60 minutes = $188 million in new debt

[Faldur]

The United States Treasury will borrow $188 million dollars for the next 60 minutes to pay for expenditures and interest on the debt.

For the sake of removing blame from the argument, lets place the entire blame on George W. Bush. No exception, done deal.

Ok what are we going to do to fix it? At this rate the US Government will become insolvent in 15 - 25 years. Our spending is currently accelerated at a phenomenal pace. Whats going to turn it around?

Take a look at the date and time this thread was started, our country has increased its debt by $4.5 billion each day, $188 million for each hour, and $3.13 million for each 60 seconds since the thread creation.

[trish]

Since you agree all the blame is on George W. Bush (who gave away a ten year surplus to the wealthy in tax cuts, then proceeded to engage in two war/nation-building projects in the Middle East while not even reporting the costs in the official budget and made deals with oil and lumber to give away our national resources without expectation of any return), the answer to your question is easy. Reverse all the Bush initiatives. Increase tax revenues, collect royalties again for our natural resources, plug up the tax loopholes, quit the wars and the nation-building and invest our money and effort domestically.

At least that's one approach. Another is cut taxes, let our fortune 500 billionaires (remember when they were just millionaires) to become trillionaires, cut medicaid, cut medicare, raid social security, let the elderly die and rot in the streets, strip, grab the shampoo and wait for the shower of gold to start trickling down from the illustrious ones who live above us.

[hippifried]

Not a spending problem. There's no possible way to cut enough spending to affect the deficit. We cut off our revenue stream in some grand ideological experiment that didn't work. Without a willingness to bring the revenue back, this can't be fixed.

[Faldur]

Well were $940 million down since the start of this thread and not much to go on.

We could tax the top 5% at a rate of 100% and we would not even put a dent in the shortage.

We have a severe spending problem. We need to roll the cost of our government back by 30% over the next 3 years. Straight across the board, all governmental spending reduced by 10% each year for 3 years. Then froze at that level for 5 years.

End the earned income credit, in it's entirety. Close the department of education, close the department of energy, end all funding to planned parenthood and public broadcasting. Impose a new 3% tax increase on all working Americans, no exemptions, to sunset in 10 years no extensions allowed.

That's a start that would immediately turn a depict into debt reduction. We can't and will not continue down this path. Our credit line is going to max very soon. Just in the time I typed this post we borrowed another $15 million dollars.

[Faldur]

And Trish this discussion is beyond blame, screw the blame wtf is the solution?

[w1s2x3]

Since you agree all the blame is on George W. Bush (who gave away a ten year surplus to the wealthy in tax cuts, then proceeded to engage in two war/nation-building projects in the Middle East while not even reporting the costs in the official budget and made deals with oil and lumber to give away our national resources without expectation of any return), the answer to your question is easy. Reverse all the Bush initiatives. Increase tax revenues, collect royalties again for our natural resources, plug up the tax loopholes, quit the wars and the nation-building and invest our money and effort domestically.

At least that's one approach. Another is cut taxes, let our fortune 500 billionaires (remember when they were just millionaires) to become trillionaires, cut medicaid, cut medicare, raid social security, let the elderly die and rot in the streets, strip, grab the shampoo and wait for the shower of gold to start trickling down from the illustrious ones who live above us.

Nearly 50% of Americans don't pay taxes - these are the people who are getting cash from the government and wanting the rest of us to pay more taxes. But wait, politicians love to give away money to buddies and companies. Companies can't compete across the globe if they are taxed and have to add the tax into the product cost. However, class envy doesn't solve the problem and many rich people do create jobs. To be in line with equal protection under the law as per the 14th Amendment everyone should pay the same percentage in taxes. The voters need to take the power away from politicians by reforming the tax code into either a national sales tax or a flat income tax. Either way eliminating taxing people based on marital status would get government out of the marriage business. The best social program is a job. The free traders have killed lots of jobs here. We need fair trade to stabilize employment across the globe, which would stabilize immigration. If we didn't tax companies that produce goods and services domestically then multinationals would want to manufacture here. Tariffs on foreign products would bring in revenue for our country and be an incentive to manufacture here. Businesses would provide the jobs and people with pay checks would provide the taxes. Getting rid of the current tax code is critical - it's Swiss cheese. Broadening the tax base reduces class envy in that everyone is paying the same percentage.

