Just 5 years left to stop climate change

[Niri Te]

Originally Posted by Tsyal Makto

(OWS, for example, advocates publicly funded elections, the recovery of New Deal programs, and the like. See? Small changes to help move the current system toward something completely different in the future, something greener and more democratic).

The "New Deal" programs instituted by FDR are ENORMOUSLY expensive, and this Country just so happens to be almost BANKRUPT, and definitely Financially impoverished in large part because of all of the "Social Programs" many of which are being over utilized by a large group of people that should NOT have access to them.
If we add even MORE "give away" programs to the budget, this Country will be BROKE within five years.
You could take ALL the money away from ALL the millionaires, stick it in the Treasury, and in VERY short order, it will be GONE given our current rate of expenditure.
Long before that happens, the "rich" will have left the Country, moved their manufacturing overseas, GUTTING the number of available jobs, and this Country will have all the political, monetary, and defensive clout of Ceylon.
I am sure glad that at almost 62, I won't be around to see what this Country that I pledged my life's Blood to defend winds up becoming.
Niri Te

[Tsyal Makto]

Originally Posted by taylorcraftbc65

The "New Deal" programs instituted by FDR are ENORMOUSLY expensive, and this Country just so happens to be almost BANKRUPT, and definitely Financially impoverished in large part because of all of the "Social Programs" many of which are being over utilized by a large group of people that should NOT have access to them.
If we add even MORE "give away" programs to the budget, this Country will be BROKE within five years.
You could take ALL the money away from ALL the millionaires, stick it in the Treasury, and in VERY short order, it will be GONE given our current rate of expenditure.
Long before that happens, the "rich" will have left the Country, moved their manufacturing overseas, GUTTING the number of available jobs, and this Country will have all the political, monetary, and defensive clout of Ceylon.
I am sure glad that at almost 62, I won't be around to see what this Country that I pledged my life's Blood to defend winds up becoming.
Niri Te

I don't think it's the social programs that are the problem. Europe has had an even more robust social safety net programs than the US, and they were fine. The problems in Europe are more about mismanagement of the Euro, not social programs, just like most of our problems can be traced back to the Fed mismanaging the dollar.

The problem is that since the 1980s, we've been neglecting the demand-side of the supply-demand equation. We've fallen into the idea that throwing all the benefits and tax-cuts at the rich will lead to "job creation." Hell, even Grover Norquist, the GOP tax-cut zealot only views tax increases on rich as actual tax increases. He neglects taxes that effect working people, like the payroll tax, and only concerns himself with taxes that really effect the rich, like capital gains. Not to mention all the talk about uncertainty. All the concerns about "uncertainty" seem to be toward the rich, nobody seems to talk about the uncertainty felt by consumers in the middle/working class. Supply is doing just fine, the stock market is as profitable as ever, it is the demand-side that needs the leg-up to feel enough certainty again to buy and invest, and such is the need for a strong safety net. No amount of tax cuts or austerity can fix the debt crisis, we must restart the supply-demand engine before anything else, and real, sustained revenue can be generated. For example, a dollar of food stamps leads to more than a dollar in return. In reality, the working class are just as much "job creators" as the GOP claims the wealthy to be, most likely even moreso, but they need help.

Yes, the government is wasteful, but the problem is more in defense than in social programs. We are attempting to both maintain R&D as well as be at war. This is unprecedented. Normally during war, R&D stops, and is a peacetime activity. To attempt to do both has lead to unprecedented defense costs, much of which is wasted in failed R&D projects like the F-22 Raptor.

[Raptor]

Originally Posted by Tsyal Makto

Yes, the government is wasteful, but the problem is more in defense than in social programs. We are attempting to both maintain R&D as well as be at war. This is unprecedented. Normally during war, R&D stops, and is a peacetime activity. To attempt to do both has lead to unprecedented defense costs, much of which is wasted in failed R&D projects like the F-22 Raptor.

This is me nitpicking and being off topic. Yes, the military and its budget is responsible for many sins, but the F-22 isn't one of them. Without going into technical details, the project isn't failed by any means, and successful aviation programs had to mature just like the F-22 is doing so right now. It's simply curtailed because we don't have the need for such a sophisticated aircraft in our current situation. When you pour lots of R&D costs into relatively few airframes, your per-unit price is bound to go up.

That said, I do support reducing the defense budget, and I feel that the half trillion dollar cut over the next 10 years is a good move if done wisely (i.e. not overcutting).