So John Green clued me in that I could balance the budget and spoke eloquently as to why it’s not as easy as it looks. I took his challenge and fixed the budget. You may thank me later.
Want to do it yourself? Go here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyHR0XnU9DQ) which has John Green’s video and also the link so you can fix the budget. You can just click on the link without watching the video.
Those who know my bleeding heart liberal tendencies won’t be surprised to learn that I solved the deficit by increasing taxes (67% of my choices) vs. spending cuts (33% of my choices.) I figured I would go through and mark the “easy” choices and then go back and make the hard choices, but by the time I got to the bottom, I had all my squares colored in.
Want to know what I chose? Okay, here goes:
- Eliminate earmarks (I think that everyone says they want to eliminate these while at the same time cheering on their representative when that representative brings home the federal cash. I never hear anyone point out that discrepancy.)
- Eliminate farm subsides (I know, I just lost the midwest)
- Reduce nuclear arsenal and space spending.
- Reduce military to pre-Iraq war size and further reduce troops in Asia and Europe
- Reduce Navy and Air Force Fleets
- Cancel or delay some weapons programs
- Reduce noncombat military compensation and overhead. (I checked everything in the military box)
- Reduce the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to 30,000 by 2013
- Enact medical malpractice reform
- Reduce Social Security Benefits for those with high incomes
- Tighten eligibility for disability
- Modifying Estate Taxes, President Obama’s proposal (even I, stick-it-to-the-rich rabble rouser that I am can’t see reducing the estate tax to the Clinton-era levels. That sucker needed to be increased a tiny bit, but certainly not the way it was done, giving rich old people a big incentive to off themselves this year.)
- Investment taxes: back to the Clinton era
- Bush Tax cuts: allow expiration for those making over $250,000 per year. (I was going to go back and make them all expire, if I needed to, but I didn’t need to.)
- Payroll tax: subject some incomes above $106,000 to tax
- Millionaire’s tax on income above 1 million
- Closing tax loopholes, I chose eliminate loopholes, keep taxes slightly higher
- Reduce mortgage deduction and others for high-income households.
- Carbon Tax
- Bank Tax.