaN Oct 15, 11:41
2 big-time (plus "intelligence" spending), plus 1 -- nm - Don Homer Oct 15, 11:37 10
- I'll take an unconventional stance here and claim that if Bush 1 had tripled the intelligence budget and flooded the mideast with agents - Max Oct 15, 11:39 9
  - It's wildly accepted that Human Intelligence fell way behind in all areas for decades once the new spy toys became available. - Mel Profit Oct 15, 11:44 5
    - the intel budget is more out of control than groiny's herpes. -- nm - Don Homer Oct 15, 11:47 1
      - Echelon heard you. - Mel Profit Oct 15, 11:48
    - widely. :) -- nm - Beryllium Oct 15, 11:45 1
      - I beat you in realizing my mistake therefor it didn't happen! -- nm - Mel Profit Oct 15, 11:46
    - wildly accepted...like people are going completely nuts. - Mel Profit Oct 15, 11:45
  - I don't think he was in a position to do that. Like if Putin started up the KGB again ... -- nm - Beryllium Oct 15, 11:41 2
    - He was flying high on the 100 hour success in Iraq and just abandoned them. It was a failure not to see the need for it and get it done. -- nm - Max Oct 15, 11:42 1
      - I recently watched The Green Zone, so I have a firm understanding of exactly what happened in .... wait, no, that's wrong. - Beryllium Oct 15, 11:47
whats the point of having SS if the payments are cut down to the level of street corner begging donations -- nm - zeitgeist Oct 15, 11:36 6
- you could limit ssi for incomes higher than say 75k a year. you could raise the age, you could raise the amount taxed, all would drastically cut its - tRuMaN Oct 15, 11:37 5
  - Social Security payments are already reduced or eliminated if someone has earned income over a certain amount per year. -- nm - Trish Oct 15, 11:45 4
    - it shouldn't be based on 'earned'. I know extremely wealthy people who receive a ssi check each month -- nm - decline Oct 15, 11:49 2
      - Once the first generation got past the supplemental income and labor shift aspects of the program, everyone came to see it as a forced bank account. - Max Oct 15, 11:57
      - exactly -- nm - tRuMaN Oct 15, 11:50
    - the key word is earned. -- nm - tRuMaN Oct 15, 11:48
2, 2, a thousand times 2 -- nm - Lon_cHaneY Oct 15, 11:36
fwiw, this is from an npr story the other week. also, federal taxes as a % of gdp are the lowest ever (I think) in the US. -- nm - tRuMaN Oct 15, 11:35
All of the above. SSIs needs to be means tested and the retirement age needs to be raised. -- nm - TWuG Oct 15, 11:34
Stop cutting taxes when we run in a surplus. -- nm - lileve Oct 15, 11:34
1,2, and also sending the Ocean's 11 crew into the central bank of China -- nm - crash davis Oct 15, 11:33
all of the above will be necessary...nm - x Oct 15, 11:33 4
- agreed. -- nm - tRuMaN Oct 15, 11:35
- [deleted] 2
  - *bookmarks this* - Lon_cHaneY Oct 15, 11:37 1
    - [deleted]
[deleted]
1, 2 and some of 4. -- nm - Mel Profit Oct 15, 11:31
1 & 2, although I'm open to detailed, sensible plans to do 3 & 4. I just don't think I've heard any. -- nm - mara Oct 15, 11:31 1
- [deleted]
All of the above save 1). Gov't, as a rule, could save a lot of low-impact spending if they wanted. -- nm - Name Withheld By Request Oct 15, 11:31
Tax the crap out of the country. -- nm - Max Oct 15, 11:31
1, 2, and 4 -- nm - TFox Oct 15, 11:31 1
- think more, also 3. so all. -- nm - TFox Oct 15, 11:35
2 -- nm - Spawn Oct 15, 11:30
combination of 1 & 2. -- nm - Reagen Oct 15, 11:30

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since its semi-controversial conversation day: There are 4 ways to reduce the deficit, which do you favor.

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