To put it all in layman’s terms, the federal government must borrow about .40 for every $1.00 it spends. If the Treasury would have lost its authority to borrow money, the
In a last minute compromise, Congress raised the debt ceiling by up to $2.4 trillion, which would be enough to get through the next election cycle. Simultaneously, they created a committee to develop specific debt reduction measures – slashing $900 billion from federal agency budgets over the next ten years. President Obama has said that while both defense and non-defense program budgets will be cut, social security, Medicare and programs for low-income individuals will be spared. You can see more of what President Obama had to say about the plan here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/
The committee will have to make some hard choices about which programs to cut funding from, which leads me to my question for this week, “If you were forced to cut funding from a federal program – what would you cut? How would you justify your cuts to the American people?” If you don’t know – do some research! A quick search will show you what the federal government spends money on now. Answers are due no later than Tuesday, August 9th, 2011.
I would never be in a position to even be able to add or cut federal funding programs, as I am staying as far away from government positions as a career choice as I possibly can. Hahaha~♪
ReplyDeleteThe problem with our politicians is that none of them have the guts to do what needs to be done even if it's unpopular, they are all too concerned with their political careers... and funding their campaigns and bank accounts receive from big businesses.
ReplyDeleteFor me the choices are pretty simple, start first and foremost with a giant meat axe to 'defense'. It represents the largest portion of government spending at about 25%. I remember reading in USA Today about a year or 2 ago that if you add up the military spending of every country, the US's spending accounts for 53% of it... the next closest was China at 17%. We spend over half of all military spending for THE WHOLE WORLD and 3 TIMES AS MUCH as the next closest. Our military equipment is generations beyond what anyone else has and we spend billions a year researching newer and better. We have a 3rd generation stealth aircraft, other countries are just now producing a 1st generation.
But that alone won't do it, I would also eliminate tax breaks/subsidies and loop holes for the rich and for big business... Oil companies make 10s of billions of profits EACH QUARTER and yet they get huge government subsidies dating back to the 30s(?). The rich, while they do already pay a ton of taxes (I think it's something like the wealthiest 3% pay like 80% of all taxes), use so many loopholes it's not even funny.
It's small compared to other cuts, but get rid of earmarks and congressional pet projects entirely. There is no reason we should be spending tax payer money to build a memorial park for John Nobody in Podunk North Dakota just so a representative can make his constituents happy and get reelected. Also lets see a law to recoup all of the allocated money that was never spend. There are a lot of pet projects that were approved through earmarks, but due to things like misspelling could never be spent on what they were actually approved for... meaning the check was written and cashed but the project was never done.
Finally heathcare/medicade and social security... together they are roughly 43% of government spending. Both of these programs need serious reforms, start by limiting them to people that actually need the assistance. Right now if you pay into it you can claim it, it's a system that wide open for abuse. But they won't be fixed just by reducing the amount that is spent on them... we need some serious regulation on the cost of healthcare in this country. We have by far the highest healthcare costs in the world and we sure aren't the healthiest. Part of the problem is that doctors are too quick to leap to the most expensive test/treatment.
The changes that need to be made won't be popular and they may result in protests and no confidence votes like we've seen recently in Greece as they have attempted to implement their austerity measures, but unless we want our government to go belly up they need to be done, damn the political careers that crash and burn in the process.
For anyone that is interested 'Marketplace' a daily financial radio show produced by American Public Media and aired on NPR has made a flash financial calculator 'game' which lets you play with real budget numbers and real proposed financial changes. It's at http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/budget_hero/
Personally, I don't feel like I would be any form of authority on what Federal Programs need to be cut, however, I do know this: There are a lot of Federal Programs that need to looked over, reformed, and watched heavily. In my own personal experience I know that there needs to be a lot of reforms concerning welfare and unemployment. It's too easy to receive unemployment and I know that there are millions of people who take advantage of unemployment and mooch off of the government, expecting them to pay for their lack of motivation to find and keep a good job. However, like I said, I am no authority on the subject, nor do I claim to be. But I can only imagine that we are loosing oodles (a very scientific word) on unnecessary things and if we are going to get this budget under control, there needs to be cuts in a major way.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel like I would be the right person to make the decision of what Federal Programs to cut. I couldn't deal with the pressure of other people if I cut the wrong one. I do think that unemployment should be cut a little, because there are to many people living off of it. I collect disability every month from Social Security and I was surprised at what I get. The US needs to make cuts to get our debt taken care of or at least turned around.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a comment to make on this situation this would be a very had decision to make.
