How would you balance the Federal Budget and reduce

[mia]

the National Debt?

In recent years, the US Federal Budget has dropped dramatically back into deficit. Once again, the National Debt is growing. It is now over $9 trillion.

If you are a US citizen, your share of the National Debt is over $30,000. You pay interest on this debt, through your taxes, every year. The generation that is now too young to vote will pay interest on this debt -- even though they never borrowed the money.

How would you balance the Federal Budget and reduce the National Debt? Explore the complete US Federal Budget to find your own solutions to these problems.

http://www.kowaldesign.com/budget/



My direct experience is limited to the public schools. Before the winter break we we instructed to shut down all computers, air-conditioners and turn out the lights. I wonder why cost saving measures like these aren't required in the schools every night and in all government buildings when they aren't in use.

[Cleita]

1. Reverse everything Bush did starting with his $103 trillion tax cut when he

took office. Just do the opposite of everything he's done to put us into this mess since then. Then go back to the Clinton and Reagan administrations and gut those decisions, like breaking the unions and NAFTA passed in their administrations that have failed. Maybe then we can move forward with some FDR and Keynesian economic thinking instead of beating the dead horse of failed Milton Friedman economics. This guy's books and writings on his economic ideas seriously should be buried and a wake had for them.

[Deja Q]

14. If corporations paid fair wages*, we wouldn't need unions and our economy wouldn't be in a mess.

* for good work done and for company loyalty. Lack of both cheapens everything, including the company name. But then, quality control is deemed too expensive and companies find ways to shift that "burden" to the customer as well. I love paying huge sums of money for a product that I'm the one who has to report problems back to so they can fix it one to two years later, and until then I'm stuck in the water and incapable of doing my job.

[Cleita]

19. But in order to make corporations pay fair wages, we need unions.

This concept goes back to the Middle Ages when craftsmen formed guilds to protect their interests. Believe me the king, who was synonymous with the corporation then, wasn't going to part with any more of his gold than he needed to and he demanded loyalty and good work done regardless. Unionization as we know it started after the industrial revolution because factory owners were notorious for running sweat shops. Worker died to bring unionization to the rest of us. When unions were strong after WWII they had the effect of raising wages and workplace standards even in non-union businesses because those businesses had to compete with the union shops in getting good employees.

Quality control can be effected by consumer unions. The fact is that there needs to be organizations where workers and/or consumers get a collective voice, because the individual cannot have the power to bargain that a group does. Labor laws help, but it's the unions who caused those labor laws to be enacted. Now most of the laws that I worked under seem to have gone the route of the DoDo, since Reagan destroyed the unions, and workers are increasingly burdened with rules favoring the corporation like lie detector tests, urine tests, being told what they can do on their own time, being told who to vote for, being told they will not get decent references if the leave a job for another one, etc.. Also, do not expect our government to do anything unless we push for it and it takes an organization of many to make the government do the will of the people.

[alittlelark]

2. Invade the Cayman Islands etc.

The Swiss might get scared (hopefully).


The tax revenues from the offshore tax havens are my 1st step.....



Stay tuned.

[BlooInBloo]

3. Too late...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/19/ubs-american-investors-id_n_168135.html

[alittlelark]

5. No, I mean INVADE.

They are transferring $$$$$$$$$ as we speak.

I would have cut off all lines of communication and INVADED w/ 2-3000 accountants behind 20-30 soldiers.


The Swiss... well- diplomacy needs to be involved.

[BlooInBloo]

6. Yah... I assumed you were kidding, of course...

Because that's the preferable assumption to make, rather than attribute a batshit stupid idea to you.

I apologize for my mistake - it won't happen again.

[alittlelark]

7. It's a hell of lot more profitable than invading Iraq.

They did nothing.

The Bahama banks are hiding/stealing at least 300 Bill. a year in tax revenue (I swear I saw that recently....).

They have no army, and our $$$$$$ has been stolen by their US clients.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

uh, yeah.

[Ghost Dog]

9. Just invade the UK, kill lots of birds with one stone...

(since war itself will of course quickly rejuvenate your economy) why dontcha?

