How To Balance the Budget (Without Really Trying)
Is it possible to balance the budget without raising taxes? Sure, you say, but you'd have to cut government spending way back.
Turns out that's not the case, as explained here by Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute. Balancing the budget doesn't require higher taxes, or even any cuts to current programs:
We're always talking about reining in runaway government spending, but I was pretty shocked to learn that all we would have to do is freeze spending where it stands today in order to zero out the deficit in a couple years.
Why is it so hard to get this done?
Maybe I just don't get it. Maybe it makes perfect sense to spend $800,000 to teach guys on another continent how to wash their junk. (hat tip to happypantsmcgee. nice pull.)
If any of you encounter a government lobbyist this weekend, you have your Uncle Eddie's permission to kick him square in the nuts.





Comments
This is a large part of the
This is a large part of the platform Ron Paul ran on in 2008. Of course, when he espoused it, he was an out of touch lunatic. I supported these ideas then and I do now.
Now we have actual out of touch lunatics (tea partiers) espousing these views (and some other actual crazy views) and it's a solid platform. Give me a fucking break.
I'm all for going down this route, just not if it requires the baggage of social conservative garbage that the tea party brings along with it. You can't have the government stay out of your business while simultaneously saying we live in a "Christian nation" and trying to ban same-sex marriage / abortion / contraception (seriously, Christine O'Donnell).
Where are all the socially liberal Republicans? Oh yeah, the tea party killed them.
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I can't wait for Anthony to
I can't wait for Anthony to get here...
Are we going to cut NASA
Are we going to cut NASA because the founding fathers didn't think Aerospace exploration was important or because it didn't exist back then? I agree with him to an extent.. but you cant just cut those admins like SBA just because they aren't in the constitution. Its a completely different world now.. but stimulus money going to monkeys on cocaine that's just a waste of cocaine. I mean waste of money.
http://coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files... (page 24)
Logger54 wrote: I can't wait
I can't wait for Anthony to get here...
I have arrived.
This is the shit I have been saying the whole fucking time. Government scare tactics when in reality the answer is real simple. Unfortunately simple doesn't get votes and human beings are gigantic pussies nowadays.
King, I agree with you that we need to get out of the business of government involved in social issues. Tea party would be a lot better if they just focused on the fiscal issues.
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FYI: http://www.cato-at-liber
FYI:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/obamas-spending-fre...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/politics/26bu...
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man made the money, money never made the man
TheKing wrote: Where are all
Where are all the socially liberal Republicans? Oh yeah, the tea party killed them.
Bingo
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man made the money, money never made the man
I remember when California
I remember when California was going through its budget crises last year (one of them anyway) there was an online module where you could try your hand at balancing it yourself, item by item. Is there something comparable for the federal budget?
The whole political process
The whole political process just obliterates actual moderates. Gerrymandering royally fucked things as well in Congress.
You can't win a Republican primary without moving so far to the right that you couldn't actually govern. The Repubs have no diversity in their party whatsoever. The Dems, hate-em or love-em, at least have some diversity of thought in the party. You can be a pro-life democrat, you can be a pro-business democrat. If you're a pro-choice republican, you're a "RINO" and need to be voted out.
And fuck the tea party. Bunch of redneck dipshits who don't have legitimate jobs so they have time to spend their days at bullshit Glenn Beck rallies. And even though they have so much time, they don't actually know wtf they are talking about. And I hope no one comes in here with some "that's only a minority of them!" bullshit argument, because it's utter horse shit. You want proof? See the polls for Sharon Angle. There you have it.
FEEL THE HATE.
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TheKing wrote: And I hope no
And I hope no one comes in here with some "that's only a minority of them!" bullshit argument, because it's utter horse shit. You want proof? See the polls for Sharon Angle. There you have it.
Disagree with you on this. Sharon Angle is one candidate out of 3 core Tea Party candidates. I think after the budget crisis fiasco, the Tea Party will lose purpose and disappear.
