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What does the "proper" way of reducing the $2T annual deficit look like?
by umvi 2y ago
What does the "proper" way of reducing the $2T annual deficit look like?
- jsbisviewtiful 2y agoTaxing the rich and corporations for their share instead of giving them unnecessary tax breaks that they will gladly accept while still unnecessarily firing large sums of workers. Not complicated.
- basementcat 2y agoAlso it would help to actually pass budgets instead of continuing resolution brinkmanship. Previous efforts such as the Hoover Commissions resulted in bipartisan spending reductions without the mass chaos and deprivation of lifesaving medicine to tens of millions of people. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Commission https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Commission
- the_snooze 2y agoAt least one of: cuts to Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, or defense; or tax hikes; or some combination thereof. Anyone who claims to cut the deficit without making those difficult choices simply isn't solving the problem. https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/ https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder... https://budget.house.gov/press-release/governments-mandatory-health-care-spending-now-exceeds-entire-discretionary-budget https://budget.house.gov/press-release/governments-mandatory...
- umvi 2y ago100% agree, though I think people would scream just as much (if not more) if DOGE were going after social security, medicaid, and/or defense vs. psuedorandom federal programs/orgs. I currently think we need "all of the above": - Cuts to Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and defense - Tax hikes That way nobody feels like they are being targetted; everyone should feel at least some pain from austerity measures.
- jauntywundrkind 2y agoHow about not continuing tax cuts, especially tax cuts primarily benefitting the top 90%? CRFB estimates ~$1T/year, if the current tax cuts are extended. https://www.crfb.org/blogs/trump-tax-priorities-total-5-11-trillion https://www.crfb.org/blogs/trump-tax-priorities-total-5-11-t...
- dashundchen 2y agoRepublicans feigning concern about deficit or debt is fucking rich. The top GOP priority in Congress right now, outside of ceding their constitutional responsibility, is searching for anyway to pass $4 trillion in tax cuts that will largely accumulate to the top 0.1%. Most of MAGA is too distracted by culture wars tland identity politics to see the real robbery.
- me_me_me 2y agoDing ding ding. Spot on. The surface level arguments that gets passed down as deep knowledge is scary. They spit in their faces and they praise them for the rain.
- legitster 2y agoActually conduct a proper study and defund unnecessary programs. If your family needed to do a budget, to suddenly stop paying your bills is not wise frugality.
- ben_w 2y agoInflation. Any spending cut on that scale, ~7% of your GDP, will unavoidably cause a recession so hard the impacts won't be limited to just the USA. Any tax hike at that scale will do similar, because that just changes who is doing the spending not the amount available in the economy to be spent. Inflation is — or at least is supposed to — encourage spending by anyone simply holding money instead of creating wealth with it; this is supposed to create investment opportunities that grow the economy, this is supposed to automatically provide a greater tax base that automatically reduces any deficit.