Thread: The fat lady is just clearing her throat now...

Originally Posted by -Lazarus-

1. Reduce spending to no more than 20% of GDP for years one and two and no more than 18% of GDP for years 3 and 4. Create a bi-partisan committee whose job is to come up with the necessary spending cuts. Give them a time limit of 30 days to come up with their recommended budget. I would start them off with my office providing a recommend set of cuts and have the committee work off of that. The theme of the recommendations would be reductions across the board with an emphasis on bringing our troops home, limiting entitlement programs and eliminating all but essential spending. Completely eliminate bailout spending for businesses by the federal government and enact legislation that prohibits government providing cash as a bailout to corporations of any type.

I'll be the first to say we need to curb spending but at your suggested level everything will crumble beneath our feet. You would do better cutting back to 80% while waiting for a proposed budget plan but you have to know ahead of time where your going to cut that much funding from or once again things will crumble beneath our feet. You cant cut your own throat to fix the problem.

Once you have a budget plan then you start cutting back. If you cut it all at once your cutting your own nose off. There has to be time to adjust.

Originally Posted by -Lazarus-

Enact strict yearly audits of the federal reserve bank, publishing the names of member banks, and enact legislation preventing the fed from directly providing dollar currency to any country other than the United States, keeping the fate of the dollar in the hands of the u.s. You see, the fed currently is dumping trillions into other countries to prop them up. Our central reserve is for issuance of dollars to us, not to other nations. Also enact legislation stating that if the federal reserve bank fails one audit under these rules, it can be disbanded by majority vote of congress and new member banks may form and apply to be a part of the new federal reserve bank that the U.S. can use instead. Strictly controlling the money supply will keep inflation under control.

Your numbers are off but i agree with your point. Currently we do spend billions just to keep other countries going. However you have to look at each of them individually. Cutting from some will only allow the people there to starve to death. Some however will do just fine without help. Canada and china are a couple examples of where we do not need to send money.

Originally Posted by -Lazarus-

2. Maintain current personal and corporate income tax rates, except for taxes related to small and medium business, who would receive a substantial tax cut. In addition to this tax policy, enact legislation simplifying the tax code and eliminating tax deductions and loopholes in across the board but most importantly for large corporations and the top 5% of wage earners. In other words, make the current tax code work like it is supposed to and prevent people from working around it. Add a minimum federal flat tax of 5% that will apply to all wage earners. Wage earners will pay 5% flat or taxes under the standard code, whichever is higher. This will keep taxes weighted toward higher wage earners but will ensure that every worker in the U.S. contributes something rather than forcing the top 50% to carry the tax burden for the entire country.

To a point i can go with this. I have always been a fan of making the tax code simple and instituting a flat tax versus this garbage we have going.

Originally Posted by -Lazarus-

3. In year 3, raise tariffs on all foreign made goods, including technology and services, being brought into the U.S. This will fuel the U.S. manufacturing sector and growth of U.S. based businesses, creating jobs. We need the deck stacked in favor of U.S. businesses. One may argue that some industries such as the semiconductor industry need to be exempted; I would entertain debate on that issue since there may be legitimate reasons that we need those exemptions.

This i almost agree with. If it were me i would give companies notice in year one what is coming to give them a chance to bring production back to the US. I would also add get rid of NAFTA. It was a pos before it became law under clinton.

Originally Posted by -Lazarus-

3. Reduce government regulation of industry across the board, except in cases of protection of public health. Allow offshore oil exploration and drilling, but create regulations limiting the amount of offshore activity specifically by area, limiting the possibility that oil rigs would be crowded. Allow massive expansion of on shore oil and gas drilling and production. Allow a 20% expansion of refining capability each year for 5 years in an effort to double our output. The goal of this program would be to dramatically reduce our purchases of foreign oil and produce more domestically. This will also reduce the cost of gas. Raise tariffs on foreign oil.