Our natural resources are a focus of many "deals" between government and private industry. Clinton took half the worlds supply of sulfur-free coal off the market to benefit a buddy in Indonesia by putting it in a park in Utah. Congress routinely manipulates Federal Land resources through the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service. It's sad but true, if a company turns federal land into a super fund site and the government does not discover it with in a specific time window the federal government is on the hook to clean it up! Congress has routinely provided access to minerals and other resources for far less than their true value. One government resource that is often missed is intellectual property. NIH and other government research is available through the freedom of information act as long as it's not classified. Using government furnished IP may require a company to agree to lower prices in return. Medicines are a good example.

The Bush buffet of death has lasted much longer than World War II and against a far inferior enemy. Halliburton received $18.00/meal/person. Our best and brightest deserved much better. Raising taxes for the war would have been the responsible way to go. Our war fighters have paid the price of the wars while everyone continued their fun at Disney World. Paying for the war would have brought it to an end sooner.

Social Security in 1932 required one to be 65 years old. The life expectancy was 61 for men and 63 1/2 for woman. Considering that average American SAT scores look like bowling scores the "eat the rich" approach continues. Reform must happen and must work on a defined contribution approach. The government can't continue to sell "free ice cream." If we are going to have 1 or even less than 1 person working to support 1 person in these programs then we need to provide higher paying jobs. The left continue to portray the republicans as killing the old and poor. The right say the same for the new health care. The cost models are straight forward and can show benefits people will receive with program changes, but the name calling continues instead of comparing program modifications. The current program structures for all "entitlements" have a positive exponent and therefore are unstable. Social Security is now in the red and the fund will be empty in 2037. Of course the fund is a fiction since Congress spends the payroll taxes out as soon as they come in. Medicare will go broke by 2018.

Individual responsibility is the key to solving the problems we have. People have to work and save and be responsible for themselves. Government needs to favor creating jobs for people over taxing companies. If everyone pays the same X percent of their income in taxes then they are all being treated equally by law. Solve for X? Many will argue that the guy making $20,000.00 per year pays a higher percent of his salary toward living expenses. Though true it has lead to our current problem of two classes of Americans - takers and payers. Some phased personal living deduction could also help everyone.

The war on being poor has only created more poor. After spending over 10 trillion on this war American needs to work on creating more billionaires and trillionaires. Workforce IQs don't change as fast as skill demands. It's silly to think America will eventually be filled with "knowledge workers." We need a broad spectrum of jobs for the spectrum of IQs.

[Faldur]

We have borrowed $2.4 billion since the start of this thread..

[trish]

So start collecting revenue already.

[Faldur]

You can collect 100% all the wages earned in the current year, thats a 100% tax rate and you still could not afford the $3.83 trillion dollar budget our government has proposed.

Eliminate Department of Energy = <$26.3 billion> in savings
Eliminate Department of Education = <$46.7 billion> in savings
Eliminate Homeland Security = <$45.5 billion> in savings
Savings from 1st year 10% reduction = <$383 billion>
Savings from 2nd year 10% reduction = <$348 billion>
Savings from 3rd year 10% reduction = <$310 billion>
Estimated income from 3% across the board tax increase = $60 billion annually

In the first year of eliminated programs, 10% government reduction, and 3% tax increase the budget would still be in deficit <$880 billion dollars>.

In the second year of eliminated programs, 10% government reduction and 3% income tax the budget would in deficit <$422 billion dollars>.

In the third year of eliminated programs, 10% government reduction and 3% income tax the budget would in surplus $16 billion dollars.

[Faldur]

The US Treasury has borrowed $3.57 billion dollars since this thread began yesterday.