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Why A Balanced Budget Is Impossible In America
If the US government cut all government services except Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest payments, federal spending would still outpace revenues. As we noted here, these four mandatory items dominate costs. All the arguing over sequestration and the fiscal cliff are moot since as Professor Antony Davis notes in this brief clip, there are no specific cust that will enable government to balance the budget; in fact "nothing less than a complete redesign will solve the problem." That redesign begins with determing the proper role of government.
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Here you go:
http://libertycrier.com/government/john-stossel-a-free-city-in-honduras/
I have propsed a simple fix to our government problems before and maybe now is a good time to revisit.
Follow T. Jefferson's idea and simply scrap all laws/SCOTUS decisions/rules/everything every 20 years. It all get's junked except for the Constotution that can be revisited and amended under the current rules.
It's all the bullshit that government makes laws that are unfair and entrench the wealthy elite with power against the common man. So dump it each 2 decades and start over. It will give you and me a fighting chance.
Term limits are a good start. Career politicians are a big part of the problem. Did you know Ryan was 2 years old when Biden was sworn into the US Senate in 1972.
Implement an immediate 20% wealth tax on all assets held by all elected officials and their immediate families until the budget is balanced.
Repeat every year.
Every law should expire no more than 2 years (one term of congress) of it being passed.
Every regulation should expire no more than 4 years (one term of the big cheese) of it being implemented.
I like your idea of scrapping all supreme court precedent every so often.
The consequence of failure to do so-
IF YOU READ (AND PROPERLY ABSORBED) 10 PAGES OF LAWS PER DAY, EVERY DAY, WITH NO DAYS OFF IT, WOULD TAKE YOU OVER 58 YEARS FROM TODAY TO GET THROUGH THE CURRENT US Laws (which doesn't even include the 2012 updates to CFR 42-50 including Obamycare, that were due as of 10/1/12)
PAGES USC TITLE (LAWS)
16 Title 1 General Provisions
609 Title 2 The Congress
62 Title 3 The President
21 Title 4 Flag and Seal, Seat of Government, and the States
1,069 Title 5 Government Organization and Employees*
270 Title 6 Domestic Security
1,983 Title 7 Agriculture
538 Title 8 Aliens and Nationality
7 Title 9 Arbitration
2,489 Title 10 Armed Forces (including UCMJ)
311 Title 11 Bankruptcy
1,942 Title 12 Banks and Banking
36 Title 13 Census
147 Title 14 Coast Guard
2,077 Title 15 Commerce and Trade
2,477 Title 16 Conservation
204 Title 17 Copyrights
846 Title 18 Crimes and Criminal Procedure
1,014 Title 19 Customs Duties
1,669 Title 20 Education
711 Title 21 Food and Drugs
1,726 Title 22 Foreign Relations and Intercourse
320 Title 23 Highways
45 Title 24 Hospitals and Asylums
889 Title 25 Indians
3,837 Title 26 Internal Revenue Code
20 Title 27 Intoxicating Liquors
630 Title 28 Judiciary and Judicial Procedure
785 Title 29 Labor
360 Title 30 Mineral Lands and Mining
495 Title 31 Money and Finance
52 Title 32 National Guard
746 Title 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters
0 Title 34 Navy (repealed 1956 - Title 10 subtitle C)
147 Title 35 Patents
296 Title 36 Patriotic Societies and Observances
258 Title 37 Pay and Allowances of the Uniformed Services
971 Title 38 Veterans' Benefits
123 Title 39 Postal Service
234 Title 40 Public Buildings, Properties, and Works
142 Title 41 Public Contracts
8,191 Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare
581 Title 43 Public Lands
160 Title 44 Public Printing and Documents
267 Title 45 Railroads
459 Title 46 Shipping
369 Title 47 Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs
310 Title 48 Territories and Insular Possessions
1,222 Title 49 Transportation
604 Title 50 War and National Defense
123 Title 51 National and Commercial Space Programs
42,860 PAGES
PAGES CFR TITLE (REGULATIONS)
126 Title 1: General Provisions
432 Title 2: Grants and Agreements
472 Title 3: The President
165 Title 4: Accounts
2,684 Title 5: Administrative Personnel
294 Title 6: Homeland Security
