Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
I don’t usually wander too far off of the climate reservation, but this excellent cartoon by Michael Ramirez deserves wider publication, as it addresses a critical problem. It shows the US Budget for 2011, along with the cuts proposed by the Democrats (liberal) and the Republicans (GOP, conservative).
The US Government is about to shut down because the two sides can’t agree on a budget.
Can the rest of us agree that despite all the posturing, neither side is actually serious about the problem?
w.
PS – Anyone who thinks that CO2 is more important to the US than the above pie chart is fooling themselves badly …
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I don’t really want to get in a debate over corporate taxes, but GE paying 25% of their profits under Ryan’s plan would be more than paying zero under the present plan. I’m of the opinion that 25% is a good corportate tax rate, just so long as no deductions or credits are allowed. None. The “evil” oil companies are paying some of the higher rates this year, some as high as 42%. Is that enough for you liberals? I doubt anything short of a complete takeover or shutdown would satisfy the liberal-lefty/global warming/climate change crowd.
And the boilerplate nonsense about the military/industrial complex makes me want to puke. Good God, even the idiot-in-chief has identified the Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid programs as the major budget busters. He should have mentioned the money being wasted on education and servicing the debt, and he would have got them all on the social side. Oh, and defense needs to be cut as well, starting with the troops coming home from Afghanistan, Iraq and most of Europe. And yes, I have an interest in the troops as my youngest son is now serving in Afghanistan, in a combat unit near Kandahar. This has been the longest year of my and my wife’s life, suffice it to say. That aside, we had better get our house in order, but I know it won’t happen.
History shows us that any society with the fractionalization now apparent in the US will not find enough cooperation to deal with any major problems, including those large enough to destroy us. It reminds me very much of the breakup of the Byzantine Empire due to stupid religious differences, which were very minor. If I remember my military history properly, I believe elements of the Bysantine society gave away information to the enemy at the Battle of Manzikurt, thus dooming the Empire.
Jeff says:
April 10, 2011 at 5:31 am
Sorry. It’s from the cite provided by dkkraft upthread.
How is it that Hong Kong was able to reduce their 17% flat tax to a 15% flat tax a few years ago? Their citizens enjoy enormous prosperity, wages have continually risen, they have social safety nets, subsidized housing and a bright future.
Oh, and the banks issue the currency! When you look at a Hong Kong dollar it says right on it which bank printed it.
What I think we really need here is:
1% per year cut in real dollar terms to each and every area of government until it hits around 20%.
Serious cuts in defense and entitlement spending.
Proscribe the power of pressure groups like the AARP to warp our government and laws to its singular purposes, against the benefit of the rest of us.
A reanalysis of each and every department of government and ask ourselves if we truly need this at a federal level or if it ought to be state run, or just eliminated.
The END of government unions. Why exactly does a government need a union? They were already overpaid and over compensated.
Retrenchment of the military. Bring our warriors home! Lets put them to work truly defending America against the worst possible calamity – depression and economic collapse. The entire world has benefitted from our military spending and its driven us broke. Put our military to work rebuilding infrastructure in America. They get to train for a job when they get out and we get the benefit of free labor (or at least labor where the costs are already sunk).
If memory serves me, all of our federal expenditures were met with one tax and only one tax until the presidency of Andrew Jackson. That was a US Customs tariff. Even the war against the barbary pirates (our first war after independence) was fought on a shoe string.
The only chance is the Tea Party. The only problem is the left has so demonized the Tea Party as racists that it will be very hard for them to make headway. If you lie often enough, long enough, people start to believe it.
I had hopes for Libertarians. But they don’t seem to ever make any electoral gains. I’m not sure why, as its the only party that actually has common sense.
Willis replies to Nolene:
“You still don’t get it. Yes, the cuts will save “hundreds of billions of dollars” over the next decade. If you save $40 billion a year for ten years you get hundreds of billions in savings.
“But if the existing budget deficit continues over the next decade, it will add, not hundreds of billions, but tens of thousands of billions to the debt.
“It’s just crumbs on the pie, Noelene, whether you look at one year or ten years. The problem is the huge overspending.”
All the hoopla over the paltry $38 billion cut from the bloated Obama budget was about a mere drop in the bucket. We need to cut $trillions, not $billions.
Obama/Pelosi/Reid have tripled the budget deficit. By simply rescinding that spending increase, the country would be in pretty good shape compared to the rest of the world. The ramrodding through of such enormous spending, without allowing Representatives to read and debate the thousands of pages of the bill was nothing short of gangsterism.
How about we cut everything not explicitly authorized by the Constitution?
The Constitution – remember? That document some guys wrote ages ago to lay out the powers and obligations of the Federal Government?
We’ve gotten so far off I don’t think anybody has any idea what Constitutional Government actually looks like anymore.
And btw, ‘blame bush’ was old years ago, and it’s quite pathetic at this point. The problems go back farther than him.
L
April 8, 2011 at 11:36 pm
Mr. Walton, what do you mean “Democrats” and “progressives”? Last time I looked they were both Marx’ kids- and I don’t mean Groucho’s.
###
A Marxist by any other name will still smell just as vile.
And the demoncratic party is not the only one with progressives. The GOP has its share.
Imperialist == Fascist == Marxist == Gaiast == socialist != Freedom
#
Kozlowski says:
April 11, 2011 at 12:26 am
If memory serves me, all of our federal expenditures were met with one tax and only one tax until the presidency of Andrew Jackson. That was a US Customs tariff. Even the war against the barbary pirates (our first war after independence) was fought on a shoe string.
###
Do you know why the Democratic part was created?
Re: #Smokey says:
April 11, 2011 at 5:19 am
“The ramrodding through of such enormous spending, without allowing Representatives to read and debate the thousands of pages of the bill was nothing short of gangsterism”.
And these are exactly the sort of tactics deployed in the EU particularly where the Lisbon Treaty was concerned. Bureaucrats pulling the political strings.