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Wednesday, March 13, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.
Another view?
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All this hoopla over the federal budget sequester is totally unnecessary. Give me two congressional staffers familiar with the budgeting process, four people with high school math skills and five working days. We will come up with a plan that will result in no layoffs, no furloughs, no reduction in security or defense capability, and no cuts in any public services of any kind. It will be easy and painless.
And in return for performing this noble public service, all I request in return is a measly $2 million honorarium. This is a bargain — not even one-tenth of 1 percent of the amount to be sequestered. I shall be standing by, ready to serve.
The sequester is working - every day we are spending 2% less
Of course it is easy
How hard can it be to reduce a 5% increase by 2%
About the sequester Obama now says "This is NOT going to be the apocalypse, I think..." but I will make it as hard as I can on American so Republicans pay a price
- Obama would have you believe there is not enough waste, fraud and abuse to cover limiting growth 2%
- Obama would have you believe that a hiring freeze would not cover limiting growth 2%
- Obama would have you believe that restricting government employee travel and conventions would not cover limiting growth 2%
Why not just run for congress James? You might be the man with the right plan. Give it a try.
In reply to James Moldenhauer; I wouldn't be too quick with that letter to the editor of yours.
Take a general consensus of political commentators here in the Las Vegas Sun discussion rooms and put Republicans such as the Freeman's, the Fink's, and the DiFazio's at the table; add Democrats such as the Weber's, the Colin's, and the Pat Hayes, as examples in representing the Democrats. Sprinkle in a few Independents such as the unpredictable Chapline, and what will we have at this table? Yep, just as the Sun archives would reveal. Unquestionably, stalemate.
Here's how budgets work. You have a budget to accomplish 2 things. Build statues of Benedict Arnold and provide food and aid to the homeless. The government cuts your budget in half. What do you cut? Simple: The aid to the homeless. Why? Because you want your budget restored and if you cut out statues to Bendict Arnold, no one will miss them. The objective of managing budget cuts is to wreak the most public outrage as possible. Any Congressional staffer, even summer intern, will tell you the same, or be cut.
CarmineD
Mr. Moldenhauer is correct in that his approach to spending reductions is surgical rather that across the board.
Most Americans could not accurately tell you where the Federal Government spends money.
I've seen polls that show 70% of those that align themselves with the Tea Party favor leaving Social Security and Medicare alone. I have a neighbor who says he is a Tea Partier and is adamant that eliminating Congressional earmarks and foreign aid will solve half the budget deficit problem.
We don't have a problem that is 100% spending. We don't have a problem that is 100% revenue. We have a deficit problem and it will take shared sacrifice from all of us to solve it.
Which party will be the first to campaign on the platform of shared sacrifice? Stay tuned.
What polls have you seen Jim and when were they done and what methodology was used? Were they legitimate? How do you know? Does your neighbor know what portion of the budget foreign aid even is?
James, the reason your plan looks so easy is that you left out one very important element. You left out politics. It makes things much more complicated when your first consideration is winning the next election. Obama, Reid and Boehner are three of the most political leaders, I believe, in history. They are the most divisive, sorry, screw the country the party is more important than anything hacks ever.
About that Ryan budget:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/opinio...
"That was made clear on Tuesday when the House Budget Committee chairman, Representative Paul Ryan, unveiled his 2014 spending plan: a retread of ideas that voters soundly rejected, made even worse, if possible, by sharper cuts to vital services and more dishonest tax provisions.
The budget, which will surely fly through the House, was quickly praised as "serious" and job-creating by the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, though it is neither. By cutting $4.6 trillion from spending over the next decade, it would reverse the country's nascent economic growth, kill millions of real and potential jobs, and deprive those suffering the most of social assistance.
All the tired ideas from 2011 and 2012 are back: eliminating Medicare's guarantee to retirees by turning it into a voucher plan; dispensing with Medicaid and food stamps by turning them into block grants for states to cut freely; repealing most of the reforms to health care and Wall Street; shrinking beyond recognition the federal role in education, job training, transportation and scientific and medical research. The public opinion of these callous proposals was made clear in the fall election, but Mr. Ryan is too ideologically fervid to have learned that lesson."