10,254 Title 7: Agriculture
1,171 Title 8: Aliens and Nationality
1,861 Title 9: Animals and Animal Products
3,953 Title 10: Energy
559 Title 11: Federal Elections
7,764 Title 12: Banks and Banking
851 Title 13: Business Credit and Assistance
4,474 Title 14: FAA
2,071 Title 15: Commerce and Foreign Trade
1,702 Title 16: Commercial Practices
3,131 Title 17: Commodity and Securities Exchanges
1,608 Title 18: Power and Water Resources
2,282 Title 19: Customs Duties
3,433 Title 20: Employees' Benefits
4,491 Title 21: FDA DEA
1,732 Title 22: Foreign Relations
637 Title 23: Highways
3,202 Title 24: Housing and Urban Development
1,399 Title 25: Indians
15,460 Title 26: Internal Revenue
1,651 Title 27: ATF
2,064 Title 28: Judicial Administration
6,477 Title 29: Labor
2,401 Title 30: Mineral Resources
1,382 Title 31: Money and Finance: Treasury
4,174 Title 32: National Defense
2,634 Title 33: Navigation and Navigable Waters
2,487 Title 34: Education
0 Title 35: Reserved (formerly Panama Canal)
2,129 Title 36: Parks, Forests, and Public Property
872 Title 37: Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights
2,039 Title 38: Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief
520 Title 39: Postal Service
25,956 Title 40: EPA
1,627 Title 41: Public Contracts and Property Management
4,114 Title 42: Public Health
1,889 Title 43: Public Lands: Interior
677 Title 44: Emergency Management and Assistance
2,899 Title 45: Public Welfare
3,772 Title 46: Shipping
3,791 Title 47: FCC
5,036 Title 48: Federal Acquisition Regulations System
6,824 Title 49: Transportation
9,162 Title 50: Wildlife and Fisheries
170,785 PAGES
Huh. One might argue that there are too many laws and regulations.
What's the point of addressing a balanced budget when the congress never passes one?????
I'm ashamed to admit this (but anonymity helps) -- it only dawned on me last week why congress won't pass a budget.
THEY CAN'T!
Learn your facts not the Democrat talking points, Barack Obama is the first US President ever who did not pass a budget in his first term of office. He submitted a budget that was defeated by a vote of 97-0. Not a single Democrat or Republican voted for it. In 2010, the Republicans won a majority in the House, and they have submitted 33 budget bills that have been shelved by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Shelved with the undying gratitude of their Republican peers in the Senate, who don't want the electoral bloodbath on their hands.
They don't have the power. What part of Democrat controlled Senate don't you understand.
The President doesn't pass a budget; Congress does.
The President submits the executive request to Congress, but that is it. The budget, if passed by Congress, isn't sent to the President to sign. It is simply a road map that the Congress must follow when passing the appropriations bills later that year. And even then, Congress can waive the rules of the road map when it needs to.
So who fucking cares about it?
And, since I am ranting about this, the Senate did pass a budget since Obama has been in office and it was passed by the House as well. It was the debt ceiling increase last summer. It had the form and function of budget law. Fucks sake people stop the Fox / MSNBC parroting, would you?
According to the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, the President must submit a budget each year. The Senate Did Not pass a budget since Obama was in office, instead the Senate avoided the problem and raised the Debt ceiling as an underhanded way of financing Federal spending.
What the President submits, is the Budget Message. The official obligation and involvement stops there. The point of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 was to aggregate all the various department and agency requests for funding. That's it. Prior to that, everyone sent their own budget requests to Congress without White House coordination (and political merrymaking, I might add).
And, while I agree with your negative view of the debt ceiling increase, the enacting legislation had the form and function of a budget. It set binding spending limits on each spending area and was subject and limited to the same points of order. It was a budget in another name. There is more than enough reason to fault the Senate and Harry Reid, but this isn't one of them.
