In the spirit of Buffet talking about how to fix a budget. I propose a simply rule. 1. Govt workers receive a 10% pay cut and 25% cut in retirement benefits anytime the budget is not balanced. 2. Retired congressman receive a 100% retirement benefit cut.
Gimme a 't'! Please, while you still have time. ; ) What about cases where we're attacked, acts of war, would it be ok to run a deficit to defend ourselves without punishing the public sector (and former public sector)?
How about this? The administration is required to prioritize all spending. Assign a ranking of from say one to ten, representing essential to not so essential spending. They already do it with employees, for things like snow days. Of course, they would try to claim it was all essential, but congress could require that it be broken down into deciles. It is just not possible that an affirmative action office at the Departmenent of Cocmmerce is as essential as say a Marine officer. Then, if the budget is unbalanced, spending is automatically trimmed from the nonessential functions. No across the board bullshit. No closing national parks to try to punish voters. No more nonsense about not raising the debt ceiling means an automatic default on debt. it doesn't. It just means something has to go.
even better... but we have to hit the retirement benefits... so the bastards in congress know they better do it now because if they do not, they might be voted out and be out of a retirement as well.
Could we do this in the private sector, reduce benefits to former employees of companies now in trouble? Think of the incentives!
you black and white thinkers are so shallow. who decides what is essential? every government program is essential to those recieving it. that is what congress is elected to do. decide what is essential.
"Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the fathers and their fathers for the sin of the children to the third and fourth generation." ; )
Here's a thought: 1. Pass the BBA... it's about time we get serious about this, we're headed towards a cliff. 2. We abolish all welfare and unemployment benefits except for extreme cases. In itheir place, the government will give you a job, even a fake one, if you cannot fend for yourself. Better yet, the government will subsidize your salary, at one of many firms that agree to participate, for a while until you get back on your feet. 3. Major entitlements get restructured gradually so that they can survive: a) Social Security goes private but under government supervision - you get out what you put in plus interest/gains etc a la 401K model. b) Medicare goes the same route. c) Medicaid falls under 2. above. 3. We do some serious economic research to determine the optimum (from a total economy perspective) overall taxation level. Make sure loopholes are closed and marginal rates are as low as possible. Consider our nation's competitiveness when it comes to corporate rates, most other countries have lower ones. Everybody pays some income tax, no free-loaders except extreme cases. There will be some serious discussion about this and then Congress pulls the plug and implements a reasonable compromize. I like many of the suggestions above wrt giving proper "incentives" to Congress to get off its butt and pass this. Seriously. While you're at it, abolish all race/gender preferential schemes (AA, etc) as they are divisive and trap people into believing that the reason they are not doing well is that someone else hates them.
How come no-one ever mentions the 50% of our discretionary spending ? Anyone remember what that is? Hint: It involves going into sovereign nations, killing the people that live there and then leaving their economy and infrastructure in ruin.