Forums → WEPR → The Budget Crisis

Lower spending on Medicare by about 10%

How about, lower spending on military by about 90%

How about, lower spending on military by about 90%

90% is a bit steep, but I also think the military is being wasteful. A 50% decrease would be a bit more realistic.

Raise taxes for those who have above $10 million income yearly by 5%
Lower spending on Medicare by about 10%
Reduce corporate tax breaks by 15%
Any income over $100 million per year is 70% taxable

70%?! The government screws up, so now we take almost everything anyone with 100 million has to make up for the politician's mistakes?

You may not like the rich, but they are also human beings with rights! Let's not discriminate. Let's not take because "they don't need that much." There's plenty of things all of us could give up, that doesn't give anyone an excuse to take them.

Also, you fail to understand that taxing the rich means we tax businesses more. When you tax businesses more, they raise their prices to make up for the loss in tax dollars. This means people buying their products will be HURT.

How about the government stops spending money?

Yeah, it's that simple.

[quote] How about, lower spending on military by about 90%

90% is a bit steep, but I also think the military is being wasteful. A 50% decrease would be a bit more realistic.
[/quote]

Which would leave America open and less defensive to attacking forces. (Think of the way China is heading right now)

[BTW I am not from America, just puttin in my 10c]

Lower spending on Medicare by about 10%

I think medical care is essential to every country > the medical care in America is appalling. The girl i was living with in USA needed work done after we were in a four wheeler accident and had to pay hundreds even though she had insurance.

In the UK, medical care is free :/

I'm not from the USA but I have read about it. The Republicans want to cut government spendings (especially on Medicare) and the Democrats want to raise taxes. Like Zakyman said the two parties are blocking each other. But the Republicans are more to blame IMO:

According to the poll, 68 percent of self-identified Democrats, as well as 76 percent of political independents, say they want Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to make compromises to gain consensus in the current spending debate.
By comparison, 56 percent of self-identified Republicans â" and 68 percent of Tea Party supporters â" want GOP leaders to stick to their position, even if it means the inability to achieve consensus.

Source

I would raise taxes too and reduce corporate tax breaks. And like loloynage2 I would cut spendings on military (20-30%).

Any income over $100 million per year is 70% taxable

70% seems to be too high IMO.

I also read that the cause of the current state deficit is the tax breaks that the U.S. government had introduced 10 years ago. I'm not sure if it's true. Maybe you know more about that.

In the UK, medical care is free :/

It's not free. The tax payers pay for medical care.

I would raise taxes too and reduce corporate tax breaks.

The problem is that the more you tax corporations, the more small businesses that go under. This is how monopolies are created, and this is when politicians come in, point there fingers at corporations, then suggest we punish them by raising taxes.

According to the poll, 68 percent of self-identified Democrats, as well as 76 percent of political independents, say they want Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to make compromises to gain consensus in the current spending debate.
By comparison, 56 percent of self-identified Republicans â�" and 68 percent of Tea Party supporters â�" want GOP leaders to stick to their position, even if it means the inability to achieve consensus.

The problem with this is that we are assuming that a central position is the best position. Republicans don't want to compromise because they believe the central position is wrong. "A few liberal policies here, a few conservative policies there, then we will thrive as a nation," is arguably a bad idea.

Well Nemo, what is it that you would do if you had the power to make changes in our policies and laws with regard to this issue?

If I'm not mistaken, Obama does not want to establish a debt ceiling without raising taxes. This is just what I heard.

The problem with raising taxes is that it doesn't matter how much you raise them. As long as you continue to spend more each year, you will always feel the need to increase taxes.

We just need to stop spending so much money and cut certain programs.

We just need to stop spending so much money and cut certain programs.

THANK YOU!

Taxing the rich steeply wont work at all. The only way to reduce our debt is to severely cut all needless government spending.

We just need to stop spending so much money and cut certain programs.

But the US isn't a country with lots of programs to begin with...
But you could tax religious organizations. I mean if everyone else has to pay taxes, churches should too.

But you could tax religious organizations. I mean if everyone else has to pay taxes, churches should too.

The majority are nonprofit organizations that exist on donations. If you say that gifts/donations should be taxed, then we're back to this discussion:

But the US isn't a country with lots of programs to begin with...

That's exactly it!
People keep saying 'Stop Govt. Spending but keep the Military'. Wtf?
The Military IS our Government Program that's sucking money out of the wallet. The current ongoing war right now and just all the money we spend on our military is the real reason we're so down on our budget.
Cutting Social Security doesn't sound like a great idea, seeing as we are all paying into it [or our parents have been, and it'll sound crappy knowing they won't get any after so many years of paying into it].
Meidcare/Medicaid is a debateable solution, but ours sucks anyway, so just chopping money off of it won't help people out much, will it?
Cutting Taxes is a stupid option, it is what lead us here. Anyone who thinks that by cutting them more our economy will flourish and thereby add money into the revenue of the federal government is crazy.

So the only realistic ideas available are to reduce military spending and to raise taxes.

If you're looking at whom to raise taxes, aim at the rich.
I think the 70% thing was utterly stupid, but even small percentage figures over such a large income group is extremely helpful. I understand that people have rights and they should not pay out for the Governments nasty spillups, but lets face it: Most people who earn 1 Million or more annually are usually not people in massive debt, those with 10 million or more are usually people with a net work, just a bunch of money in the bank. People with this kind of cash flow need to pay more into the government, not because they're bad or anything, but rich people have it easier.

You would think that if someone were richer, they would spend more, so taxes should be equal. But lets face it, it isn't as if rich people are going to eat extra, travel more, buy extra furniture, or use the same amount of material in proportion to the amount of wealth they have over others.
People can only do so much in a day. If they got the great opportunity to get rich in this country, they should pay the country back in a rich fashion, no?


I feel that if the Government had the money, by either raising taxes or cutting down military spending, they could handle our foreign debt, social security, and medicare and pay them off.
That way, people would have to worry less about taxes in the future. With the economy like it is, all people see is that they have no money in their pockets, the foreign debts probably going to raise taxes soon enough, and social security is going to suck in the future --> Not a very bright future.

You can't bring up the argument that by taxing these wealthy people we'll be taxing business that will cut into our economy -- because if that were true, the opposite should be as well, and the Bush tax cuts should have lead to an increase in jobs and overall rise in pay as wealthier people had more money left over to invest in their business or spend for themselves.