Besides, the budget rules are waived more than they are obeyed anyway, so who cares if we have a budget?
who cares if we have a budget?
Psst: the budget's not really an issue, it's just a cover for hating on Obama. That should be obvious.
blunder: you are probably correct. But I can't let plainly wrong information that's deeply in my wheelhouse go uncorrected. If not for the person making the shit up, at least for some other fool who might read the shit and give it credence.
I hear ya. We all do what we can.
What? a “Budget Message.”:) The reason Obama’s “budget message” was declined in a 97 to zero vote is because of the tremendous increase proposed. The Dems didn’t want to be associated with the Bills devastating National debt increase as they will have to deal with the citizens vote. They increased it anyway. As far as budget rules being waived more than obeyed. We will restore the rule of law. I don’t care what your brother/sister did yesterday, it doesn’t justify what you’re doing today. I know you and yours may have benefited from the crony capitalist system of the past, times will change, by reason or fire, I prefer change through natures law and fire.
The reason Obama’s “budget message” was declined in a 97 to zero vote is because of the tremendous increase proposed.
I realize you're not well-informed enough to be lying, so allow me to point out that you're mistaken on this.
The budget didn't pass because neither side in Congress will give up its agenda. The Dems require more social spending and the Repubs require more tax cuts. Neither is going to let the other side score a win. Pretending that's the President's fault is lazy and stupid.
You miss my point. Back off the political brainwashing and brush up on those reading comprehension skills.
Uh, I think he meant that it doesn't matter if a balanced budget is passed or not, it's all lies.
Balanced budget, hell they will be lucky to escape trillion deficits for each of the next three years.
Just cut me a check for what I have paid in SS and I opt out
Shit, they could keep what was already stolen from me if they would stop the SS and Medicare tax theft right now.
I don't think the populace will go down that easy...I want my fucking money back!
It's a Ponzi, your money is already gone.
the tree of liberty and they wouldn't even know it
yes. While the paper money may be gone, the physical money isn't and neither is the lead.
EXACTLY!
That money was spent before they ever took it out of your check.
I want my money back too thomasincincy they better remember Baby Boomer's weren't even born when Social Security was enacted and there's alot of Vietnam and other Veteran's who may be older but they are armed and they vote. What would they have to lose then being older are they going to kill them just so they can STEAL the money from them? What kind of population would advocate for that? People can call it a Ponzi all they want but it's not the peoples fault it's the politicians fault and even Bernie Madoff's victims got most of their money back. Even left as is the Boomer's will get the short end of the deal but to not pay it back at all is outright THEFT.
"According to a 2011 study by the Urban Institute, a married couple retiring last year after both spouses had worked throughout their lifetimes wound up paying about $598,000 in Social Security taxes. If the man lives to 82 and the woman to 85, they can expect to collect about $556,000 in benefits."
Same here but they can't the Government owes Social Security $2.7 Trillion and where would they get the money from to do that? Social Security unlike the other programs mentioned was paid for by the people and their employers it receives ZERO government money.
If younger people want to opt out of Social Security and leave the program die which is what the R-R plan will do since SS can't tax or deficit spend as it runs out of money the program would have to cut benefits until it is no more then fine by me. I thought it was unconstitutional to begin with but then I feel the same way about Obamacare.
Obamacare will add Trillions more to the debt and that money will be paid by taxpayers. If they want to restructure great get rid of obamacare, medicare, medicaid, snap, subsidized housing and other real WELFARE programs that the Taxpayers pay for it's a start in the right direction.
since SS can't tax or deficit spend as it runs out of money
What is that supposed to mean? Congress can tweak FICA whenever they like. FICA *IS* "SS tax."
Just stop taking it from me, and you can keep what I paid.
And I am 57.
We can't fix it and we can't throw it away. So we are boned.
It's just that simple.
The only answer is the one we have chosen. Just keep printing until the numbers match.
I am certain that will be one of the debate questions tonight which will not be answered. LOL
We can start by ending the dollar's reserve currency status and killing the petrodollar, only then will we know if American Exceptionalism is real or merely stolen from the rest of the world....
