Tell me...What would YOU do about this economic mess?

NOT raising the debt ceiling will instantaneously destroy the value of the dollar.

 

That wouldn't work in the House of Representatives. The ENTIRE body is up for reelection every 2 yrs. If you had complete turnover every two years they would spend the first 6 months of each term just figuring out where the men's room is.

The chaos in the capitol right now is being caused by freshman Tea Party representatives that don't realize a 4 Trillion cut in the debt is a pretty good deal.

 

I agree with this. Everyone has good ideas, but this is the must for any great change to happen. Caesar passed a law in Roman times that made ever noble have a certain amount of free men employed for every slave, as no work was available with slavery. I think a law like this should be implemented, where as long as a company had so many Americans employed of their total labor they wouldn't have to pay tariffs, but those with the majority of their labor overseas would have to pay stiff tariffs.

 

With tax revenues above expenses. How do you pay down debt at home? You spend less than you earn and use the difference to paydown debt.

Balancing the budget is the first step to getting spending in line with revenues. Growing the economy/taxbase will allow for extra revenues to retire principle debt.

 

How will it destroy the value of the dollar? It won't. Increasing the debt ceiling and printing more money will destroy the dollar.

The debt ceiling is about a self imposed borrowing limit. What happens if our creditors start imposing a lending limit? What happens when China stops lending us money? Then we're going to do what the President has been saying he are going to do. We're going to default. We are showing the world that this is nothing but a big Ponzi Scheme with no end in sight by raising the debt limit.

What the President should be say is "Don't worry, we won't raise the debt ceiling. We will honor our debts and make cuts in other places." But that's not what he is saying. He is pretty much saying that people who buy US Treasuries are more important than people who collect Social Security.

 

End all wars, revert to pre-2001 spending habits, shut down redundant departments like the DHS.

Also, I would close Gitmo and restore the US Constitution... just as a good measure.

 

You want a real answer?

1. Instant public funding of election campaigns and prohibition of any private election funding of PACs without full and continuous disclosure. That neuters special interests.

2. Limit of Two terms for all legislators country wide.

Options 1 and 2 are to ensure that legislatures govern for ALL Americans.

3. Let Americas brilliant economists loose on every Government policy and program with the instruction to make them effective and maximise bang for the buck.

That is all that is needed. In Five years, no pain. In Ten years you are the envy of the world again - guaranteed.

Here is what will be destroyed by the economists:

-Private prisons, plea bargaining, the war on drugs, mandatory sentencing, death penalties, multiple layers of law enforcement.

- agricultural subsidies and restrictive trade practices (which are simply huge), business licencing conditions.

- Anti competitive behaviour, software and business method patents, patent trolling,

- financial reforms including reintroduction of Glass Steagall and prohibition of naked short selling, as well as stronger insider trading laws.

- National single payer healthcare and the destruction of company healthcare plans.

- national education standards with national minimum funding limits for all public schools.

etc., etc. ,etc. Economic rationalism in all its glory.

 

I would be careful about commenting on someone else's economic illiteracy. The only bond rating firm I've heard about that has "downgraded" US debt is Egan-Jones. They are an also-ran rating agency that is probably just trying to make a name for themselves. You guys just fell for a cheap marketing trick. None of the big rating agencies have downgraded the US credit rating. This is a myth I keep seeing posted here over and over.

 

What does his have to do with his inability to determined how the Triple A ratings are lowered or increased?

 

Your counterpoint was to a false argument. The US credit rating has NOT been lowered. If you are going to call someone economically illiterate at least know which credit agency is being discussed. Somehow I doubt you could even tell the difference between the agencies let alone discuss in detail their methodologies. And that is okay. Most people can't. Just don't wander into a topic area you know nothing about and start calling people "illiterate".

 

You don't even know what my counterpoint was. He said that the US credit rating was lowered because or the mention of not raising the debt limit. That's not how it works.

Are you saying that? Because I never said that.

If you are going to start something with me, at least have the ability to read correctly and comprehend basic English. I did not say that the credit rating wasn't lowered. I'm saying bond ratings are not determined by whether or not the debt ceiling is raised.

He couldn't even tell me which credit rating agency it was either. Not that I care because that's not what the discussion was about. It was how credit ratings are determined.

And the fact that you pointed out ONE Credit Rating Agency out of other Five which hasn't drop our dropped our credit rating means that our Triple A credit rating has dropped entirely. That makes sense. I'm not sure you know how credit ratings are determined either. If one Credit Agency downgrades the US, it doesn't mean that the US falls in a different category entirely. That would have to happen with majority of the rating agencies in order to determine the US investment grade overall.

Besides, Egan-Jones downgrade the US to a AA+ which is still among the highest investment grade. If it were regular AA, then I would actual worry.

Get back to me when you know what you are talking about. Or when you know what the discussion is about for that matter.

 

First: Increase the debt ceiling with a onetime provision that the debt ceiling can no longer be raised and congress must pass a balanced budget amendment to prevent the excesses we have seen in the past. The only exception would be in time of war.

It is illogical to even have a debt ceiling if the people who are causing the debt to increase past the ceiling are the same ones who can vote to increase it. DUH!

Second: Abolish the current tax code and replace it with a modified flat tax.

Third: End all subsidies.

