I think we all agree... congress needs incentives to fix this. Necessity is the mother of leadership. (tm) and note... not too many think we should be buying 2 billion dollar planes. I am willing to bet we can design better ones for a lot less. cut the pentagon too. cut homeland security. bring troops home. we can save money everywhere.
That's a play on words, "insurance" is viewed here from different perspectives... SS is a pension system, unlike accident or health insurance where (like a lottery) many pay and a few get money back.
Given the choice of Bush or Gore, Bush or Kerry, Obama or McCain, there's no difference. And please don't talk to me about a third party. Can't be done no more than a mom and pop store could push out Walmart. Presumed choice is the opiate of the masses.
I don't disagree, but, let us all watch not to fall into a "give me someone better" trap. Success in life needs our ability to do the best we can with what we get. I too wish we had better leaders. And better judges. And better CEOs. And better teachers. And prettier anchor-ladies. And better cooks, smarter police, faster cars, warp speed, teleportation, ... etc etc.
why? do they have the power to change the budget? we are not sadists on the right. We are arguing for things which will benefit all americans. Our economy is not growing in real terms... So we will be fighting over few and fewer real dollars, if we do not stop this spending.
I said, let congress pass a law that requires the administration to specify what is essential, or better, to group spending into different pots ranked by how essential they are. Only someone in politics or working for the government can believe that all spending is equally essential. Of course, the problem is people who benefit from something do regard it as essential and will fight to the death to preserve it, no matter how frivolous it is. Take public broadcasting for example. It is nothing but a subsidy for upper income liberals. There is no need whatsoever for it now, with 800 cable channels plus the internet. The last time the republicans tried to cut it, they descended on Washington, led by Big Bird, and basically accused the republicans of trying to harm children. Of course, the reality is Sesame Street is a hugely profitable franchise that nevertheless is subsidized by taxpayers. If you can't even trim something as obviously extraneous as public broadcasting, it is hard to see how you can possibly make inroads into the real waste in the budget. You could cut everything except for defense and social security/medicare/other entitlements and still have a huge budget problem however. Romney seems to have been captured by the same neo-con warmongers who convinced Bush to start two pointless wars, so any savings on defense will be impossible. Doing anything meaningful to social security or medicare will result in the extinction of the party propsoing it, so that is off the table also. The only hope is to freeze discretionary spending and do everything possible to gun the economy. Romney no doubt will try to do that.
Some Good Ideas Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling: "I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure. Congressional Reform Act of 2012 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office. 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.