Well said, and I think we know the answer already....
I'll quibble in that American exceptionalism was in part due to the unfettered access to a rich continent that contained a good chunk of the worlds fresh water and abundent hydrocarbon reserves....
And don't forget that we were the ONLY industrialized nation left with any infrastructure after WWII.
The Canadians would take issue with your statement. In terms of output:
The Brits were broke and Tankograd was not optimized for discretionary purchases if you catch my drift....
PS: Your statement is a classic example of "American Exceptionalism".....
Stating the obvious: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have to be cut or they will collapse.
The longer we wait, the deeper the cuts will have to be.
Yeah, lets throw Granny under the bus! It'll only hurt for a minute!
To quote my doctors;
"this will not hurt" (them).
Granny and grampy can't make Molotov cocktails either. Hard to riot with a walker and a colostomy bag.
Very true, but a lot of older folks are going to die sooner than expected for a whole bunch of different reasons.
Problem is there's a million grannies and a million busses headed towards them, and only a hundred thousand people that can push granny out of the way in time. It's not about throwing granny under a bus, it's about resources needed to keep her from being hit by one. There aren't enough.
So, you do away with all benefits? The younger ones get to opt out of paying SS and fuck the old ones that paid in all their working lives? Oh well, life never had a warranty come with it.
I'm a grandpa and I'm glad I have substantial amounts of gold and silver to fall back on!
To be on the safe side I'm gonna buy some more silver.
I guess granny will have to rely on family, like grannies have been doing for the past +1 million years.
Ya know, that could work if the gov't quit taking SS and Medicare tithings from individuals, then that could help with their care. That plus major medical reforms. It cost my parents $43 dollars for my birthing. That included two days in the hospital!
Your parents got a deal. It cost mine $100.
I see an ice floe with Granny's name on it.
Heartless bastard.
Heartless bastard.
Benefits are going to be reduced. It's reality, just like the video says -- income from all sources isn't enough to cover current mandatory (benefits) spending.
One way or another, they will be reduced. It's not some hardline fuck-the-old-people thing, it's simply math. Benefits exceed the income to pay for them. There's only a little bit of room in income generation (raising taxes) before we hit the Laffer limit, and benefits exceed that, too.And that's not counting everything else we're spending on.
It's not the younger ones opting out. They'll likely be taxed (as they are now) for benefits they will never get. Of course, a very large proportion of them have opted out involuntarily, as they have no job and likely won't be getting one.
What will likely happen will be either plunging real benefits with increasing nominal benefits (inflating the the problem away does this), some type of reform (aggressive means testing and the like) or, most likely, it all goes away during a financial reset. The government(s) will obviously try to stay intact/remain in power, but the reset will be an excuse to break the SS contract. I hope we instead see a radical restructuring away from the federal paradigm and go back to something that's more state and county-centric, but who knows what really happens.
Because continuing to take and take and take out of my paycheck while you cut and cut and cut any future return to me, all to cover up your irresponsible gambling debts, is a better alternative? The "I've got mine" types are so transparent in their appeals when they stand to be on the receiving end of the spiked dick they euphemistically call "difficult choices" when it happens to other people.
Your futures in your own hands not mine. I think you'd better learn that lesson and learn it fast before it's to late, if it isn't already that is.
Question is, will it be a slow cut intended to delay and confine social unrest? Or will it be a complete wipeout, instant police state and reorganization?
Picture if you will, the US gov credit card. It currently is accepted everywhere. But soon, it will be declined every so often. Then more often. Then eventually, the card will be cancelled. That's the point where the US gov has to pay for everything by cash or threat.
I'm expecting threat to become more popular than cash for most gov tranactions when the credit card is finally yanked.
You can not cut imaginary things. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are already funded by printer.
I forgot, Benny has a printer!! We're all saved!
