Why Is Everyone a Fiscal Hawk NOW!

[jv103]

That's what's sad about the system. You can have a good president (I haven't seen one, mostly mediocre) and then the next guy can totally f-it up. Someone was mentioning that the President doesn't have power to pass budgets etc. Constitutionally true, and true in practice sort of. Executive power has increased with every presidency since FDR (maybe earlier, not a huge history buff) but that power never seems to recede. Anyway my point being, Congress doesn't excersise it's budget powers except for trivial things and since we have an Executive WORSHIPPING country(a king you vote for), they would take a lot of flak and don't really seem to bother, at least not in the last 8 years or so (probably longer, but I was only 15 when clinton was in so don't remember much). I think we really need to get a realignment of power in the Capitol. The ideal 33/33/33 would be nice. Does the Supreme Court even review congressional laws? Sorry getting off topic.

I know a lot of hawks are going to be mad at me, but I think we should cut defense spending, coupled with smart bids and maybe actually have the military due some of the jobs that have been outsourced to the private sector (like the shipping of supplies/food trains etc.). I'm sure you could cut a lot of the excess by having the military maintain it's equipment, and maybe give some good formal technical training. (I haven't been in the Military, but my girlfriend's Dad is a retired commander [i think that's it, its equiv to colonel in navy] and we were discussing how you could lower costs by having several 'simple' jobs be done by enlisted men instead of contractors). The defense budget and everything that falls under that I think is around 60% of discretionary spending. (Discretionary is set apart from entitlements)

In reality though, all of the spending could be more closely managed.

Think of it this way. Smarter spending = less tax necessity = less tax burden = greater growth = more tax revenue overall (eventually)

This will never happen because the Government and Corporations and those with money are too closely intertwined. Major party candidates combined raised almost a billion dollars to run for president-and that money doesn't have strings?

RealMafoo-The problem is that if we had an utter collapse people would be more demanding for Government intervention. We live in a nanny state and people would immediately run to the governement for answers.

I wish I were an economist so I could be qualified to say "The Party is over," "The days of mindless shopping and spending are gone" --I will miss you.