Just in case you thought British Protectorates, Commonwealth countries and such like the Caymans, Bahamas, Bermuda, Channel Islands, Gibraltar, and a long etc. were the only 'offshore tax havens' under Her Majesty, you should be aware that the UK mainland itself is considered to be the second-largest international tax haven in the world; second only to the USA (not, in this last case, a Royal Fief).

The UK is the world's second largest tax haven after the USA. Even during the worst years of old left wing socialist Labor government, the City's nominee to head the Bank of England got the job. Foreign nationals who held external accounts with UK financial institutions could trade tax free from London. Until the mid l990s the UK even had legislation permitting the registration of exempt international companies on the model of Cayman and the Isle of Man. The people in charge understood that to try to tax the international businessman would only result in the money flows going elsewhere. Those who could not vote with their feet would vote with their money.

Centuries of running an empire taught the British business and accounting practices which, while diplomatically giving lip service to taxing everyone, in fact gives rank its privilege. The US learned this lesson much later and only from the early 1980s exempted foreign nationals not resident in the US from tax liability on earnings from capital invested in the USA. Being a much larger economy, the US was able within the eight years of the Reagan administration to overtake the UK for the number one spot of the worlds tax haven. Nevertheless the UK is clearly number one in Europe and has the advantage of a more civilized approach then the USA. You can expect the police in London to give you a fair warning. The US authorities like to make test cases.

Substantial tax benefits accrue to UK residents who are not UK domiciled. It is possible for a non-UK national who has no UK capital or income to live indefinitely within the UK and legally avoiding paying any UK tax. This has resulted in London having a larger number of expatriate millionaires then the rest of Europe's capitals combined.

/... http://www.lectlaw.com/filesh/bbg30.htm

Sarcasm intended, but with a serious note also intended: Action to curb offshore tax avoidance/evasion and other forms of criminality and corruption will have to be undertaken at the most international level, applying equally to all jurisdictions, or else it simply won't work (the money will move, like its 'owners', somewhere else).

Apologies to those who've already seen this comment posted in other threads).

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

4. Revoke every Chimp and Reagan tax cut on the parasites

Reduce military spending AT LEAST 50% and redirect the unemployed engineers into green transportation and energy research, subsidizing them if necessary for 5 years. Confiscatory income and estate taxation on anything 30 times the average wage, indexed to inflation. Akio Morita, the founder of SONY, never made more than $300K per year. Adjust/automatically index the rate over time.

Punish these pigs by throwing the last generation of people, and their families,who benifited more that $1-3 million a year at investment banks and hedge funds and the shitbag law firms that enabled them, at any time annually over the last ten years into the guillotine or, very, very slowly (1" at a time), into tree chippers. Repatriate every last penny they and their families received. Let them know this is not an end but a vision of the future. Sell their families into slavery as domestic servants in Saudi Arabia. Or just fucking kill them. They are of less than zero benefit to society. I am not really kidding. Punishment of the most severe kind is the only kind that can deter this swinish and irresponsible behavior in the future. Let the parasites know that that there will be the most severe of possible consequences for their swinish behavior. There was much justice in the actions of Robespierre and Marat.

70-95% income taxation on every dollar over 30X the average worker's wage. Infinite taxation of any business that is not a family-owned small business or farm when it comes to "generational wealth transfers" that is sought to be transfered to any corporate entity not made up of famly members and remains a closely held business. No one should be able to inherit and live on a pile of money they did nothing to earn. Zero estate tax on recipients who continue operating their businesses or farms, which requires brains, unlike a trust fund, unless they sell out to a conglomerate. Then, the death penalty: 100% taxation. the creation of a phony aristocracy of accidently inherited wealth accumulated by the outright thievery by the "efforts" of previous generations (cough - the entire Bush family - cough) should be chopped off at its knees and the recipient parasites killed painfully and publicly. And replayed for years on television. The breaking wheel seems a good place to start.

[Posteritatis]

8. Wow, that's even better than the "invade the Cayman islands" one

Some kid happens to be descended from the wrong investment banker, you want them enslaved or dead? How broadly are we defining "family?" If I had a wealthy cousin should I die? Grandmother? Great aunt? Are genes the only connection, or are we killing the birth parents of adoptees as well?

