When the country is $14.3 Trillion dollars in debt and running larger and larger deficits we need to find a long term solution lasting longer than one term of Congress.
1. Cut – Substantial cuts in spending to reduce the deficit next year and thereafter.
2. Cap – Enforceable spending caps to put federal spending on a path to a balanced budget.
3. Balance – Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — but only if it includes both a spending limitation and a super-majority for raising taxes, in addition to balancing revenues and expenses.
Our country does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Over numerous administrations and various tax rates, the United States has averaged revenues of 19% of GDP. Currently our spending is around 23% of GDP. The plan is to cap spending at the average of 19%.
The long term solution to fiscal responsibility lies in the Balanced Budget Amendment which would assure that Congress balances the budget every year, and this would be in effect no matter what party is in power.
Yes, I’m all for cutting all unnecessary expenses. Especially we could save a lot of $$$ by cutting the FRAUD out of Medicare alone. Seems as if anybody and there uncle can collect their portion of Medicare with a little dishonesty, it’s very sad to say—People should go back to church to see that GOD SEES everything that crooks are doing and HE even knows what people are thinking—-my gosh—I will never steal a penny because what HE knows now, HE’LL know when we die and decide, if we didn’t repent, if we’ll go to Heaven or somewhere else. I don’t like the somewhere else. Please cut the following: All those flowers planted all over, I hope it’s not coming from or taxes! And all that crazy research about things like research on how many mosquitos are male and how many are female–Let people donate for this kind of research. We should not have to pay for any birth control—That’s personal and should be paid by the people envolved. And how about all those park’s that are just setting there using up the land we need to explore for Oil, Gas, and other necessary commodities. Cut all Windmills (heard they are noisy and very expensive and don’t really help the majority of citizens) Cut the recycling we were just doing fine like 20 years ago. Let the environmentalist pay for all the crazy environmental expense put upon our taxes—They can pay for this themselves if they want electric cars that go nowhere fast enough and are too expensive for 99% of us to afford also! Cutting grass along the road WOULD BE GOOD TO DO as this is necessary expense to avoid accidents. How about fixing all these potholes in Milwaukee County—-This is a necessary expense so we don’t have to buy a new set of tires every year or less. Don’t cut military unless it’s something such as a plane that has never worked right and endangered lives. I wish I had time to share more, but (much because of Obama) there is so little time to help out with politics.
Cut, cap and Balance are a fine idea, but we need to be realistic about the growing demands being placed on the Fed Govt for Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.
The millions of Baby Boomers who are now retiring, together with the much smaller proportion of workers per retiree, mean that much more non-Social Security/Medicare revenues have to raised than before. Holding Federal spending at 19% of GDP is probably unrealistic when these costs, interest for National Debt, Defense budget, and other mandatory spending are accounted for.
Adding to the problem are the lower pay scales for workers, hence smaller amounts of taxes collected. Millions of good-paying jobs have ended up in China and other low-cost areas. Instead of US workers paying taxes and helping our economy, we spend $tens of $billion$ for unemployment payments and welfare to help them survive. (Thank you Wall Street Bankers and S&P 500 corporations, and the Congress Critters who do nothing to stop export of our jobs.).
In summary, while I prefer to be an optimist, according to various economists, the next five to ten years are going to be difficult for many millions, and will make it hard to balance the budget.