It's almost like Americans can't even think anymore. No, they just parrot the stupid arguments the leaders of their sect/cult/clan feed them. Why don't they take FICA out of the general fund? Why don't they cut idiocy like the wars to pay back the IOUs SS holds? Oh, that's right, because our "leaders" enjoyed stealing that money for all those years and now want to enjoy not having to pay restitution now that they've been caught. Let's not forget the Boomers who feel entitled to dump their bar tab on kids and the unborn and pretend it's the same thing as taking "personal responsibility" for a lifetime of fuckups.
Fuck you, we boomers were lied to just as much as any other generation. And the baby boomer generation stopped 48 years ago. What have you 18 to 47 year olds done to make anything better???????
at least most people won't access these programs as the US is becoming increasingly obese at an alarming rate.
Anyone who thinks Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest payments are mandatory for the federal government to pay is a tool.
You're referring to Congress, right?
Actually he's referring to the annual Financial Report of the United States, which doesn't count SocSec and Medicare as obligations since they are noncontractual.
Promises from politicians are written in disappearing ink.
But you can bet their fat PENSIONS are regarded as contractual.
Ok, so you owe me. You can be the straight man next time.
Correct, only military budgets are manditory - "winning".
Mandatory SpendingMandatory spending are those expenditures that must go into the U.S. budget. They are mandated by Federal law, and so can't be changed without, quite literally, an act of Congress. AS a result, the mandatory budget is an estimate of the cost to implement the benefits promised by these Federal laws. The estimate is made by the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB.
Mandatory programs are outside of the normal discretionary budgetary process that's negotiated between the President and Congress each year. To find out more about this process, see The Budget Process and Who's Who and Discretionary Fiscal Policy.
What Are the Mandatory Programs?The two largest mandatory programs are Social Security and Medicare, both of which provide benefits to seniors. Social Security was mandated in 1935 by the Social Security Act.
That must be why that 800+ billion for defense is already approved. Stop being a disengenuous fuck. The money is already fucking spent for 2013 idiot, did any of the "seniors" get theirs approved yet? no.
semantic bullshit.
Obviously we need to raise Romney's taxes to solve this problem.
Um Tyler, this video is terrorist propaganda. How dare you bring it up on the eve of the second presidential "debate".
I seem to remember some obscure document that laid out the proper roll of government...the con....consti....yeah that's it the constitution. A quaint piece of paper almost as useful as other barbaric relics to TPTB.
I was gonna read that some day, but it had all them big words in it. Who's got that much time.
The Bond Buyer's 22nd Annual California Public Finance Conference is pleased to announce the addition of Chief Judge Christopher Klein, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California to the panel for the Breakfast Roundtable: OpporMUNIties in Chapter 9: What Distressed Investors Should Know?, Thursday morning from 7:30-8:30.
No, I did not make that up.
What Distressed Investors Should Know: Bring lube, it will help with what is about to happen to you.
And wear socks. It prevents chaffing.
Knee-pads and gloves, more like it.
And a rubber Milkbone to bite.
"What investors should know"
They should know this: when the lawyers are done with what's left, you get nuthin.
iSpend.
The first order of business is a true and just non debt money system. Baring that only doom awaits us all. This is math not opinion.
We need a second currency. One for domestic use and one for trade.
The last one Gold backed
Yea that will work. We're doing so good with the 1 currency we have now.
That'd sure make hyperinflationary collapse HECKA lot easier! One of our big problems in the US is that we don't have any alternative transaction media domestically.
Drivel.
The United States (and governments in general) are meant to be where debts extended by the banks and taken on by big corporations go to die. If any government actually balanced its budget, the world's financial system would collapse and most of the big banks and corporations would be bankrupt.
The endgame was clear since 1980: the governments would monetize the debt and the result would be worldwide hyperinflation. But in the meantime some people got very, very rich and led pretty good lives.
welfare
Since the Nixon shock in 1971 in fact.
Amazing they kept it going for forty years.
The extended sell by date has been reached ,and now we all get salmonella at the least.
+1.. See any Lobbyist..
The Fed just needs to $5 trillion in to TNA....then call Goldman. Poof! Problem solved.
Every introductory high school and college economics course should begin day one, by showing this video.
Keep dreaming...
