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Thread: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

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    Default The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    (boldface added by me)

    Bush's extensive tax cuts, the new Medicare prescription drug benefit and, if it passes, his plan to redesign Social Security all balloon in cost several years from now. His plan to partially privatize Social Security, for instance, would cost a total of $79.5 billion in the last two budgets that Bush will propose as president and an additional $675 billion in the five years that follow. New Medicare figures likewise show the cost almost twice as high as originally estimated, largely because it mushrooms long after the Bush presidency.

    "It's almost like you've got a budget, and you've got a shadow budget coming in behind that's a whole lot more expensive," said Philip G. Joyce, professor of public policy at George Washington University.

    By the time the next president comes along, some analysts said, not only will there be little if any flexibility for any new initiatives, but the entire four-year term could be spent figuring out how to accommodate the long-range cost of Bush's policies........................................ The knowledge of what's ahead is hardly lost on some of those eyeing Bush's job. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been among those raising concerns about the long-term costs of current financial policies.

    "Hopefully some very difficult decisions will be addressed between now and the time we have a new White House resident so that occupant isn't faced with some very expensive chickens coming home to roost," said John Weaver, a McCain adviser. "There are some things that we can do, but unfortunately in the political world kicking down the road is often seen as leadership."

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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    Not to argue the point that Bush's budget cuts will spread the 'pain' everywhere, but there are plenty of Big City democrats who have a very different opinion ...



    Also, the reason that little can be done about 'wasteful spending that is rampant in many big cities across the country' is that the majority of this wasteful spending takes place under state and local auspices i.e. state education dept's, state administered Welfare and MedicAid programs etc. over which the federal gov't has little or no control in regard to specific spending decisions. Co-incidentally, the majority of this wasteful spending takes place under Democratic state governors and democratic state and local politicians who are actually making those specific spending decisions.

    The single most controversial budget item from a Red state standpoint is obviously the scaling back of agricultural subsidies. However, if you check the fine print, those proposed rollbacks in agricultural subsidies would NOT affect family farmers but only corporate farms claiming subsidies in amounts greater than 1/4 million dollars at a time. Also, there are major trade sanction overtones riding on reducing agricultural subsidies to avoid new tariffs being slapped on other US export products in retaliation by our buddies in Europe.

    It's also curious that nobody ever seemed to care about the long term cost consequences of previous policies i.e. Clinton's overtaxing of Social Security taxes beyond the cost of current benefits and then transferring and spending the surplus on general revenue items i.e. social programs ... all the while passing the actual bill onto taxpayers in 2018 who must then begin to pay off the Social Security bonds once outgoing SSI checks exceed SSI tax receipts!

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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    Quote Originally Posted by Tigerlilly
    ...and, if it passes, his plan to redesign Social Security all balloon in cost several years from now. His plan to partially privatize Social Security, for instance, would cost a total of $79.5 billion in the last two budgets that Bush will propose as president and an additional $675 billion in the five years that follow...
    And the Democrat's Plan to reform social security would be...?

    I haven't looked at the president's social security plan, so I can't comment on it. I'd love to compare it to the democrat's plan, but I haven't seen them propose an alternative. In fact, on the news over the weekend I heard that the democratic leadership in congress is warning its members not to even discusss reforming social security. If you're going to complain about someone's plan, it seems the least you could do is offer an alternative.
    Dancing is wonderful training for girls, it's the first way you learn to guess what a man is going to do before he does it. ~Christopher Morley, Kitty Foyle

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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    The democrat's plan to do nothing is actually a plan to do something ... a plan to avoid short term political heat, but to see a 34% across the board income tax increase put into effect in 2018 when Social Security's cash flow turns red (or a 17% tax increase plus a 17% cut in Social Security benefits, or a 34% cut in benefits), hope like hell that nobody remembers which party actually passed the legislation which created the 2018 SSI bond disaster in the first place under the guise of 'fixing' social security, hope like hell that nobody remembers who obstructed legimate attempts to mitigate the 2018 Social Security problem back in 2005, hope that a republican president wins office in the 2016 election to blame everything on, and use this as the core issue for the 2020 presidential campaign !

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    Featured Member Destiny's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    The same news report I saw mentioned a reply Elizabeth Dole had during the recent campaign. Whenever her democratic opponent would knock republican's on social security, Ms. Dole would take a blank piece of paper and wave it around, describing it as the democratic plan to save social security. That pretty well describes it.
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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    Regardless of the good ideas for Social Security reform, our current spending levels are totally unacceptable, inexcusable and unsustainable.

    And people call GWB a conservative...
    Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.

    William F. Buckley, Jr.

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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    And people call GWB a conservative...
    GWB might just as well be FDR or LBJ in terms of spending policies ... so far. However, it would appear that GWB's new budget, bolstered by his re-election 'political capital', is going to attempt to tackle some of the politically sacred cow gov't spending issues for the first time - on both sides of the political aisle. He now has 3 more years and a majority in both houses of congress (filibusters nonwithstanding) to try and make a serious dent.

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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    So what should be done to bring the deficit under control? Cut spending or raise taxes?
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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    Both.

    A little bit at a time so not to shock the economy; untill the budget, debt and GNP are healthy and we have some surplus.

    I would ask what Clinton did that was succesful in fixing the budget the last time the Republicans screwed it up.?

    There might be some useful things found in that examination that could be applied to present day.

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    Default Re: The Budget and Ballooning Debt

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark W.
    Both.

    A little bit at a time so not to shock the economy; untill the budget, debt and GNP are healthy and we have some surplus.

    I would ask what Clinton did that was succesful in fixing the budget the last time the Republicans screwed it up.?

    There might be some useful things found in that examination that could be applied to present day.
    Don't forget to add:

    1) Removal of "undocumented workers" (criminals actually) that build up an underground third world economy by the millions of participants each year.

    2) Controls on outsourcing. It is getting to the point where the only thing made in the US are beds, and the illegals have that job already.

    The government's problems are not outside the rest of the economy and it's problems.

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