The money is already gone

[timesjoke]

The talk about things like Social Security and other programs being destined for massive cuts in recent years has been drivn by the hard reality that America is surviving on Credit. Right now America owes over 13 trillion dollars and it is getting worse every day as we spend money we do not have.

 

 

Consider it more simply:

 

You make $5,000 a month but you have monthly bills that amount to $6,000 a month. You are unwilling to make painful cuts and start filling the gap with credit cards. Each month you add $1,000 to a credit card and end up reaching your limit and getting a new card. Now you are adding that same $1,000 to the new cards but also making the minimum payments on the other cards with this card so it fills up faster, and each time you get a new card you have another card at maximum that needs a minimum payment. Eventually you need to get two new cards, one to add your monthly living expenses and the other just to make your monthly payments on the other cards and you are still losing ground because not only do you have the $1,000 monthly shortage, but now you have interest adding up on the many credit cards.

 

 

 

This is what our Government is doing on a massive scale. We can't pay our bills so we are making it on credit but the hole we are in has no way out of it without massive cuts in spending by our Government or massive tax increses on an already severely taxed populace. Already services that used to be all inclusive on property taxes (like garbage and school taxes) are now being broke out of the base taxes and are their own seperate tax. In most casesd residents are taxed ten times more now than they ever were just 20 years ago but they hide the tax with different code words like "fee" or "permit", but no matter how they word it, the Government is still taking the money from you with hundreds of little charges that used to be all inclusive on just your property taxes.

 

 

Democrats and liberal Republicans have spent a lot of time trying to milk the "rich" as much as possible but it has had the effect of running off jobs to other Countries and not only did we lose the tax revenue, we now have to help support those people who are out of work.

 

 

 

 

 

So what should we do?

 

My opinion:

 

Our biggest need is to get everyone working. We need to bring jobs back to America and that will require us to eliminate the job killing Unions and massive Government regulations that make it impossible to turn a profit in certain businesses in America. This should include tax breaks for anyone who employ over 100 people in the private sector that does not take any Government funding.

 

All Government jobs should be cut no less than 20% like the British are doing.

 

All Government agencies should be severely reduced or eliminated completely. Take the IRS for example, we should enact the 'fair tax' proposal and this will save America hundreds of billions of dollars every year while at the same time provide more tax revenue to the Government to pay down our debts.

 

 

I have other ideas as well but I would like to see if you guys have any ideas on how to cut Government spending. Remember, this is all in the knowledge that we are already out of money, we have to make big changes.

[hugo]

Alkl we have to do is freeze government spending at its current level until the debt is paid off.

[timesjoke]

Alkl we have to do is freeze government spending at its current level until the debt is paid off.

 

Current spending (including the new healthcare law) is greater than our current tax revenue.

 

 

 

 

The real messed up part is nobody wants to admit this fact because somehow keeping their heads in the sand makes them feel better. We are broke, we are taking out loans from China we currently have no way of paying back. We have to make serious cuts and after that leave those cuts in place and let Americans keep the money they earn instead of giving it to the Government to piss away.

[hugo]

Of course it is greater than our current revenue. Capitalist systems increase tax revenues over time if all government expenditures and taxes are frozen.Freezing spending at its currrent levels means the new healthcare plan is unfunded. Should not have to explain this to anyone with even a slightly subnormal IQ.

[emkay64]

Make executions public. Put it on pay per view and get someone to sponsor it. Debt is paid off!

[timesjoke]

Of course it is greater than our current revenue. Capitalist systems increase tax revenues over time if all government expenditures and taxes are frozen.Freezing spending at its currrent levels means the new healthcare plan is unfunded. Should not have to explain this to anyone with even a slightly subnormal IQ.

Again you make it seem it is only what you copy/paste that shows you as being smart sometimes.

 

Even without funding the new healthcare law we are not taking in enough revenue to cover expenses and with current social security benefits and payouts, we will be paying out more in benefits than we take in soon so just "sitting pat" on current spending will still end up with us never catching up.

 

We have to severely cut spending or increase taxes just to tread water.

 

 

 

What caused our housing market crash was giving out loans to people who could not pay them back, well right now America is taking out loans we also can't pay back under the hope that "one day" the economy will improve enough to pay that money back.......

 

 

 

Make executions public. Put it on pay per view and get someone to sponsor it. Debt is paid off!

 

We would have to step up executions, we don't do very many at this point so not much to sell. I am all for faster executions though.

[emkay64]

I find that the public are insatiable with their thirst for garbage reality TV. Pretty soon we can look forward to Celebrity Toilet or America's Funniest Gay Bashings. The execution comment was a joke...but I'm not really kidding about the success of it all. We don't do enough executions because they cost money. I assure you if they made money..lots of money....kill rate would increase.We are a sad pathetic species that worship paper. Sorry all...I'm in a cynical jaded place right now...I promise to smile later.

[timesjoke]

That is why I don't watch much television, almost everything is about sick drama these days. I was challen surfing one day with a hour to kill so I thought I would try to find something on television and saw a part of that sow with the parents who had 8 kids but were considering divorce and all I could think of is why? Why would people wnt to watch something that depressing? And why put the kids through that where all their friends and not so much friends in school will use this to pick on them?

 

 

I have said it before and I will say it again, life is way to easy these days and people just don't have enough to keep them busy and that is why they get stuck on these shows. Back when making your own clothes and churning butter was a normal part of life we were happier because we stayed busy most of the time just living. Now cooking a meal is no more than an hour and you have nothing else to do so it is off to the television to be entertained until you go to sleep.....

[hugo]

The fact is it is impossible to dramatically cut spending. Listen to the Republicans campaign, seldom will you here any argument to dramatically cut social security or any major entitlement.

 

The national debt and social security deficit pails in comparison to the looming healthcare liability even before Obamacare. The only real solution is to let the free market work in healthcare. Freezing spending will cure the national debt. Social security could best be addressed by rational liberal immigration policies versus the irrational liberal immigration policies we have today.

[timesjoke]

I agree that both parties are scared to even talk about needed reform most of the time but we must address it sooner or later.

 

We are doing what amounts to living off credit cards now and there is no way to get back to even at our current rate of spending even if we had a very large increase in revenue at this point.

[hugo]

I agree that both parties are scared to even talk about needed reform most of the time but we must address it sooner or later.

 

We are doing what amounts to living off credit cards now and there is no way to get back to even at our current rate of spending even if we had a very large increase in revenue at this point.

Let me correct myself and say freezing spending would work to cure the federal deficit given 2008's level of spending and government programs. It would take muchy longer given the enormous expenditures of the last two years.What we have had the last thirty years is Republicans primarily interested in lower taxes and Democrats in more programs and an ugly compromise of having both..let our kids pay for our programs. Now we have an aging population and a massive failure in education during a period of globalization where an education is more important than ever. There are fundamental problems that even balancing the budget would not completely solve.