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thismeintiel on 27 July 2011
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thranx said:
HappySqurriel said:
Rath said:
HappySqurriel said:
 


How many Americans have debt that is almost 7 times their household income and are spending 50% more than they earn every month?


Yes the American deficit is well and truly out of control at the moment (and yes trillions of dollars do need to be made up in savings and/or revenue), that doesn't mean that having a constitutional inability to spend more than is earnt in any given period won't be crippling. In developed countries even the healthiest economies sometimes have deficit years.

With proper budgeting practices deficits are entirely unnecessary ...

If you collect 5% or 10% more money that you spend and save it to ensure that spending levels can be maintained in the case of a economic shock, or increased in the case of war, and if you expend this fund you cut discretionary spending and increase taxes to cover the shortfall.

You mean keep a sensible budget and only buy/spend what you can afford and save the rest for a rainy day? Sounds right to me, and pretty basic too. You would think the government of the United States would realise this. Its amazing how bad spending has spun out of control.

Well, it's not their money, so they don't give a shit what they do with it.  And really, they don't need to cut any programs like Social Security or Medicare.  All they need to do is look at "pork" spending.  It wouldn't surprise me if it turned out that half of taxpayers' money is spent on Congressmen's pet projects and/or given out to their buddies as "business deals."  Let's not forget that report that came out months ago that showed government had 100's of redundant committees/agencies/programs that were given jobs/goals that were already being handled by another agency or program.  Was anything done to those redundant government bodies?  Nope.

And now we want to save money by forming and giving Congress's taxing power to some stupid committee that will probably be all show and no action.  Who wants to bet that those on the committee will also get a huge raise?  Way to save.  In the end, it's become like going to a mall and giving a huge wad of cash to a known shopaholic, then expecting them not to blow it all while you use the restroom.