ReplyDeleteWoodrow Wilson along with 5 other gentleman signed into the American banking system as we know it today. He admitted later when the stock market collapsed what a mistake it was and he doomed America for later generations...
ReplyDeleteWe see that today in everything and it will continually be the same visciuos cycle until we as Americans look at our government and say no more... Back our dollar up with gold again. Let our money mean something and take it away from big banking again.
With all of that said, why don't we look at the culprit and stop thinking of spending cuts. Let's look at why we are going bankrupt.
The Government is continually borrowing money from itself. That is like going to a check cashing place and borrowing more and more money you don't have!!! Why is it doing this? Because the minute we let big banking take over our financial system it became a capitalist country instead of a free democracy.
Instead of looking to cut spending to bail America out how about we go back and ask the "rockefellers" of America( which also happens to be one of the 6 gentleman mentioned earlier in my blog) and ask them to bail America out!!! Big banking is why this country is going bankrupt. It's our money that is lining their wallets anyway... I think it's about time we ask for some of that money back!!!
That 40 cents that the government borrows on a regular basis is what's going to big banking like rockefeller!!! count on it!
The first thing I would do is put forth a pay cut for government officials. I don't think it would be too hard to convince the public that this is a good idea. I'm talking pay cuts to Mayors, Governors, Senators, etc. When you see them living in posh houses with nice cars and servants it makes it seems like we may be paying them too much.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joe. We put so much money into paying the government officials when the states all have debt issues that we can't cover. It causes higher taxes for citizens then we all complain about it. So that's definitely an issue to resolve.
ReplyDeleteTo cut some federal programs is not the best solution to solve the this problem. Stop spending money on wars or fighting with other countries, politicians' salary. Every citizens pay enough taxes to cover everything. But as I said before stop spending money on unnecessary things.
ReplyDeleteI have to add a note on the politician's salaries issue that has been brought up...
ReplyDeleteWe have to remember that most of them are pretty damn well off before they are elected, lets not forget that campaigns now a days are all about who spends the most, it's a 'popularity' contest of who's the richest. Plus they get so many kickbacks from the corporations and interest groups that support them.
If I remember right the president's salary is 250,000 a year, which is a lot to the working class but nothing when compared to the 10s of millions that big bank, big business, celebrities, and athletes pull down.
Plus, and here's the real kicker, congress approves it's own salary... good luck getting them to give themselves a pay cut... I believe they gave themselves a pay freeze in 08 or 09 when the recession hit, but that's tantamount to your employer coming to you and saying "we need you to make less, how much should we pay you?"
If I needed to cut funds in some way I would take a closer look into welfare and newer programs. I would find a way to make sure unemployment is put into the right hands. These are the two programs I think get abused the most.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure most of the programs that the federal government sets up always have the best intentions at heart in the beginning but because of greed and discrimination (discrimination that could be coming from any race or political party) they become inefficient. I don't like big government and I don't like over spending the American publics money but people cant always take care of themselves, so some kind of balance needs to be met.
ReplyDeleteIt will take reforming what is already in place on the governments side but it will also take action from the American people. The American people need to choose to take care of themselves and there families and also take care of those who can't help themselves because its the right thing to do.
We spend so much money in the Department OF Defense. We should end this war and get our troops out and that might be able to save us some money. Also cutting salary to officials would help too.I think if they pulled a little out of each group that we're spending the most in and looking closely at what is getting abused. It could make a big difference.
ReplyDeleteI really don't know what i would cut, so i guess i dont have a comment on this post.
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