Thread: Trimming the deficit

What would it really take to trim the deficit? - Yahoo! News

Interesting article on trimming the budget.

From the article:

It's easy to fall into deep despair about the deficit, but Obama's former budget director, Peter Orszag, recently grabbed the fiscal spotlight with a remarkably easy solution: Let the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire for everyone.

By allowing taxes to return to the pre-Bush era levels for taxpayers, the federal budget would be close to balance by 2015.

"If we actually ended the Bush-era tax cuts, that would pretty much do it," Orszag said in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria. "If you do a bit on the spending side and then end the tax cuts, you pretty much get there."

It is a bitter pill to swallow, but to really trim it, you have to cut services and raise revenue. The problem is that no politician wants to bee seen as responsible for either of those two things and Americans do not want to hear it anyways.

Originally Posted by Gumby

It is a bitter pill to swallow, but to really trim it, you have to cut services and raise revenue. The problem is that no politician wants to bee seen as responsible for either of those two things and Americans do not want to hear it anyways.

Obviously you didn't read the article. All that needs to be done is to allow the tax cuts to expire. There's no mention of any major cuts to the budget. The whole premise to the article is that if nothing is done (allow the tax cuts to expire) then the budget deficit balances itself by 2015.

I did, and I think the guy is full of crap. We have not had a zero deficit since....

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/...olor=c&local=s


Ever.

The last one was in 2001. One thing that is undeniable, a sizable amount of revenue is lost due to these tax cuts.

Btw, do you see when the deficits really started taking off? 1982, when Ronnie took office.

Originally Posted by triggerhappy2005

The last one was in 2001. One thing that is undeniable, a sizable amount of revenue is lost due to these tax cuts.

Btw, do you see when the deficits really started taking off? 1982, when Ronnie took office.

If you're going to be a partisan hack, at least be a factually accurate one.

He took office in 81.

Originally Posted by Consultant

If you're going to be a partisan hack, at least be a factually accurate one.

He took office in 81.

I wasn't referring to the exact year he took office but that he was in office. Don't be anal.