Fourth: pass a new immigration reform law that allows the tracking legal immigrants, allows employers to instantly check and confirm the legal status of immigrant workers, imprisons State employees who defy the Nations Immigration laws, and includes a path to citizenship for those who came legally, are now here illegally and we have ignored for decades as long as they paid their taxes and had no record of criminal activity.

Fifth: abolish Obamacare.

Sixth: abolish welfare, foodstamps and Federal housing programs.

 

The only possible disagreement I have with any of that is I would rather see the fair tax. The flat tax would however be a massive improvement over a code that is so complicated our treasury secretary can't do his own taxes.

 

I have to laugh at the NY Times budget balancing forms using idiot assumptions and lunatic projections. What a shocker that by eliminating Defense spending and checking all the tax increase options we suddenly eliminate the deficits.

But then, we don't have the luxury of living in a fantasy Liberal world of the NY Times, we have to live in the REAL world with REAL politicians who use the tax code to empower themselves and peddle influence to get re-elected.

If you slashed defense spending to ZERO you would still be left with a deficit of a trillion dollars. If you raised tax rates to 100% on those earning above $250K you would still have a deficit problem.

The only difference is that after you were done, there would be even fewer jobs than we currently have today.

We do not have a revenue problem in this country, or a wealth problem, or a defense spending problem; the problem we have are the intellectual midgets of our educational systems pumping our derelicts that think the Government is to be trusted over the private corporations and thinking that BIG Government knows better than individuals and private markets.

I cannot fathom a more intellectually challenged position than this and am certain that if the founders of our great nation could hear this cacophony from the lunatic left they would not be rolling in their graves, but spinning.

 

LMAO......Bravo Go.....you have found the ultimate solution!

 

I like this; make them work for their unemployment checks and maybe even teach them a job!

I will have to add this to my list.

 

No it will not and there is not one credible economic source that suggests this. However, you are free to provide a credible source than can back up such a claim.

 

Wrong again; the chaos in the capitol is the direct result of the failure of leadership by Democrats and their Admonisher in chief Obama. Had they taken the debt seriously in the first place they would not have caused the irresponsible $4 trillion increase since they took power.

It could have been resolved if not for the intransigence of Obama, his failure to lead and his gross failure to deal with the issue before it became a major media event. But this was planned from the beginning by a party more interested in maintaining its political power by duping gullible American voters into thinking that this was caused by those Evil RICH Republicans and their evil RICH Corporate partners who are stuffing their mattresses with massive amounts of cash just to make Obama look bad than they are what is good for the nation.

These are the same Democrats who could not pass a budget their last two years in office and never once talked about raising taxes when they had control of all facets of Governmental power; why do you think that is.

The only time Democrats appear to clamor for higher taxes seems to be when they are in the minority; why do you think that is?

 

I am not sure I like anything labeled as a "fair" tax because it requires a politician to determine what "fair" is whereas the flat tax is neither. The inherent fairness of it begins with allowing for a ZERO tax liability for certain incomes below a specific threshold.

 

Take a chainsaw to the budget. Absolutely nothing of the table, start cutting EVERYTHING. Reduce spending across the board 15% immediately, 25% in 2 years and 35% in 3 years. Cut military spending at least 30%, preferably 50%.

Cut the corporate tax rate to 15%. (The same as Canada.)

Require a balanced budget at all times except in a (declared) war.

 

We have to raise the ceiling (at this point). The root causes of the problems we see will NOT be solved now or all at once; it will take time and continuous effort (both socially and politically).

There are 1000+ things which need to change about America itself, before we can get a decent handle on our debt. There WILL be massive and numerous political battles, before we truly solve the issues before us. But one thing that ALL SIDED INVOLVED must realize AND accept, is that COMPROMISE isn't merely a luxury... it is ESSENTIAL to success.

It is about time that the people we vote into office own up to the fact that those on the "other side", are not their enemies (per se), but those they MUST work with to reach the necessary consensuses and solutions. It's clear to most people (by now), that no idealistic, intransigent FOOL is going to go into D.C. and bully Congress into absolutely giving them their way.

So yes, even "extremists" have t wait their turn, when it comes to our governmental and political systems. So be it.

 

I disagree. I could see if both sides recognized the problem and were committed to solving it, but that's not the case here. The ones who call themselves "the adults in the room" are the ones who created the mess, and have absolutely no intention of changing their behavior.
Nobody's asking for an immediate solution, but we *do* want to put things on auto-pilot back to a balanced budget. That's not unreasonable, and would be easily achieved if both sides were serious about it.
What is *essential* is that whatever solution is reached achieve at a bare minimum 4 trillion over the next decade in order to avoid a credit downgrade. Neither side is currently considering a proposal that addresses this. The only proposal that actually avoids a downgrade is sitting on Harry Reid's desk collecting dust.

 

I think the tow most logical things are a balanced budget amendment and an amendment limiting spending to something like 20% of GDP (the number is just an off the cuff guess), as well as yet another amendment to create a flat income tax of 20%.

After all that, personally, I favor the gold standard, just because it can't be manipulated the way dollar credits can.

I have no objection to caring for the truely helpless (disabled the elderly, etc) but nothing more than that. I'm not morally opposed to some sort of public healthcare, though I don't think it's possible without a huge government.

 

Would you also support a modified flat tax and abolishing the current abomination of a tax code and eliminating all subsidies?

 

Eliminate all subsidies and dump the current tax code, absolutely.