This should be showed to EVERYONE before the debate begins tonight. Not gonna happen though...
No, they should begin with a checkbook with 5 checks and 5 hot check debits.
Can't cut Social Security payments? They just did. The phony COLA statistics say there has been little or no inflation.Meanwhile gas and food prices have gone through the roof. (I suppose seniors can take comfort that they can trade up to an IPhone 5 for the same price with more features).
Can seniors even see what's on an iPhone? I'm not quite a senior yet, but I can't see what's on an iPhone. It helps me not want one.
Yea, I got me one those bee phones with the big numbers, so I can call the gubmint when my check don't deposit. This boomer neeeds my check so I can buy me the bumper sticker for my new 5th wheel camper with 9 slide outs that says " I'm pulling my kids inheritance".
On the plus side this kinda of yawning fiscal chasm makes investing pretty damn easy. Just bet that the unsustainable path will continue. After all even whispering about cuts to entitlements is a death sentence in politics. I figure this bad boy will continue full tilt boogey till it totally implodes. After all look at he so called "austerity" in Spain and Greece, no actual cuts just an unwillingness of investors to continue to light their capital ablaze.
Way to end with asking a question. Waste of my time.
We got open borders, there's no justification for a social safetly net with open borders, its an inducement to invasion, and with 5 billion potential invaders a bad public policy.
I'd end EMTLA, eliminate medicaid, apply the Sherman act to the medical profession and enforce immigration law.
Eliminate public employee unions.
The budget would be balanced within a year.
Of course all those unvestors in Socialism would get bent over, but fuck them, investors in Socialism deserved to lose everything and possibly get executed for treason.
Why go after just the leadership when you can go after the financiers?
Anybody can be a leader but it takes serious cash and brutality to ram Socialism down a nation's throat.
If we end illegal immigration, who will do the real work? I hate getting goo all over my pretty pinkish yellow hands.
Because the problem is always the tiny fraction of the workforce that's unionized, and not the banksters who steal trillions, the billionaires who send jobs overseas amidst record profits, legislatures that may as well do their business on the street corner wearing heels and a tube tob, "private" sector contractors who rob the taxpayers blind, and a general public so stupid that it howls about socialism's covetousness while coveting the insurance and pensions of their neighbors.
The budget would be balanced within a year.
You're obviously not in touch with the scale of the issue, son. Might want to recount the zeros again. Derp derp.
I know a lot of you on here don't think much of Karl Denniger, but he has one thing right: Start with the amount of tax revenue you can reasonably extract from the citizenry (usually around 20% of GDP), and use that as the base to determine what you are and aren't going to pay for in government, and size the government accordingly.
Were I President, I could balance the budget and pay off the debt in 5 yrs, course we would have to hang all the lawyers and bankers the weekend before implementation and maybe throw in a few faux journalists and over rated movie actors/actresses just for the entertainment value. It worked for the french until than big nosed bastard, I forget his name.
and old folks and military and teachers and mortgage brokers and real estate agents and anyone on mdeicare or medicaid, the disabled. geez you as president are starting to sound a lot like Hitler.
Nah. Hilter blamed everything on the JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOs. All I blame them for is the Soup Nazi.
Hitler briefly turned Germany around.
Neither Hitler nor Stalin nor Churchill nor Roosevelt would be able to do anything about the Titanic that is modern Amerika.
guess you ddnt watch the video. we have to start with what the proper roll is. if you dont start there then what is the 20% spent on?
"...if you dont start there then what is the 20% spent on?"
a long, tall fence to keep people in and drones to keep the hungry from blocking the sidewalks.
Luckily for us, War is free.
http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=038f5f50-514b-42a8-b929-a440e188e8af
Hodor!
until the fed stops intervening in the stock market via pomos..this thing will not be allowed to sell off more than 10%..gave up trying to be short in early 11 when i saw how qe2 annoucemnt decimated my short psotion..fortunately i have recoverd most of it by holding my nose and being a dip buyer..lol
just hang all bankgangsters...even use guillotines .There are lots of in your fema camps.
