Challenge to fiscal conservatives - what spending do you want to cut?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm curious: is there really anyone out there who thinks "having SS tax deducted after $100k of income" is a crippling tax? Does PP, or is that just hyperbolical political blather?

Depends on how much you make? 400k roughly $18,600 more... maybe u have to pass on a new nice watch, 10 million $613k maybe u don't get the condor egg salad sandwich at the club.
But is cap gains or carried interest subject to SS and MC?Maybe we should just count income as income?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:are you kidding me? that would be a huge tax. do you see the uproar over going back to Clinton era taxes?

Yes I do. And frankly, I think it's fucking ridiculous. Guess what: two simultaneous decades-long conflicts cost *money*. So did the poorly conceived Medicare part D giveaway. People need to pay their damned taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

that would be a crippling tax hike

says the guy who thinks a return to Clinton-era income tax rates would be "crippling". Seriously, it's as though you guys think the only role government has is to pursue endless, ruinously expensive wars, and pay rural Americans not to grow crops.

Before Medicare/SS, poverty among the elderly was America's national disgrace. We can either have our elderly eat dog food and live in refrigerator boxes, or we can have a progressive system of taxation like every other developed country does.

You can't have both.

If you want to save money, open Medicare up to every American, and allow private insurance companies to offer private supplemental plans.

no, I am in favor of letting the Bush tax cuts expire. They are needed to pay our bills. A huge FICA tax increase is not needed to keep SS solvent.

as for social security, we need to reform it now, not when the fund is empty. Yeah, that is responsible governing! When the fund pays out more than it takes in, that is the time for modest tweaks.

The point is, there are approximately 4,382 issues that are more pressing than the matter of SS shortfall. Conservatives want to address gutting social security now because they think they can piggyback on the recession. So we get deficit-cutting snake oil, governmental belt-tightening, deflationary policies, and calls for personal austerity. It's almost as though people *want* the country to shit itself so that we can all have a nice mental purge. It's so stupid and counterproductive.

[Anonymous]

I have heard that you can cut medicare by 20% without having any impact to care if there were controls in place to prevent fraud. That number is huge!

I would also cut defense. Let's start with all of the military bands and the performance halls that they built for them to perform in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

that would be a crippling tax hike

says the guy who thinks a return to Clinton-era income tax rates would be "crippling". Seriously, it's as though you guys think the only role government has is to pursue endless, ruinously expensive wars, and pay rural Americans not to grow crops.

Before Medicare/SS, poverty among the elderly was America's national disgrace. We can either have our elderly eat dog food and live in refrigerator boxes, or we can have a progressive system of taxation like every other developed country does.

You can't have both.

If you want to save money, open Medicare up to every American, and allow private insurance companies to offer private supplemental plans.

no, I am in favor of letting the Bush tax cuts expire. They are needed to pay our bills. A huge FICA tax increase is not needed to keep SS solvent.

as for social security, we need to reform it now, not when the fund is empty. Yeah, that is responsible governing! When the fund pays out more than it takes in, that is the time for modest tweaks.

you are part of the problem. we all need to give up our sacred cows and come to the table in compromise.

The point is, there are approximately 4,382 issues that are more pressing than the matter of SS shortfall. Conservatives want to address gutting social security now because they think they can piggyback on the recession. So we get deficit-cutting snake oil, governmental belt-tightening, deflationary policies, and calls for personal austerity. It's almost as though people *want* the country to shit itself so that we can all have a nice mental purge. It's so stupid and counterproductive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard that you can cut medicare by 20% without having any impact to care if there were controls in place to prevent fraud. That number is huge!

I would also cut defense. Let's start with all of the military bands and the performance halls that they built for them to perform in.

I have heard this is a myth. Can you cite a source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard that you can cut medicare by 20% without having any impact to care if there were controls in place to prevent fraud. That number is huge!

I would also cut defense. Let's start with all of the military bands and the performance halls that they built for them to perform in.

I have heard this is a myth. Can you cite a source?

