How would you fix the deficit?

Jeffwhosoever said:

The only defense spending I would cut would be associated with withdrawal of troops from the Middle East. I look at defense spending from the point of view of a father, so I want our troops to have the world's best weapons by a large margin for my son, should he decide to serve one day.

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I also look at defense spending from the view of a father.

I don't want my sons policing a Middle Eastern country that doesn't want us there.

I see that cutting defense and raising revenue are the most popular options, so folks agree with me there.

But I am a little confused that 27% would like to cut the interest payments on the national debt by 44%! I would like to know how you plan to do that! Basically they are asking us to default on our loans. Not a good idea.

I'm also am very disappointed that some want to cut veterans benefits by 78%! Hopefully that is a case of not understanding the question. I can't imagine people think that is a good idea.

Cutting the deficit is a huge challenge. Its not simply a matter of cutting everything.

OK, if we are going to balance the budget, we are going to need to cut $1.3T somewhere, or the equivalent of thirteen (13) $100B slices. Where are we going to make those 13 cuts. 75% agree we can take at least one slice out of defense, and most agree we can make at least one $100B tax revenue increase. But where else are we going to cut?

Obviously some people are so used to saying cut everything that they just checked every box without thinking about it. Do they really want to help balance the budget by cutting interest payments in half?!?!? Can those people possibly be serious? They are asking us to default on our debts! That is absolutely insane! But this is what happens when you try to have a serious discussion on the debt. People just think it is all so easy, and all you need to do is chop everything. So they check everything.

Based on this, any category on the list with less than 25% voting yes for that item is probably nothing more than people mindlessly checking almost everything, and doesn't really represent a thought out desire to cut this item that much.

OK, once we get past defense cuts and tax increases, which are well received, where else can we get $100B (And in this case, a few measly billion here and there won't even make a dent. We need to find 13 places to cut $100B to balance the budget.) No other category beside those two is getting 50% approval.

"Everything else" is the next big item. OK, but there really is a lot in that "everything else" bucket. Cutting 15% out of it to save $100B really is not going to be easy. You might be able to get one or 2 slices out of that, but that is about it.

The only other item that shows significant desire to cut is income security. About 1/3 of the people here want to cut 22% out of the budget for welfare, food stamps, etc. It seems to me that this would be devastating to those in need. But even if we were to cut all spending on these things, we find only about 4 slices here, not the entire 13 slices we need.

So it seems to me that most people agree with me that we cannot balance the budget without huge defense cuts, and significant revenue increase. There is little support for significant cuts elsewhere.

oldwiseguy said:

I wouldn't cut anything, but would freeze the annual budget where it is now thus preserving all the domestic employment that is maintained by Federal spending. I would then begin to pay government contractors with newly printed money, circumventing the Federal Reserve Banking system. This would help to compensate for the $500-600Billion lost in trade to other countries (the real problem) as well as the $50Billion (cash) lost to the drug trade, and the $22Billion sent to Mexico by Latino's working here (legally and illegally) while not increasing the debt (as the money is unindebted money, not borrowed money).

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Interesting idea. Since the deficit last year was $1.3 T, if we freeze everything at that level and print enough money to balance the budget, we print $1.3T a year. That is a lot of money.

And how would you answer the person who fears that would cause runaway inflation?

ZaidaBoBaida said:

I would legalize marijuana

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Heck it might not help the deficit, but it would make it seem a lot less significant.

usexpat97 said:

print money in commensurate amounts, and use that to pay for Federal programs instead of debt.

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Heck, government programs require money, and the government can print money, so heck the problem is solved?

So China gives us all this stuff, and we give them copies of dollar bills from our copying machines, and all is well?

Somehow I am afraid this might now work so well.

abdAlSalam said:

With interest rates and inflation as they are, we are basically getting money for nothing. We should use that money for upgrading our infrastructure. Energy, transportation, food stamps, unemployment payments, have all been proven to improve the economy (up to a point). Eventually we WILL have to address the deficit, because we will end up paying more and more for interest on our debt. But right now, for the time being, it ain't a problem.

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Interest is not a big problem now, when we pay about 2.5%.

What if rates jumped to 20%? Jumping Jehospophat! Suddenly our interest payments rise from $200B to $2600B a year. That is a jump of 24 "slices". We can't find a way to balance the 13 "slices" that we owe each year in excess of revenue. How would we balance the budget if the debt jumped by 24 "slices" to 37 "slices".

I really don't know what we would do if interest rates shot up.