GAO Chief Warns Economic Disaster Looms

[RC_]

You're a walking oxymoron, eh?

[KizlarAgha]

[quote name='RC_' post='1108895' date='Nov 2 2006, 03:27 PM']
You're a walking oxymoron, eh?
[/quote]

I prefer to think of myself as difficult to pigeon-hole.

[Azriel]

So how do you slash spending without doing the most damage to our countries citizens who do need things such as Welfare, and Medicare, and Social Security?

You can't just shut down these programs and expect anything but disaster.

I'm not advocating a welfare state, and I'm all for people picking up themselves up by their bootstraps and making a go of it.

So in the near term, how do we get out of the financial blackhole without slashing things so much that we have other concerns like poverty, crime, etc.? Explain to me why exactly raising taxes is not necessary?

And trust me, I don't know the answers. I'm not advocating lowering or raising taxes. So eventhough it happens to me, don't label me a liberal quite yet.

[KizlarAgha]

[quote name='Azriel' post='1108968' date='Nov 2 2006, 04:30 PM']
So how do you slash spending without doing the most damage to our countries citizens who do need things such as Welfare, and Medicare, and Social Security?

You can't just shut down these programs and expect anything but disaster.

I'm not advocating a welfare state, and I'm all for people picking up themselves up by their bootstraps and making a go of it.

So in the near term, how do we get out of the financial blackhole without slashing things so much that we have other concerns like poverty, crime, etc.? Explain to me why exactly raising taxes is not necessary?

And trust me, I don't know the answers. I'm not advocating lowering or raising taxes. So eventhough it happens to me, don't label me a liberal quite yet.
[/quote]

You're right in the sense that there's an initial "hump" as it were that is difficult to get over. However, once we clear that hump, it's smoother sailing. There are two obvious methods for dealing with it - to take it slowly over the hump in hopes of not causing serious problems, or to get it over with quickly and instantaneously in the hopes that people will just deal with it and move on. I think we should start by not requiring people to pay into social security, and cutting off all benefits for people below a certain age. There are going to be pissed people who paid some money and won't get benefits (like me) but I think it's for the best. Medicare should also have some kind of a cutoff placed on it as well. Welfare should have a warning period to the people on it, and then be removed. It's actually not that difficult to phase things out. You'll just get a lot of complaints. Personally, I don't think it will ever happen because we will never have a government one-sided enough to make all the necessary changes in legislation and execution.

[Norseman82]

[quote name='Azriel' post='1108968' date='Nov 2 2006, 03:30 PM']
So how do you slash spending without doing the most damage to our countries citizens who do need things such as Welfare, and Medicare, and Social Security?

You can't just shut down these programs and expect anything but disaster.

I'm not advocating a welfare state, and I'm all for people picking up themselves up by their bootstraps and making a go of it.

So in the near term, how do we get out of the financial blackhole without slashing things so much that we have other concerns like poverty, crime, etc.? Explain to me why exactly raising taxes is not necessary?

And trust me, I don't know the answers. I'm not advocating lowering or raising taxes. So eventhough it happens to me, don't label me a liberal quite yet.
[/quote]

1) Identify how much of spending is unnecessary bureaucracy and redundancy.
2) Identify what spending is actually effective and what is "pork barrel"
3) Freeze spending levels and start eliminating eligibility with people at the higher end of the income ladders and wait for the increased revenue to catch up (yes, inflation and economic growth will normally increase revenue by at least 1% a year, if not more).
4) Prioritize what you want to accomplish. Sad to say, you may have to choose what is more important. Perfect example: the new medicare prescription drug program; I will call it by its initials MMA (short for Medicare Modernization Act). Not only does it add to the deficit and potentially threaten the base medicare program, but it seems to combine the worst of all worlds. Not only are the choices confusing, but it has been said that much of the savings the recipients should have had has just been eaten up in the form of higher prescription costs. MMA was a laudable goal implemented horribly and at great expense.
5) Find alternative solutions that may cost less or nothing at all. Example: it does not require a multi-million dollar government program for a parent to make sure their child(ren) does their homework and brings their books to school.
6) Close tax loopholes that do not produce "payback" in either tax revenues generated or some common societal good.
7) Get rid of any tax incentives for outsourcing.
8) "Means test" social security recipients who work and have incomes above a certain level. I'm sorry, social security was meant for retirement, and if you're working and making more than $100K a year, you're not retired. Same for survivor benefits for underage recipients.
9) Find out who the tax evaders are and make them pay their share so we don't have to carry their burden as well as ours!
10) If a welfare recipient wants to collect for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, the father must be identified and he must support the child first. If it is statutory rape, put him in jail or have him go to Singapore at his own expense to be caned.

No area of government will be spared the above scrutiny.

Let's see what the above common-sense approaches will accomplish and go from there.

Edited November 2, 2006 by Norseman82

[Kosh]

strictly speaking, welfare shouldn't really exist.

[RC_]

[quote name='Kosh' post='1109274' date='Nov 2 2006, 08:01 PM']
strictly speaking, welfare shouldn't really exist.
[/quote]

That's all well and good, if people could rely on thier families, and as a second choice, charitable organizations to ensure that they can survive.

That being said, welfare is abused way to often.

[Kosh]

principles of subsidiarity, man.

and the abuse of welfare is precisely the problem. also the tendency of people to go straight to the government to fix their problems.

[Azriel]

Given the recent election results ---- Bumpity, bumpy, bump.