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man made the money, money never made the man
Oh yawm, the repubs have the
Oh yawm, the repubs have the tea party and the dems have countless wackjobs, enviro terrorists, Vegan nuts and the like.
Actually King, what you describe about the different parties has historically been a weakness with the Dems. The Republicans can count on single issue support. Example, NRA is pretty much a Rep stronghold and all they care about is gun rights. Dems really don't have that kind of single issue support. Kind of like herding cats. Dems want a bunch of issues and it is hard to really touch on all of them .
Every party and political movement needs foot soldiers. You need fervent, blind supporters to get past the agenda.
I blame the radical tea party members on the fact that elected representatives are worthless, lying, pieces of shit. This is what happens when you have a disconnected political entity. People get sick and tired and become radical. Plus you have a huge divide in this country. Everyone talks about the haves and the have nots, how the income divide is increasing. What I think you really have going on is a divide between people who work and pay more and more taxes and a large proportion of society that is completely worthless and contributes nothing.
I bet the income divide would shrink if hard working Americans didn't have an anchor around there neck.
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TheKing wrote: Where are all
Where are all the socially liberal Republicans? Oh yeah, the tea party killed them.
I don't think the tea party killed them. There's lots of socially liberal Republicans (and Libertarians, which is not necessarily the same thing) out there. It's just that the tea party is making lots of noise and getting lots of attention, so it's easy to forget about the more sane views/people out there.
Are we going to cut NASA because the founding fathers didn't think Aerospace exploration was important or because it didn't exist back then? I agree with him to an extent.. but you cant just cut those admins like SBA just because they aren't in the constitution.
The constitution is only one component of the argument. The people at Cato, and most Libertarians in general, are not saying we should get rid of the SBA just because it's not allowed in the constitution. They say we should get rid of the SBA because it's an intrusion of many people's freedom, and because the amount of money we pay for the SBA is way more than any benefit we get from it (in other words, it fails a cost-benefit analysis), and lastly they would probably say that irrespective of cost, the net benefit is actually negative (causes more harm than good).
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Is there a timeline (or
Is there a timeline (or something) out there, showing when US debt needs to be serviced? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that how Cali set itself up for bankruptcy (freezing spending wasn't enough)?
econ wrote: TheKing
Where are all the socially liberal Republicans? Oh yeah, the tea party killed them.
I don't think the tea party killed them. There's lots of socially liberal Republicans (and Libertarians, which is not necessarily the same thing) out there. It's just that the tea party is making lots of noise and getting lots of attention, so it's easy to forget about the more sane views/people out there.
I don't think the Tea Party killed moderate republicans but they did kill moderate republican candidates.
There are a lot of moderate republicans floating around, like TheKing. But I am sure guys like him feel like they have no place in today's GOP and no libertarian-style/moderate candidates (like Ron Paul) to vote for.
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man made the money, money never made the man
Anthony . wrote: Oh yawm, the
Oh yawm, the repubs have the tea party and the dems have countless wackjobs, enviro terrorists, Vegan nuts and the like.
I think the difference is that the Democrat's nuts have been largely marginalized. Sure, we let them give the party money and maybe throw a few dog whistle words into speeches, but they do not hold the reins of power in the party. I don't think we ever nominated, for example, a 9/11 truther for major office. The tea party's nuts are winning primaries and, thanks to the upcoming wave election, many will get elected.
Why not cut defense spending
Why not cut defense spending ? We don't have the capacity for spending so much on defense anymore, we need to shut down multiple bases.
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Check this
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man made the money, money never made the man
Defense spending has been cut
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Ok, I really like some of the
hokie high, tech tech VPI
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
mr1234
notjonstewart wrote: mr1234
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man made the money, money never made the man
Yeah, according the the CBO
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Great response VT. One of the
"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so."
- Ronald Reagan
cphbravo96 wrote: One of the
ThaVanBurenBoyz][quote=cphbra
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
CPH isn't say they have no
Vtech, re-read what was
ThaVanBurenBoyz
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man made the money, money never made the man
Virginia Tech 4ever
"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so."
- Ronald Reagan
CPH, That's well and good