Don't forget cowboy poetry, PBS, national endoment for the arts, foriegn aid, NIST, DEPT of Energy, DEPT of EDUCATION, smithsonian, 1/2 EPA, 1/2 DOT, contributions to state budgets/univeristies, 1/2 NASA, bloated gov retirements, bloated congressional retirements, 1/2 IRS, THE UNITED NATIONS FUNDING, roll it all into ss and medicare.

[Anonymous]

Here is some ideas:

1. Instead of spending 7x more than China on defense let's just spend 3x more. China is #2 on defense spending.

2. Since overhead for Medicare is about 5% and Private Insurance is around 15%, let's put everyone on Medicare and put the 10% savings towards the debt (with no change in health care quality).

3. Since we pay way more than the rest of the world for our pharma drugs, let's use the negotiating power of a large medicare to bring down the price of these drugs to the level of other countries. If pharma needs higher prices for R&D, then let's have the rest of the world chip in too.

4. Let's get out of Iraq, Afganistan, Libya, and whereever else we are.

These four things should allow us to have full health care coverage and pay for some nice infrastructure projects.

I don't know the numbers if anyone wants to help me out.

[Anonymous]

#2 and #3 are ff'd up. government overhead is like 75%(ever been to a va hospital). #3 keep pharma strong and charge the f out of loser socialist countries for the drugs.

[Anonymous]

just nuke china and spend infinity x china on defense while cutting the defence budget 90%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:#2 and #3 are ff'd up. government overhead is like 75%(ever been to a va hospital). #3 keep pharma strong and charge the f out of loser socialist countries for the drugs.

You don't even know what a health care overhead calculation is. That is obvious from your post. And we don't get to decide what "loser socialist" countries pay. That's between them and the drug companies. Unfortunately we pay the sucker's price, and they get a discount. So much for your idea.

[TheManWithAUsername]

Anonymous wrote:Here is some ideas:

1. Instead of spending 7x more than China on defense let's just spend 3x more. China is #2 on defense spending.

2. Since overhead for Medicare is about 5% and Private Insurance is around 15%, let's put everyone on Medicare and put the 10% savings towards the debt (with no change in health care quality).

3. Since we pay way more than the rest of the world for our pharma drugs, let's use the negotiating power of a large medicare to bring down the price of these drugs to the level of other countries. If pharma needs higher prices for R&D, then let's have the rest of the world chip in too.

4. Let's get out of Iraq, Afganistan, Libya, and whereever else we are.

These four things should allow us to have full health care coverage and pay for some nice infrastructure projects.

I don't know the numbers if anyone wants to help me out.

Waitasecond....I suspect you're not a Republican at all.

[Anonymous]

I think I should max out my credit cards while I can and use that money for wilderness survival classes.
Soon we will all be hunting and scavenging for food

[Anonymous]

TheManWithAUsername wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is some ideas:

1. Instead of spending 7x more than China on defense let's just spend 3x more. China is #2 on defense spending.

2. Since overhead for Medicare is about 5% and Private Insurance is around 15%, let's put everyone on Medicare and put the 10% savings towards the debt (with no change in health care quality).

3. Since we pay way more than the rest of the world for our pharma drugs, let's use the negotiating power of a large medicare to bring down the price of these drugs to the level of other countries. If pharma needs higher prices for R&D, then let's have the rest of the world chip in too.

4. Let's get out of Iraq, Afganistan, Libya, and whereever else we are.

These four things should allow us to have full health care coverage and pay for some nice infrastructure projects.

I don't know the numbers if anyone wants to help me out.

Waitasecond....I suspect you're not a Republican at all.

I am not even a democrat anymore, whatever that is. I guess I am liberal, but really think I am just logical. I honestly would like to have Soc Sec, health insurance for all at a basic level, reasonable environmental and financial regulations, unemployment insurance and food stamps as a safety net. I can't believe that sounds radical to most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard that you can cut medicare by 20% without having any impact to care if there were controls in place to prevent fraud. That number is huge!

I would also cut defense. Let's start with all of the military bands and the performance halls that they built for them to perform in.

Yeah, those gosh darn bands are the problem. No?