Tweet
This is an elaboration of what I posted in another thread.
Mrmitchell's 5 Step Plan to Eliminate the Budget Deficit
1. Repeal the Bush-initiated tax cuts.
This is obviously a campaign no-no for the 2004 hopefuls, but everyone knows that tax cuts have never worked before and they aren't going to now.
Savings: Salon.com reports that the tax cut cost $330 billion in lost federal government revenues.
2. Close the Department of Homeland Security.
Another no-brainer. The Homeland is not any more Secure than it was before the DHS's creation, and arguably the only things it has done are created paranoia and an easy-to-parody color chart.
Savings: The DHS's Website reports that it has a budget of $36.2 billion for the FY 2004.
3. Speed up Iraq.
Accept as much UN help as they'll give into Iraq. Speed up the process of rebuilding it, too--go ahead and get however many billion (I've seen $36billion as an estimate for restoring water and power) in there, ASAP. The United States was started with a Declaration of Independence, why does Iraq have to be so difficult? Immediately start pouring money in--this cuts the time we have to spend occupying it--and establish a "democractic government" for it, basically copy pasting the US Constitution with a find and replace for "United States" = "Iraq". It's difficult to understand why this is so hard to do, though I'm sure someone will come up with a complicated reason against my idea.
Savings: Not really measurable. Initial high costs as we rebuild, but leveled off by the drastic reduction in time we spend occupying the damn place.
4. Return military spending to pre-Bush levels, at least after Iraq is done.
This is another campaign no-no for 2004 hopefuls: Even a $1 deduction will surely result in smearing as "unpatriotic" "America-hating" etc. However, how is it possible that pre-Bush military had a smaller budget but still dominated as much as the current military?
Savings: Council for a Livable World reports that 2000 FY military spending was $274.1 billion in "Projected Military Spending". (I'd look up the actual number but am a lazy ass.) The same Council reports the request for FY 2003 was $396.1 billion. Inflation accounted into the 2000 FY spending makes it about $290 billion now. So, the Savings are about $106 billion.
5. Put Bush, Cheney, and the gang of warmongerers in the Stocks and let people throw tomatoes at them for a dollar a throw.
Unlike the other four points (all budget cuts) this one is a new source of revenue, and I'll bet there's lots of Savas out there that'll buy at least a dozen throws.
Revenues: There are 600 million people living in the world that are in "first world" countries, i.e. they have enough money to travel to the location of the stocks. Assuming that 200 million of them (half of America counting as 300M + 50M of foreigners who support Bush) like the fools and won't do so, this leaves 400,000,000 to throw the tomatoes. If each takes 5 throws, that's 400,000,000 * 5 = 2 billion dollars. Not as much as compared to the other steps listed here, but a bundle of money when you're $400 billion in the red.
Total Savings - $388 Billion[/b], almost enough to pull us out of the red. Surely nothing that adding a couple more Congressmen to the stocks couldn't fix. (I know, my math looks screwy. However, I counted in the $36 I mentioned for restoring water and electricity in Iraq. Also, IIRC the budget hit for every week of occupying it is $1 billion so I also counted in $50 billion loss for staying there almost another full year.)
Note: For the sources, I just Googled and got the first thing I saw that looked relevant. So if one of my links has a code name "Flaming Liberals that Hate America" then tell me and I'll find another source.
Mrmitchell's 5 Step Plan to Eliminate the Budget Deficit
1. Repeal the Bush-initiated tax cuts.
This is obviously a campaign no-no for the 2004 hopefuls, but everyone knows that tax cuts have never worked before and they aren't going to now.
Savings: Salon.com reports that the tax cut cost $330 billion in lost federal government revenues.
2. Close the Department of Homeland Security.
Another no-brainer. The Homeland is not any more Secure than it was before the DHS's creation, and arguably the only things it has done are created paranoia and an easy-to-parody color chart.
Savings: The DHS's Website reports that it has a budget of $36.2 billion for the FY 2004.
3. Speed up Iraq.
Accept as much UN help as they'll give into Iraq. Speed up the process of rebuilding it, too--go ahead and get however many billion (I've seen $36billion as an estimate for restoring water and power) in there, ASAP. The United States was started with a Declaration of Independence, why does Iraq have to be so difficult? Immediately start pouring money in--this cuts the time we have to spend occupying it--and establish a "democractic government" for it, basically copy pasting the US Constitution with a find and replace for "United States" = "Iraq". It's difficult to understand why this is so hard to do, though I'm sure someone will come up with a complicated reason against my idea.
Savings: Not really measurable. Initial high costs as we rebuild, but leveled off by the drastic reduction in time we spend occupying the damn place.
4. Return military spending to pre-Bush levels, at least after Iraq is done.
This is another campaign no-no for 2004 hopefuls: Even a $1 deduction will surely result in smearing as "unpatriotic" "America-hating" etc. However, how is it possible that pre-Bush military had a smaller budget but still dominated as much as the current military?
Savings: Council for a Livable World reports that 2000 FY military spending was $274.1 billion in "Projected Military Spending". (I'd look up the actual number but am a lazy ass.) The same Council reports the request for FY 2003 was $396.1 billion. Inflation accounted into the 2000 FY spending makes it about $290 billion now. So, the Savings are about $106 billion.
5. Put Bush, Cheney, and the gang of warmongerers in the Stocks and let people throw tomatoes at them for a dollar a throw.
Unlike the other four points (all budget cuts) this one is a new source of revenue, and I'll bet there's lots of Savas out there that'll buy at least a dozen throws.
Revenues: There are 600 million people living in the world that are in "first world" countries, i.e. they have enough money to travel to the location of the stocks. Assuming that 200 million of them (half of America counting as 300M + 50M of foreigners who support Bush) like the fools and won't do so, this leaves 400,000,000 to throw the tomatoes. If each takes 5 throws, that's 400,000,000 * 5 = 2 billion dollars. Not as much as compared to the other steps listed here, but a bundle of money when you're $400 billion in the red.
Total Savings - $388 Billion[/b], almost enough to pull us out of the red. Surely nothing that adding a couple more Congressmen to the stocks couldn't fix. (I know, my math looks screwy. However, I counted in the $36 I mentioned for restoring water and electricity in Iraq. Also, IIRC the budget hit for every week of occupying it is $1 billion so I also counted in $50 billion loss for staying there almost another full year.)
Note: For the sources, I just Googled and got the first thing I saw that looked relevant. So if one of my links has a code name "Flaming Liberals that Hate America" then tell me and I'll find another source.
Comment