This i do not agree with. Allowing them to drill pretty much where ever and for how much they want will do nothing but hurt us in the long run. Oil and health care are the biggest businesses on the planet profit wise. Its time we start getting serious about putting money to use and develope new methods for power and fuel. If they are going to dance around the topic then the money we give oil companies needs to come to an end. Put that money in the hands of people who are serious about this shit. If we have another failure like the last company (cant remember the name) we hold them accountable. No more free rides.

Originally Posted by -Lazarus-

4. Freeze the debt limit at the current level. As appropriate an possible, lower the limit. Finally, once the economy sees some momentum and recovery, add a balanced budget amendment to the constitution of the united states that limits federal borrowing to 5% of GDP per year, requiring any remaining funding of all govt. programs to be provided by tax revenue.

Lowering debt isn't that hard you just have to be serious about doing it. That means no taking kick backs to put contracts in the hands of certain companies, no more paying people to fall behind, no more buying planes at 500 times their value, no more 8 thousand dollar safety wire pliers, and no raises until this shit gets under control.

We have plenty of room to bring our budget back into a reasonable zone. I know some one around here will say cut the defense budget in half (they always do) but that is not a reasonable amount when you consider everything that comes from that budget. We definitely have room to move around but not 50%.

I spent a few hour on finding a way to do a free health care system a while back. After a while i got bored with it but i sent my idea to another member. Luckily my pm box saved a copy. So heres my plan and it can be applied in such a way without a health care plan to bring the budget in line. Then we could look at doing a health care system. Just remember when you guys speak up its a first draft and as such changes could be made. Its a copy and paste so take it for what it is.




We need 2.3 trillion to cover health care costs as it stand right now. Due to that is what was spent last year on it nation wide.
Federal estimates to run a health care system 1.2 trillion. Quite possible but odds are it will cost more then that.
http://www.kaiseredu.org/Issue-Modul...und-Brief.aspx

government funding for medicare and so forth 882 billion
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/budget_gs.php
Balance 1.418 trillion

We need a cap on what can be charged.
By having a federal health system prices can be set across the board.
That will lower the amount needed seeing as some prcedures have differences of over 15g
from one hospital to the next.Estimated saving unknown.
http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dw...ec.htmlForiegn aid economic assisstance to 150 countries out of 192.
33.9 billion
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/...es/eco-economy


United States foreign aid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It makes no sense to give money to countries to buy weapons from us. Needs to redone for each country gets a vote for assisstance
and those funds need to have a breakdown of what they will be used for.

FAFSA budget cut? Possible but remain intact for now.

Cut military to a degree. Eliminate all civilian personel.
The Corps makes do on 29 billion. Its half the size of the army and 100k short of the air force and navy.
Yet their budgets are
Army 244 billion
Navy 150 billion (where the Corps gets its 29 billion)
Air Force 170.5 billion
There is no logical reason the Army and Air Force can not function on the same 150 billion.
Savings 214 billion
With that give all branches the power to shop for themselves. That will compensate for the loss in funding.

Balance 1.170 trillion

5.7 billion to TSA The job was being done before we created homeland security.
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=5414&type=0
900 million in grants for DOT grant program
742.5 million from DOT for transit grants
10 to 30 billion for farm subsidies
15 tp 35 billion crop insurance, marketing support, and other services to farm businesses
100 billion in auto industry subsidies
34 billion in oil industry subsidies and tax breaks

Balance 984 billion
30 billion packs of cigarettes sold anually in the US. Federally taxed at 1.01 per pack. Apply tax to health care bill like they said it was for.
30.3 billion
17.670 billion gallons of soda drank in the US. 128 ounces in a gallon taxed at 3 cents per 12 ounces.
10.66 12 ounce taxable sizes per gallon. Thats 188,362,200,000 taxable units. Said tax was to pay for healthcare.
5.65 billion
Balance 948 billion
Pell grants 17.3 billion
http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget11/justifications/p-pell.pdf
165.4 billion for r&d federal funding annually. Remove 65.4 and put and end to research like how often a roach farts.

Savings 65.4 billion

Savings so far 1.434.7 Trillion. Deficite repaid in 9.75 years adding an additional 200 billion to the budget after repayment.
13.6 billion on energy subsidies