NY Times puzzle: balance the budget!

[think]

I was watching Fareed Zacharia's GPS today and he mentioned a very cool tool that The New York Times came up with where you can take recent proposals to balance the budget and come up with your solution. Everyone knows that balancing the budget will not be easy but that it must be done soon to keep America economically strong.

It would be awesome to see this kind of interaction expanded upon to help people understand what is actually going on in Washington. It would also create an environment where American citizens can provide feedback and ideas to help America operate more efficiently.

A big part of what I believe America needs to do in order to remain economically viable relies on our ability to deliver the same quality or better services for less money.

Anyway here is The New York Times Balance the Budget puzzle info:

Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget
Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...oices=f0gvk00q

I took a shot at it and came up with my solution. The puzzle doesn't show a budget surplus but my cuts and increases showed the budget balanced before I even 2/3rds of the way through so I'm sure I'd show a healthy surplus.

I would cut the military heavily as our military budget is insane and unsustainable. If you look at the link to Wikipedia the charts and totals shows how crazy our military budget is compared to the rest of the budgets for the entire freaking world!

I also chose to end the tax breaks for the wealthier Americans and loopholes for corporations. Realistically we need to end the Bush tax cuts because they were never paid for with cuts in spending. It's pretty simple math. If you cut taxes you MUST cut spending to balance the budget.

Anyway it's fine if you don't like my solutions. Everyone's got different ideas on how to do it. Let's see how you'd balance the budget!

Obviously it's real easy to balance the budget when you don't have to worry about fighting anyone to get your way. But it will be interesting if they compile a composite of everyone that uses the puzzle to see how most people would accomplish the tough goal of balancing the budget.


Link to my budget choices:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...oices=83tpfb53

[INFORG]

Taxes were already too high. I wish there were some more creative options on this list, but even as is, you can solve the existing problems by cutting the spending.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...oices=rvxrh010

The reason I prefer spending and program cuts is because government is never a "revenue" problem, it is always an "expenditure" problem. Starve the beast. Although, if they continue to just print more money, it all becomes pointless anyway. I'd like to see almost a complete dismantling of the federal government, so I probably won't get my wish without the revolution

[think]

Taxes were already too high. I wish there were some more creative options on this list, but even as is, you can solve the existing problems by cutting the spending.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...oices=rvxrh010

The reason I prefer spending and program cuts is because government is never a "revenue" problem, it is always an "expenditure" problem. Starve the beast. Although, if they continue to just print more money, it all becomes pointless anyway. I'd like to see almost a complete dismantling of the federal government, so I probably won't get my wish without the revolution

Very cool to check out your selections. It's not a perfect tool but it does cut through all the rhetoric and shows where people stand in order to get the budget balanced. I think we all can agree that budget needs to be balanced. Now we must work together to compromise and make the hard choices to get the job done.

[INFORG]

The problem is that "compromise" many times comes down to "I don't plan to stick it as deep as I was gonna".
If I want to buy a car, and the guy tells me it is $10,000 dollars, it isn't a compromise to give me nothing at all and charge me $5000.
I can't compromise with thieves - and as soon as people start to admit that taxation is theft, we can start to have a rational discussion nationally about it.

[think]

The problem is that "compromise" many times comes down to "I don't plan to stick it as deep as I was gonna".
If I want to buy a car, and the guy tells me it is $10,000 dollars, it isn't a compromise to give me nothing at all and charge me $5000.
I can't compromise with thieves - and as soon as people start to admit that taxation is theft, we can start to have a rational discussion nationally about it.

Is there any industrialized nation with a functioning democracy that does not have some form of taxation?

[INFORG]

Is there any industrialized nation with a functioning democracy that does not have some form of taxation?

WE had a functioning democracy before we had taxation (at least as we know it now). I'm not even arguing the point that there shouldn't be some limited amount of "taxation" - I just want people to admit that it is theft. At least if we could all agree that money is being taken by force to give to someone that did not earn that money, then perhaps we would be better stewards of that money. I would prefer a system that does not tax productivity (i.e. income taxes), and concentrates on fees for services, excise taxes, etc. and where everyone pays. We are quickly reaching the point that those who are consuming the tax money far outnumber those that provide it - that is a recipe for disaster.

I also never judge an idea based upon what already exists or doesn't exist - it only leads to stagnation and the status quo.

[Gerry]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...oices=fcb355k0

Here is mine.

Honestly, why do we still need tens of thousands of troops in Europe? We have a military force and bases in Europe as if we were still at the Cold War with the Eastern Block Countries and Russia.

I can not even begin to imagine the billions saved from closing outdated, un-needed, wasteful spending to keep many facilities open.

There are clearly things that can (and should be done) that would not drastically change lives and services.

My balanced budget includes savings of 31% from tax increases and 69% from spending cuts.

I'll take a look at what the others have come up with.