Do you believe there is a solution to the United States' financial situation?

[Asher]

Unemployment for veterans is higher than the national average so that is quite unlikely.

I wouldn't want an employee with PTSD either.

Canada spends like 1/10th of what the US does per capita for the military, and we have less unemployed (7.8% vs 9.8%). So I don't really buy that excuse.

[Kidlicious]

do you believe there is a way to actually stop owing money to other countries, stop borrowing, spur economic growth, run surpluses, and return to the glory days of whenever?

No way. Too many old people. But we're too big to fail so I'm not worried about it.

[HalfLotus]

There is obviously a solution, spend less money. Will the U.S. Congress and/or President have the will to cut it in our lifetimes? I think not.

We will be beholden to the IMF, China, or some other nasty entity at the point which we start making the spending adjustments necessary. Or, worst case, we'll be railroaded into WW3 by the next wave neo-conservative ilk, and die a fiery death a la 1940s Germany.

For all the left's rhetoric about ecological sustainability, it is ironic that they are wholly in the dark about financial sustainability. And that's not to give the right a pass - what passes for U.S. conservatism is a total sham as well.

The U.S. empire will not last another generation.

[Lorizael]

I'm not sure you really understand how much you'd have to cut spending in order to get to solve the United States' money problems. Unless, of course, you're advocating literally bringing spending back to the era of the Articles of Confederation.

[Whoha]

I wouldn't want an employee with PTSD either.

Canada spends like 1/10th of what the US does per capita for the military, and we have less unemployed (7.8% vs 9.8%). So I don't really buy that excuse.

Canada is also vastly smaller in terms of population, has pretty much unfettered access to the largest economy on earth, and possesses lots of natural resources, nearly all of which are going up in price. The biggest problem for personnel in our military is the collapse in youth employment in general that has happened in the US in the past 30 or so years. If you could solve that, then there obviously wouldn't be a problem of pushing them out of the right hand of military spending and into the left hand of social spending.

[HalfLotus]

I'm not sure you really understand how much you'd have to cut spending in order to get to solve the United States' money problems. Unless, of course, you're advocating literally bringing spending back to the era of the Articles of Confederation.

I really do understand. And unlike pansy ass liberals, I'm not afraid to cut every ****ing federal program under the sun. I can manage my own affairs, and protect myself and my family from whatever imagined or perceived threats our "leaders" want to throw at us.

I'm not afraid to abolish the Dept. of Education, the NSA, 3/4 of the military, and ALL foreign aid.

I'm not afraid of a free society.

[giblets]

I'm not sure you really understand how much you'd have to cut spending in order to get to solve the United States' money problems. Unless, of course, you're advocating literally bringing spending back to the era of the Articles of Confederation.

That makes no sense at all. Federal tax revenue is something like 16% of the GDP. We had federal spending at 10% of GDP as late as the Depression.

[Asher]

Canada is also vastly smaller in terms of population, has pretty much unfettered access to the largest economy on earth, and possesses lots of natural resources, nearly all of which are going up in price.

Yet half of those things work against Canada too. Canada's economy is very strongly tied to the American one, and the largest part of Canada has an economy tied to a failing automotive sector that's leaving the country. Ontario doesn't have much in the way of natural resources, they were huge on manufacturing which is getting hit very hard.

[Dinner]

We can have spending cuts to about 500 billion but anything more and people will get seriously pissed off. Those old folks will literally riot if we cut medicare and social security more. About half of the 500 billion will have to come from the military budget but lobbyists have bloated that way beyond any reasonable measure so it would be very easy and reasonable to cut 250 billion from the bloated $800 billion military budget (not counting $150-$200 billion per year in spending for our two foreign wars) without compromsing the defense of the nation in the slightest. That will still leave about $1 trillion in yearly deficits which will have to be made up by tax increases. Honestly, that's not very hard to come up with and around 50% of it can come from the rich (who will still enjoy lower then the 60 year average tax rates) while the other 50% will have to come from the rest of us. Luckily, about 45% of people don't pay any net Federal taxes at all so getting those free loaders to pay anything at all will be a major improvement.

The math isn't difficult to do and mathematically the problem is easily solved. The problem comes from out extraordinarially corrupt political system where special interests literally bribe and own Congressmen. That's what makes it politically hard to do what everyone knows must happen.

[HalfLotus]

Why does the left's imagination go barely farther than cutting entitlements and raising taxes?

Foreign aid should be close to zero before we cut anything at home.

And that includes the huge sums we send to the UN, the IMF, and every other globalist money pit.

[Asher]

Israel

[giblets]

Why does the left's imagination go barely farther than cutting entitlements and raising taxes?

Foreign aid should be close to zero before we cut anything at home.

And that includes the huge sums we send to the UN, the IMF, and every other globalist money pit.

The left doesn't want to eliminate foreign aid because the left cares if people in other countries are poor? That shouldn't be hard to figure out.

[EPW]

Sell the midwestern and southern states to the CHinese.

[Hauldren Collider]

Cut entitlements, raise retirement age and eliminate all the jobs programs pretending to be military acquisitions. Lower overall tax rates and eliminate exemptions. Done.

[Dinner]

Why does the left's imagination go barely farther than cutting entitlements and raising taxes?

Foreign aid should be close to zero before we cut anything at home.

And that includes the huge sums we send to the UN, the IMF, and every other globalist money pit.

Foreign aid is close to zero. Seriously, you're delusional if you think foreign aid is more then 0.02% of the budget. You can't solve a $1.5 trillion budget deficit by cutting an $11 billion budget item. Sure, cut it, I don't care, but don't pretend it will make much of a dent in the $1.5 trillion deficit because it won't. If you want big savings then you need to go after big budget items and that means entitlements and military spending.