Common Sense Budget Act

[Saint_Cad]

@tim314

This bill sure sounds great to me! Short version: It would take $60 billion from the $442 billion defense budget, all from programs that are arguably obsolete. It would spend the money on things like public education, child health plans, homeland security, greater energy independence, deficit reduction, etc.

And for those who oppose it, why?

Here’s why
$10 Billion to implement the poorly thought out No Child Left Behind
$13 Billion given to other countries
No money taken from other bloated bureaucracies

[BrainGlutton]

@BrainGlutton

That would leave the wealth undistributed. Therefore, it is a plan worse than no plan at all.

Sorry about that. I mean, of course, unredistributed.

[WillMagic]

@BrainGlutton

That would leave the wealth undistributed. Therefore, it is a plan worse than no plan at all.

If leaving wealth “undistributed” is a bad thing, I assume you are for a 100% tax rate. Because, of course, a tax rate of less that 100% lets people gasp spend their money in a totally undirected, unplanned fashion.

The horrors!

[BrainGlutton]

@SaintCad

No money taken from other bloated bureaucracies

Do you have any particular ones in mind?

[Saint_Cad]

@BrainGlutton

Do you have any particular ones in mind?

All of them!
No one can convince me that this country is in the fiscal crisis it is just because of the defense department. I’m sure the Department of the Interior, HUD, IRS, FBI, Department of Energy, Department of Education, etc. all have a comparable amount of waste (percentage-wise not dollar-wise) in implementing their programs. Why can I say this? Political pork does not only apply to the Defense budget.

[Ludovic]

@WillMagic

It needs tweaking. Here are the tweaks I propose:

Instead of taking $60 billion from the defense budget, take $441 billion.

And then, instead of throwing that money down into the black holes of the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the Department of Homeland Security…how about just (shocking idea coming) not spending it. How about they just give the money back in the form of tax cuts.

That’s a plan I could get behind.

Will

Our budget deficit is only $441 billion? :dubious:

I mean, I don’t think having absolutely no debt would provably be the best decision but we have tens of thousands of dollars in debt per person right now. We shouldn’t cut taxes until we pay down the debt to more managable levels. The present level of income taxes do not cause sufficient economic distortions as compared to the benefits of a low debt. We can debate about redistribution, fairness, etc. later, or else we’ll let Solomon cut up the baby before our eyes.

[EEMan]

We shouldn’t cut taxes until we pay down the debt to more managable levels.

Right, because the government is so good at NOT spending money. Even when we has ‘left over’ it wasn’t being spent on paying down debt; though lots of new programs were suggested.

[Ludovic]

@EEMan

Right, because the government is so good at NOT spending money. Even when we has ‘left over’ it wasn’t being spent on paying down debt; though lots of new programs were suggested.

I didn’t say it’s possible, just necessary.