Solve the deficit

[mike_the_wino]

Can you?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?%3Fchoices=gljkplr0

[Stalins Organ]

Shame there's no summary function so we can easily post how we do.

I got it down to a mere $30 billion shortfall in 2015, and $118 bn surplus by 2030 – mostly in medicare of course.....tax changes generally sem to impinge on the more wealthy (I don’t’ buy that they are all the employers – in these parts small employers usually earn a lot less than the top rates!), and getting rid of some subsidies & payments off the taxpayers teat for people who are supposed to be earning a living.

Anything that seemed to add simplification got an automatic tick if I spotted it – closing loopholes and lowering rates will always get my vote.

Cut foreign aid in half

Eliminate earmarks

Eliminate farm subsidies

Reduce military to pre-Iraq War size and further reduce troops in Asia and Europe

Reduce the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to 60,000 by 2015

Enact medical malpractice reform

Reduce the tax break for employer-provided health insurance

Cap Medicare growth starting in 2013

Reduce Social Security benefits for those with high incomes

Tighten eligibility for disability

Use an alternate measure for inflation

President Obama's proposal (for existing taxes)

Allow expiration for income above $250,000 a year

Eliminate loopholes, reduce rates (Bowles-Simpson plan)

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Largely along the same lines as my budget, though I got the US in to a little of a surplus.

If there was a Bill Clinton option, chances are I gave it a checkmark.

I took a bit more out of the military budget, downsizing navy and airforce.

I am increasingly of the feeling that the US military has more hardware then it'll ever be allowed to use. Any war that needs that big a fleet will be fought with nukes (btw fewer nukes then the US has now. ) or will not be fought at all.

[Stalins Organ]

Yeah I probably should have reduced nukes too...but... you know...I just don't know how many times the plant might need destroying, and 100o or so just seem so......inadequate......to ensure armageddon!

[mike_the_wino]

Like this link?

Even in this exercise I found it hard to cut military...so I cut the Navy and Air force instead.

Seriously, I can't see how we can't solve the deficit issue. This took me all of about 10 minutes the first go through and less than 2 to go back and recreate. Granted there are unforeseen ramifications to all of these issues beyond the little blurb provided but that is the job of those jack-wagons in Washington to figure out.

Anyone crying poor and making 250k+ per year is not going to get a lot of sympathy from me.....until I am in that boat.

[Bigduke6]

I put the US into a substantial surplus with this simple strategy:

1. Soak the rich, leave every one else alone as much as you can. So Social Security, Medicare, retirement aget etc. are untouched. No to national sales tax.

2. Wind down the wars, let some one else intervene all over the planet.

I would say that little puzzle makes a basic fact awfully obvious: The present system is stacked heavily in favor of the rich. Since the poor outnumber them, and the country is a democracy, I wonder how it is the rules got that way?

(Just for the record although I didn't so it I would definately consider capping automatic Medicare growth rates, as that would free up a half trillion dollars which I would split between education and R&D on the one side, and transportation infrastructure and energy efficiency on the other side.

[mike_the_wino]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy there big fella. Those kinda thoughts could lead to in reduction in reliance on fossil fuels, increased education and quite possibly a better planet.

Who wants that?

[Stalins Organ]

Timidly puts hand up...looks around to see who else dares...

Although to be honest who really wants china to become the world's policeman?

[Other Means]

Timidly puts hand up...looks around to see who else dares...

Although to be honest who really wants china to become the world's policeman?

AFAICT policeman in this context means "universally loathed", so maybe everyone but the Chinese?

{edit}

I solved it!

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=ywlj15qt

Much like BigDuke6 really, except a bit kinder on the military.

[Michael Emrys]

I would say that little puzzle makes a basic fact awfully obvious: The present system is stacked heavily in favor of the rich. Since the poor outnumber them, and the country is a democracy, I wonder how it is the rules got that way?

Because the rich are able to buy tons—and I do mean literally tons upon tons—of good PR. All the media are flooded with subtle and not so subtle messages about how great our overlords are to us and how necessary it is to have them around always. That message is so ubiquitous that most people seem to accept it as one of the fundamental principles of nature. The rich are presented and viewed as the geese that lay all the golden eggs and must not under any circumstances have their freedom of action threatened.

Is that message true? Figure it out for yourself.

Michael

[Stalins Organ]

Like this link?

you didn't get the option of that if yuo didn't solve hte budget at both dates - I only had it solved at 2030.

Redoing it with the addition of increasing social security age by 1 year got me there

[Boeman]

I wonder how much tax revenue garnered from legalizing "soft drugs" would help.

[mike_the_wino]

Not an option here but tax revenue alone would be $382 billion, if equal to booze, in 2007....according to page provided. Not sure about the LE (law enforcement) savings, if any, because we still need X amount of police for dumbasses....and I don't see that segment shrinking.

Might be that tobacco would be a better number to compare?

[Michael Emrys]

Not sure about the LE (law enforcement) savings, if any, because we still need X amount of police for dumbasses....and I don't see that segment shrinking.

There could be significant cuts in the DEA budget, although I doubt that you'd want to eliminate it entirely (heroin, meth, cocaine, etc.).

Michael