mrstickball said:
numonex said:
Lower taxes(ok this may increase tax revenue to help reduce the deficit), smaller government(big bad lie), less debt(foreign debt and personal debt keeps getting bigger and bigger) and lower deficits(easy to achieve: spend less than you collect in tax revenue). The last 50 years has shown the US Federal government has actually grown in size under every single government regardless of Republican/Democrat admin.
Smaller government is a noble idea but the US government keeps getting bigger and bigger to control the growing population. More police and more military personnel to keep us safe and secure and maintain law and order. Teachers, train/bus drivers and nurses in the public hospitals are easy to fire.
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The problem is that government isn't growing at the pace it is due to 'controlling the growing population'. We spend LESS money on military now than at any time since WW2.
The problem is mandatory spending. These are costs are there because they are required.
Here is a chart of all federal outlays:
Look at the chart. Its only made up of a few, but huge, items. Lets break the chart down, and how the spending could be fixed:
- Defense. Could be reduced significantly by ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and seeking a non-interventionist policy. I'd imagine that 40-50% of the budget could be eliminated by pursuing such policies. Nevertheless, 50% of it would probably have to stay.
- Social Security can and should be eliminated entirely. We spend more on SS than any other program than defense, and the big problem is that it is mandatory spending. This means that people have paid into it, and are required to be paid out. Problem is, more people are taking money out of the system than they are putting in. How the heck do you have a system that works that way? It needs to go. Entirely.
- Medicare & Medicaid is in the same boat as social security. These aren't government programs that benefit everyone. These are essentially health versions of social security. People pay in a very small amount, and older retirees demand lots of it back. Both are about bankrupt too. They need reduced, if not removed entirely. You may say 'but Americans need healthcarez!', and I agree. It just shouldn't be government healthcare. Eliminating this and SS would give every American about 11% more of their weekly paychecks, which could be invested in retirement and health care.
- Other Manadtory includes mostly unemployment welfare. The issue with this is that the government should not handle unemployment benefits, I believe. Rather, businesses should work with employees to invest in unemployment accounts, rather than have the government take their money and give it back to them.
- Other Discretionary includes all the stuff you mentioned as being what the government spends a lot more on, since the population is bigger. This includes the department of justice (courts), veterans benefits (VA), Education, Transportation, EPA, and international affairs.
What does all that mean? 65% of federal spending is towards mandatory projects. The rest is being spent on projects you think are there because of the population getting bigger. The reality is that the government is intentionally letting the money get away from them due to projects like social security, medicare, and medicaid which represents about 50% of the entire federal budget. If those programs get eliminated in favor of Americans putting the money in better programs, then suddenly, there is a huge amount of money that can be spent by taxpayers, and not the government.
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