The Good Tyler is on duty right now.
America is so fucked up the only fix will be the result of complete financial collapse
For those who think obama and mitt are one in the same i say bull shit. i know obama is evil but i think mitt may have a soul to guide him when society collapses
If Mitt ever gets a soul, he will have to steal it from some poor working bastard.
I think allah is caling you asshole
Mitt has many souls by now.
"Soul Collector" Romney up in this
The proper role of the government? Would 'americans' able to afford those services from other means?
If no, the answer should not be the proper role of the government but the affordability of those services, either through the government's pipe or through something's else pipe.
It is not about the proper role of the government.
'Americans' have built their success on the State. Considering the current situation, some 'americans' consider more careful to repress the State as they are no longer sure they will be on the right side of 'americanism'.
The 'american' middle class is dissociating: the resources are lacking to maintain the 'american' middle class. The option is to trim off the 'american' middle class. Those who are going to stay in the middle class have no issue with the State. They know the State will keep working for them.
Those who are losing their status, well, the fear can be felt...
Correction... the affordability of virtually everything is now driven by the perverted role of government.
AnAnalogousANus
you know what you type means very little in engrish
Tyler, please stop mentioning that SS, Medicare and Medicaid are mandatory as though it means something. It doesn't. Those laws can be changed as easy as any other law; there is nothing magic about them.
The only reason that they are called mandatory is that the funding is mandatory - meaning it does not have to be appropriated each year. It has nothing to do with them having been earned or paid into by workers. Or that people have a claim or right to the program. They don't any more than they have a right to demand a new highway near their house or any other federal project. It would be better to think of them as automatic programs. That is it.
This baby is on autopilot. There's a mountain in the way and nobody knows enough to veer out of its path.
But this round of drinks is on the airline, enjoy.
Or, some in the cockpit are pulling to go left around the mountain, some are pulling right and untill they agree we cruise as we have been.
"Mandatory" actually means a LOT in this context.
It means Congress would have to CHANGE LAWS to address these parts of the budget.
I think they're sufficiently gridlocked to prevent *any* useful changes from being passed. They can't do much of anything at this point--Congress has been effectively "out of service" since 2000.
"That redesign begins with determing the proper role of government." It has already been determined and enshrined in our founding documents. We don't need a redesign, we need a restoration.
As long as they have the power to tax the rest of the constitution ain't worth the parchment it was written on. The power to tax is all you need to know about your life as Citizen, er, slave. The problem with the constitution is that like a woman, no matter what, you are still stuck with all of that worthless skin and bone structure (the power to tax) that surrounds the pussy (freedom)
I've got my sample ballot right here in front of me. My plan is to vote out every incumbant from the top left to the bottom right. (It's a shame there are so many unopposed
Naively, I hope the government has (quietly) been invested in AAPL these last few years, and they are just trying to figure out how to tell us.
It seems there has to be some sort of crisis for anything to get done on this 'fiscal cliff' issue. That's the only way the masses will accept the changes needed. I'm ready for
a) all earnings to be susceptible to Soial Security tax
b) no more mortgage deduction
c) maybe no more property tax deduction
d) maybe a flat tax added on top.
Dive x 3: all those plans are fine for raising new money. But they do nothing to stop the uncontrolled, reckless and irresponsible spending.
If you doubled the number of dollars that were collected, you would not satisfy every need or want for more. Even if you tripled it; even if quadrupled it. There will always be more demands than resources. And many of them will be good and worthwhile. But in a resource contained world, we have to say no.
SS and Medicare are the only programs with money going IN. The 1st problem is SS has been raped by the FED to the tune of 2.5 Trillion that they admit to. SS can support itself if paid back and left alone. Screw that, "one worker supporting one retiree" crap. Your employer also pays for you. So at the least it's 2/1.
The Cost just needs to come down to reality for Medicare. Doing everything BUT addressing the cost is BS. For example, I really get tired of my taxes paying for Drug R&D and then being charged out the ass for the result as the rest of the world pays a penny.
