New York Times Interactive feature: You fix the deficit!

[backscatter712]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html

The site is simple - it has a nice graph on top showing you how close you've come to balancing the budget in 2015 and 2030, and then you've got a big menu of options that you can use to build your own budget-balancing plan.

Here's your homework assignments.

1. Using basic progressive principles we've all been discussing, balance the budget. You'll find it's not difficult.

2. Try the Republican Cruelty Plan - see if you can balance the budget using the ideas from the other side of the aisle, especially the ones that would leave Granny eating cat food. Is it as easy to balance the budget that way?

[nc4bo]

1. You are right, it wasn't that difficult at all.

Wish it were so easy in our real world . Problem is what we'd cut, they won't. x(

[EFerrari]

2. Well, if I can do it, anybody can. LOL

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=nmt045qr

I did go for the VAT. And I cut foreign aid in half. But considering that our foreign "aid" generally goes to smooth the way for multinationals and not for people (see Haiti, etc.), that's fine with me. It's a scam so cutting it in half might also reduce the damage it does in half.

[kristopher]

3. I wonder if the idea is related to this recent study?

It sounds like a GREAT way to get the message of this research out.

Abstract
Disagreements about the optimal level of wealth inequality underlie policy debates ranging from taxation to welfare. We attempt to insert the desires of “regular” Americans into these debates, by asking a nationally representative online panel to estimate the current distribution of wealth in the United States and to “build a better America” by constructing distributions with their ideal level of inequality. First, respondents dramatically underestimated the current level of wealth inequality. Second, respondents constructed ideal wealth distributions that were far more equitable than even their erroneously low estimates of the actual distribution. Most important from a policy perspective, we observed a surprising level of consensus: All demographic groups – even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy – desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo.


Building a Better America – One Wealth Quintile at a Time

Michael I. Norton Harvard Business School
Dan Ariely Duke University


Forthcoming in Perspectives on Psychological Science

[Catherina]

4. I stopped the wars and eliminated the entire MIC. Fixed in no time but

those weren't options the NYT even considered. Why not?

Rec'd. Still interesting.

[lovemydog]

5. that was fun

Thanks. I cut military and returned tax rates on the rich to Clinton era levels. Didn't hurt the large majority of Americans at all.

[Celtic Raven]

9. If they'd only listen to us

we'd be outta this hole.

:thumbsup:

[athena]

22. Yup! Here is how I did it (with a budget surplus!)

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=43t205qm

[DirkGently]

6. I did it. And without touching SS or Medicare. Hmm. Looks like there's some fat in "defense." 8)

[backscatter712]

7. Try it the GOP way.

Y'know, cut those EVIL WASTEFUL EARMARKS, laying off gov't workers, cutting their pay, chopping aid to states etc. See if you can balance the budget without raising taxes or touching the military.

It's a lot harder, isn't it?

OK, I could do it if I capped Medicare growth - that's the single biggest way to trim spending, though you'd imagine that if the GOP tried it, all the pharmcos, durable med equipment providers, hospitals and insurance companies would send their lobbyists to whine. Besides, making Medicare solvent would get in the way of the Grover Norquist drown-gov't-in-the-bathtub plans they've got, wouldn't it?

[TheWebHead]

8. they could try a growth commission

and a NYT growth calculator. Get an extra percent or two of GDP growth and you can solve a lot of your economic problems, and that's the dilemma the Democrats are facing. Listen to the left wing of your base and squeeze the rich bastards and those greedy corporations, which kills equity valuations and results in a capital strike from those very same rich bastards and greedy corporations, or take steps to increase growth and business confidence while angering your own ideological fringe to win back the center.

[Historic NY]

10. If I can fix then they can..........

came out with a few bucks (billions) to the good.:party:

[AC_Mem]

11. How interesting and fun!

And not hard to do. Why is it so difficult for Washington to make these decisions?

Each congressperson should be made to take this quiz and submit their proposals :)

[defendandprotect]

12. We can immediately save 28% of MIC budget by merging services ... that's not even NYT option....???

[LibDemAlways]

13. I'd start by drastically scaling back TSA and using a fraction of

the money being wasted on employees with an IQ of 40 and nude-o-scopes to hire Israeli security experts to teach us how to implement airport security that is both efficient and effective without violating our constitutional rights.

Then I'd bring home the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan along with all the civilian contractors in those countries. With the savings, I'd implement Medicare for all.

Correcting the waste, fraud, and abuse in the "Homeland" Security Dept. and Pentagon alone would go a long way toward balancing the budget.

[leftstreet]

15. You can bash TSA policies without bashing the workers

"with an IQ of 40"

"money being wasted on employees"

:eyes:

My, my, my...there's an awful lot of TSA anti-worker propaganda around here lately

[LibDemAlways]

16. Sorry. TSA is the "workers" and the ones I've encountered

have a collective IQ of about 40. Employer of last resort for the basically unemployable. What kind of human being would want to take a job that involves humiliating the flying public?

If you want to be groped or ogled by a moron, that's your right. To each his own.

[leftstreet]

17. 50,000+ TSA workers are about to get union representation

and ODDLY ENOUGH all these anti-TSA articles have been pounding the internets

Hmm....

[prairierose]

14. I thought it was fun....and not that difficult....

I drastically scaled back the DOD and raised taxes for rich people and took away subsidies from some areas and there is was...I didn't have to touch medicare or social security at all.

I didn't try the Republican way. I'm not sure that I can think like that.

[backscatter712]

18. Funny thing - balancing the budget by being GOP Evil is hard.

You try it without touching the military, without raising taxes at all, and by cutting programs, and it's actually difficult. Axing earmarks, cutting aid to states, laying off federal workers, cutting their pay - turns out the savings is peanuts. Malpractice reform brings tiny savings, raising the Medicare age to 70 actually saves some money, but is downright cruel. So is raising the Social Security eligibility age - saves some money, but is cruel.

Capping Medicare growth to GDP balances the 2030 numbers, but I suspect that the GOP wouldn't go for that - it'd make Medicare solvent, and that gets in the way of the Grover Norquist wet dream of drowning government in the bathtub. All the Rick Scotts in the pharmco, hospital, medical equipment and other medical industries would send their lobbyists to screech loudly, so I suspect the GOP wouldn't go for that, and without that, balancing the budget's impossible using evil methods.

[backscatter712]

19. What do you think of my solution?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=03x105l3

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. That was easy.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=411102y1

[KittyWampus]

21. YES! I solved the deficit without touching benefits AND raising amount allowable for inheritance

and a few other goodies that would help families with businesses.

Mainly, I let military spending do the work for us.