C'mon, we've already established guilt by association, but I'm curious as to how close the association can get before someone's genes determine they have to die.

[Ghost Dog]

10. I observe in this Reuters report,

which discusses top-level meetings in Europe and Asia today Sunday to coordinate approaches to the forthcoming G20 meeting (billed as intending a fundamental reform of the international financial system), that in the USA increased taxes on the rich and spending cuts are in the offing:

In the United States, officials said President Barack Obama wants to slash the ballooning deficit in half by 2013, after massively increasing public spending to stem the economic crisis.

Obama will outline his ambitious goal when he hosts a summit at the White House on Monday on fiscal responsibility and later in the week when his administration presents a summary of its first budget, for the 2010 fiscal year.

...

"We can't generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

An administration official said Obama was proposing to cut the deficit, which private economists project will rise to $1.5 trillion this year, through a mixture of tax increases on wealthier Americans and spending cuts.

/... http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/090221/business_us_financial.html?.v=1

Progressive taxation, with tax bands reaching all the way up to very high taxation at the very top, would of course make a large dent in deficits. And so would serious and immediate cuts in military spending. Both without threatening to continue to bleed dry the working- and middle-class majorities, as at present.

Edit: Anyone have better ideas?

[Thothmes]

11. Two things must happen

The budget and all of its expenditures must be looked at for possible reductions. There should be no sacred cows. This is not to say that every program must be cut, rather that a lot of budget items can be reduced or eliminated. Change the Congressional rules to prohibit set asides. Every expenditure in a budget bill must be open to scrutiny and debate. The second, taxes must go up. IMO the action is not soley limited to just reversing previous administrations tax reduction. The income tax needs to be examined. Ensure all sources of income are taxed at the same rate. Ensure that the tax rates for various income catagories are trully progressive. Examine the current list of exemptions, credits, etc. Consider VAT on products with some exemptions, such as food, medicines, clothing. There is no easy pat answer to the problem of balancing the budge. I think that if a concerted effort is to be made, nearly everyones ox will be gored to some extent. Some more than other. Care must be taken to ensure that the poorest and lower income people to not bear the brunt of the program. By the same token, taxes for those that are very well to do should high but not be punitive or excessive.

[ejpoeta]

12. do what they did in 'dave'....

he had his accountant buddy come over and look through the budget. I bet there is a lot of truly wasteful spending in there. and redundancy. how bout we start by making lawmakers take a paycut. and they can lose their cadillac health insurance too. you guys get to pay into you healthcare... and you get the same healthcare that the rest of us do. the crappy kind.

[olegramps]

13. Its not difficult at all.

Just raise the tax on the wealthy to the 94% level that was in affect during WWII. Enact an inheritance tax that confiscates every thing over 3 million that the Wall Street and Banking thieves stole.

[quaker bill]

15. A 50 percent cut

in defense spending would likely still leave us with the largest military budget on the planet, and free up an easy 500 Billion dollars a year, or in short, balance the budget. You could turn off all the power in the schools, 24/7, 365 days a year, and not even come close to this. We need to stop nibbling around the edges.

There is also the bit about collecting the taxes. If you make the money here, you pay the taxes here. I don't care if you attempt to off-shore it, you still owe us the money, and if we must shut your business down to collect it, then that is what we need to do.

Throw the two together and we are running a surplus.

[ThomWV]

16. Major cuts in defense spending combined with greatly increased taxation.

[tabbycat31]

17. a few things

1) start with closing military bases in countries that they're not necessary (like Japan)
2) Go through the defense budget line by line. Cut ANY waste in there (that will solve a huge chunk of our problem).
3) ENd the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
4) Contact all countries where US citizens have offshore bank accounts. Make everyone with money offshore pay taxes on the interest/dividends that they've received offshore in the history of the account.
5) Any US corporation that receives government money, but later incorporated offshore (such as Halliburton) will be paying the tax rate that they would normally pay in the US. If they don't want to do that, then they lose and must pay back ALL government contracts.
6) Raise the capital gains tax rate
7) Make a tax provision where anyone in a particular company that makes over 30 times the lowest paid employee in the company pays an 80% tax rate on all income above 30 times the lowest paid employee.

[Faux pas]

18. Legalize marijuana.