Congress seems to have found a solution to the debt

There was a economics journalist on Wash Journal this morn (they are doing the fiscal cliff all week) who noted that if they rolled back ALL the Bush tax cuts they will bring in 4.5 TRILLION dollars over 10 years from the US taxpayer. If they only rob the rich (top 2%) they only bring in 800 Billion over 10 years.

For reference, here are some things the government has spent money on recently:

Afghanistan: 500 Billion
The War on Civil Rights (DHS) : 1 Trillion

Anyone know how much has been wasted on:

Iraq
The War on Drugs
Federal regulation compliance (It's supposed to be something like 20% of GDP)

Rock, Squeeze, Bleed!

-t

Where does the figure of $1 trillion "recently spent" in the "war on civil rights" come from?
(the Department of Homeland Security budget is about $50 billion a year). http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/b...2-overview.pdf

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Originally Posted by Zippyjuan

Where does the figure of $1 trillion "recently spent" in the "war on civil rights" come from?
(the Department of Homeland Security budget is about $50 billion a year). http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/b...2-overview.pdf

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Tail end of a documentary. National Geographic Channel, IIRC. It was about OBL/AQ.

The DHS figure was from their inception. Afghanistan was total cost of the war from the start.

-t

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Originally Posted by tangent4ronpaul

There was a economics journalist on Wash Journal this morn (they are doing the fiscal cliff all week) who noted that if they rolled back ALL the Bush tax cuts they will bring in 4.5 TRILLION dollars over 10 years from the US taxpayer. If they only rob the rich (top 2%) they only bring in 800 Billion over 10 years.

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This just goes to show you how silly all this hoopla is. Even if they raise everyone's taxes, it only gets us 4.5 Trillion over 10 years. Our budget deficit is over 1 Trillion each year! I'd like to see someone put together a number of how high they'd have to raise taxes on people to cover the spending for this year alone. How much of our income would we be allowed to keep? 40%? 20%? Would it even be possible?

If you wanted to get rid of the deficit only via increases in income taxes, they would have to basically double from what they are now (they currently account for about $1.2 trillion in government revenues). On the other hand, if you want to balance it only with cuts and leave off things like Social Security and Medicare/ Medicaid, you have do drop the spending on everything else to zero- including the Department of Defense. You can't get rid of the deficit without both. There is no "pain free" solution.

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Originally Posted by Zippyjuan

On the other hand, if you want to balance it only with cuts and leave off things like Social Security and Medicare/ Medicaid, you have do drop the spending on everything else to zero- including the Department of Defense. You can't get rid of the deficit without both. There is no "pain free" solution.

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Sounds to me like we need to tell the hippies their generation ruined our country, and the promises they made themselves are void.

Congress is like a fat guy whos trying to lose weight by doing 20 minutes of exercises a day but meanwhile he doesnt want to cut the 20,000 calories a day he is taking in... He'll never lose weight no matter how much exercise he does and congress wont ever pay off debt no matter how much they increase taxes.

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Originally Posted by Mike Mitrosky

Congress is like a fat guy whos trying to lose weight by doing 20 minutes of exercises a day but meanwhile he doesnt want to cut the 20,000 calories a day he is taking in... He'll never lose weight no matter how much exercise he does and congress wont ever pay off debt no matter how much they increase taxes.

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I don't think congress and the president are working out 20 seconds a day figuratively speaking. All calories all the time.

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Originally Posted by Henry Rogue

I don't think congress and the president are working out 20 seconds a day figuratively speaking. All calories all the time.

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Actually under Obama NEW spending has been nearly flat- they still weigh 400 pounds but have not gained up to 500 pounds (his first budget was fiscal year 2010- he took office in 2009 but until October 2009 we were under the budget passed by Bush and the previous Congress). I am talking about the budget deficit- not the debt though. The debt is still gaining a lot of weight. Not gaining much weight but definately not losing anything. Still lumbering around.

Interesting- I heard one foreign commentator refer to the US foreign policy as a "lovable" lumbering giant- he means well but when he comes into the room he ends up making a pretty big mess of everything.

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Originally Posted by CaptUSA

This just goes to show you how silly all this hoopla is. Even if they raise everyone's taxes, it only gets us 4.5 Trillion over 10 years.

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But the only important thing is that those horrible, horrible rich people will get a little poorer. Right?

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Originally Posted by gerryb1

Sounds to me like we need to tell the hippies their generation ruined our country, and the promises they made themselves are void.

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Oh please, not this again! Most of us were barely teenagers when Nixon made the final disconnect from the gold standard. Central banking has been around since 1913. THAT is the root of our problems.