Matt Collins
12-10-2010, 01:49 PM
How to Balance the Budget Without Raising Taxes (http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbccce682ed00f0427727ec5c46cd3d7b 376ec9d01255847b52)
[/URL]Reason's Nick Gillespie and Veronique de Rugy write, "Congress hasn’t even begun real work on the 2011 budget, even though the fiscal year started in October (the government is currently being funded by short-term continuing resolutions; the next one expires on December 18). If they want to get serious about staving off the uncertainty, tax increases, and unrestrained spending that are sure recovery killers, they could put us on a path to a balanced budget right now. Are our leaders willing and able to identify and cut just $25 billion in waste and excess out of more than $700 billion in non-defense discretionary spending? Is reducing the $714 billion the Department of Defense received in 2010 by a paltry $25 billion impossible? Can Medicare and Medicaid, two programs that are infamous for waste and fraud and cost well over $720 billion in 2010, find $35 billion in efficiencies? The specific cuts should be open to negotiation, but the historical record shows that the available level of government revenue is fixed. If these sorts of small but systematic trims are impossible over the next decade, then really nothing is possible and debt, deficits, and despair are here to stay."
[URL="http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbc7278947e2c3b0ad9606afc9ffe07b5 f024c3c68bee4bd108"]Jacob Sullum: Balancing the Federal Budget Won't Require Radical Change
(http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbccce682ed00f0427727ec5c46cd3d7b 376ec9d01255847b52)Hey Progressives, This Is the Thanks Obama Gets?
(http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbc6078c76717bf9ca0d822d7f86175e0 423fa981288f254886)Friday Funnies - Obama's Tax Deal (http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbcfb1ae89c303ed95fc9572f9626f501 c00193235245c557ca)
[/URL]Reason's Nick Gillespie and Veronique de Rugy write, "Congress hasn’t even begun real work on the 2011 budget, even though the fiscal year started in October (the government is currently being funded by short-term continuing resolutions; the next one expires on December 18). If they want to get serious about staving off the uncertainty, tax increases, and unrestrained spending that are sure recovery killers, they could put us on a path to a balanced budget right now. Are our leaders willing and able to identify and cut just $25 billion in waste and excess out of more than $700 billion in non-defense discretionary spending? Is reducing the $714 billion the Department of Defense received in 2010 by a paltry $25 billion impossible? Can Medicare and Medicaid, two programs that are infamous for waste and fraud and cost well over $720 billion in 2010, find $35 billion in efficiencies? The specific cuts should be open to negotiation, but the historical record shows that the available level of government revenue is fixed. If these sorts of small but systematic trims are impossible over the next decade, then really nothing is possible and debt, deficits, and despair are here to stay."
[URL="http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbc7278947e2c3b0ad9606afc9ffe07b5 f024c3c68bee4bd108"]Jacob Sullum: Balancing the Federal Budget Won't Require Radical Change
(http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbccce682ed00f0427727ec5c46cd3d7b 376ec9d01255847b52)Hey Progressives, This Is the Thanks Obama Gets?
(http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbc6078c76717bf9ca0d822d7f86175e0 423fa981288f254886)Friday Funnies - Obama's Tax Deal (http://click.email.reason.org/?qs=62699628069bffbcfb1ae89c303ed95fc9572f9626f501 c00193235245c557ca)