# Take your shot at balancing the federal budget

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-your-shot-at-balancing-the-federal-budget/569140>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 27, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-your-shot-at-balancing-the-federal-budget/569140 "2011-01-27T02:01:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-your-shot-at-balancing-the-federal-budget/569140/21 "2011-01-28T14:57:41Z")

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> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> …Someone recently pointed out that since WW II, the US has won exactly two wars: Grenada and Panama. Gives me great confidence in the military. I don’t know what they’re doing wrong, but they’re not doing anything right…

That’s a bit too harsh. Not to get into GD territory, but we preserved South Korea’s independence in the Korean War; MacArthur notwithstanding, our war aim was not to conquer North Korea. We won Gulf War I and evicted Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. We “won” the Afghan War and the Iraq War militarily, removing the Taliban and Saddam, respectively, from power, although there have obviously been big problems since then.

Now to try to balance the Federal budget. Lemme see…

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-your-shot-at-balancing-the-federal-budget/569140/22 "2011-01-28T15:04:36Z")

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OK, here’s what I did: [Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=kfp1158d). Is there a way to reset the chart at the top, to reflect what your decisions would lead to?

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