Comment removed by moderator. Name Calling
mschaffer -
Two McClatchy-Marist Institute for Public Opinion polls taken in 2011 during the debt limit fight. Have you seen any polls that differ?
Of course my neighbor doen't know what portion of the Federal Budget is foreign aid. I used it to illustrate my point that most Americans don't know where the Government spends money.
Bradley,
Add Sam Pizzo, Michael Casler, Jim Bacon(boftx), Gerry Hageman, Bob Realist, RHG58, Gary Lind and a few others whom I'm forgetting right now. That budget team would definitely come up with some good budget recommendations. We could have an 80% rule to pass the budget plan but if 80% of us do not agree then I would be happy to cast the deadlock breaking vote by amending a few budgetary line items! LOL When we come to an agreement instead of white or black smoke we can have the Belagio Fountains and Fremont Street Experience Light Show go off simultaneously with a National Anthem theme and have a national holiday the day after. LOL
It can be done, THEY just see no incentive in DOING WHAT IS RIGHT for AMERICANS. They're preoccupied with what is "right" for other nations, illegals, the world they'd like us to be in with no pragmatic concept of where we are. We simply must BALANCE the budget quickly, not in 10 years. We must get the federal government out of all sorts of businesses, industries, charities that are NOT authorized in the Constitution. That alone would allow our economy to refocus on what people are willing to pay for--with THEIR EARNINGS not someone else's tax contributions.
Let's recap budget goals
How hard is it to control growth next year at 103.4% of this year - instead of at 105%
Revenue grows fast enough to support the 103.4% spending growth
This is absolutely crazy that we can't control a GROWTH IN SPENDING
We should move "Forward" and continue on the path where americans receive $10 worth of government and pay only $6. Government guarentees and mandates over those "tired old ideas" of private enterprise always prevail. As we all know, government has our best interests (versus theirs) at heart and is by far the most efficient provider of services.
Good luck and don't have children.
Hello Jim,
That seems like credible polling organization. Are Tea Partiers even more clueless than I thought Jim?
Looks like Obummacare application will be a tad more difficult than "making an online purchase with Amazon". Coming in at 15 pages, perhaps a new business opportunity for HR Block.
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-apply...
How about intially freezing Department & Agency budgets at current levels for three years but allowing them to adjust spending within their Department/Agency as they feel necessary to accomplish their mission? Basically give them three years at current levels (a three year CR, with limited flexibility within each agency/Department) to get their house in order. Then set up a Congressional Oversight Committee for each, with the authority to redirect spending IAW with Congressional guidance (not plan their spending for them, but redirect/hold if it looks like they're mis-managing the funds). The committee would also have the authority to go line by line through each budget looking for wasteful spending, with a separate committee set up to look for duplicative spending between agancies/departments. Entitlements would still need to be addressed, to bend the trend lines down, not up, but simply freezing the budget and aggressively pursuing fraud, waste & abuse would probably do more over the four years than anything else being proposed. Entitlement reform & Agency/Department reform/consolidation could be the focus of the next four year effort starting in 2016.
The simple fact is that we borrow about 40 cents of every dollar spent. Simple math shows that revenue must increase by 66.6% to eliminate that if no cuts are involved. (Given a need for $100 total and $60 current revenue, $60 x X = $100, X = 1.66, or a two-thirds increase.)
Factor in that we have a balance of trade deficit that roughly equal to the rest of the world *combined* and it should be clear that any proposed solution must include our foreign trade policy.
James: Every problem has at least one solution that is simple, logical, cheap, and WRONG!
A man on Television said once that this country could do very well w/o a Dept of Labor, Dept of Interior, and Dept of Education. He was some kinda economist. His opinion was that the states run each of those aforementioned duties and that there was duplication of mission, resulting in confusion and a lot of needless expense.
Treasury too rough there's the self dealers !