I'm sure the hand picked "Town Hall" will stay on this problem all evening... heh.
Social Security is entirely self funded but Medicare isn't but I do agree with you about how our taxes are used. Another thing that really ticks me off is we fund the large majority of the drug research but the drugs are then sold in other countries for much lower costs then we have to pay for them.
Who Pays For Medicare?
http://www.pgpf.org/Issues-In-Brief/who-pays-for-medicare-10042012.aspx
"Defense" spending is a ridiculous misnomer. Every-last-fucking-penny that goes to the parasitic MIC is entitlement spending.
Short video of Ron Paul on "defense" spending--a must see...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOKAdFzioZc
A balanced budget is impossible because adults are not in charge; this is the sandbox at preschool.
The advent of the computer has made Ctrl-P all too easy; no limit to the sand in the sandbox or how much you can throw.
Combine it with deriviatives and re-hyper-hypothecation and money loses all meaning except for us plebians.
Wall Street and Washington make something from nothing and want to bill us for it.
If they don't keep providing us with something they will lose their heads.
So...how long can the fantasy go on?
The total present obligations of the Federal Government have been computed to be $220 trillion bucks and rising at about $11 trillion a year. The government is on the hook for 13.5 years of the GDP. This will not end well. The number is from the CBO by the way. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-08/blink-u-s-debt-just-grew-by-11-...
Two comments:
1. "Other Mandatory" items are not mandatory (welfare, food stamps, student loans, tax credits). Eliminate these and the budget CAN be balanced.
2. We already redesigned the government. FDR put us in our current redesigned mess.
We have balanced the budget in the recent past. So it must be possible.
Two problems with your theory, 1) demographics 2) a revenue windfall resulting from one of the greatest technological leaps in the history of mankind does not appear to be on the horizon.
Normalcy bias has gots to go.
If funding the entitlements to the elderly is the key problem, we can thank abortion and birth control for the root cause. Tough to flip the inverted pyramid of population. Even the lib NYTimes knows the score:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/world/americas/29iht-letter29.html?_r=0
How do you figure? Both contraception and abortion existed well before Social Security funding became an issue...
Although, I suppose without contraception and abortion, we could expect a significantly larger population of impoverished dumbasses. Not seeing that as a GAIN myself.
I'd say we should just ditch antibiotics instead. That'd be a far *quicker* solution.
Never mind
"The government" pays the salary of a local school teacher?
Hmmm.
Define "austerity" ?
Woody Brock contends that deficits do not
for the following reason - Not all Keynesian "Holes in the Ground" are created equal. It is OK for the Federal Government to borrow money for "Keynesian Holes in the Ground" that have a positive Internal Rate of Return. In other words, it is OK to borrow money for things like toll bridges. Nancy Pelosi's bullet train to nowhere is another question. The government needs to stop borrowing money to subsidize rat-hole green energy projects.
Easy solution. Do not let Congress exempt itself from the laws it passes. Subject Congress to Sarbannes-Oxley and "Honest services fraud".
This has been my point for many years! The issue is not by what percentage the Feds should trim HHS or the Dept of Ed budgets but rather should those departments exist at all. When I am dictator, there will be a brutal reassessment of the actual responsibilities of the fed govt. I can assure you that Ed, HHS, HUD, DHS, Ag, Freddie/Fannie/FHA, and so on are not on my list of fed responsibilities.
Centainly not Obummer nor Romney will be able to create a balanced budget. You cannot dictate a socialist/welfare/freebie/redistribution state and expect that enough wealth will be created to support it. Wealth does not come from the government. As long as we have a society dense to this fact, the welfare state (and yes, Social Security and Medicare are a big part of it) will never be re-administered and re-invented. We can have a toned down welfare state to take care of those in true need. What we have now is a government enabled entitlement system where the population expects welfare in ever increasing types and amounts. I don't hear anyone in the MMT camp convining me that we can continue to print money into eternity and not experience some dire consequences.
TY ... Thanks for linking me with learnliberty.org
of course, we could start taxing finance and the wealthy. An excise tax on financial transactions would do a lot here.