Solved Budget and Debt Crisis.

So, this is some first post for me on here. I've been lurking around for some months, as you can see from my join date. I don't really have a dog in the fight when it comes to politics, personally I think they're all a bunch of idiots, but I decided to sit down and try and fix this country's problems myself. :P

I know Democrats insist on tax increases and Republicans, especially those dreaded Tea Partiers, insist on budget cuts. Well, the truth is it is going to take both. The highest tax revenue has been since 1934 as percentage of GDP is 20.9%. Taking that %, IF Congress could stomach a single one year cut to the 2011 budget of 20% along with the almost 7% increase in taxes, they could not only balance the budget but pay down the debt by over 2.3 Trillion dollars in a decade(assuming a modest 3% growth in GDP and budget/year).



I doubt seriously any kind of compromise like this would ever be workable in this political landscape, but as you can see it is not only possible to balance the budget but pay down the debt. I'm sure that single year 20% cut will hurt, but it won't be as bad or last as long as the current recession/depression has been. Once the government not only balances the budget, but starts paying down the debt the economy I imagine would boom. Imagine the U.S. with a surplus paying down the debt, hard to imagine what would happen since it never has before. What do you all think?




*disclaimer - not an economist, didn't even graduate college*

So, this is some first post for me on here. I've been lurking around for some months, as you can see from my join date. I don't really have a dog in the fight when it comes to politics, personally I think they're all a bunch of idiots, but I decided to sit down and try and fix this country's problems myself. :P

I know Democrats insist on tax increases and Republicans, especially those dreaded Tea Partiers, insist on budget cuts. Well, the truth is it is going to take both. The highest tax revenue has been since 1934 as percentage of GDP is 20.9%. Taking that %, IF Congress could stomach a single one year cut to the 2011 budget of 20% along with the almost 7% increase in taxes, they could not only balance the budget but pay down the debt by over 2.3 Trillion dollars in a decade(assuming a modest 3% growth in GDP and budget/year).



I doubt seriously any kind of compromise like this would ever be workable in this political landscape, but as you can see it is not only possible to balance the budget but pay down the debt. I'm sure that single year 20% cut will hurt, but it won't be as bad or last as long as the current recession/depression has been. Once the government not only balances the budget, but starts paying down the debt the economy I imagine would boom. Imagine the U.S. with a surplus paying down the debt, hard to imagine what would happen since it never has before. What do you all think?




*disclaimer - not an economist, didn't even graduate college* Originally Posted by newbie2003

So how long would it take to get all the unemployed created by Republican cuts to back to work? It's hard to pay taxes when your not making money.
From the Washington Monthly "Scott Lilly of the Center for American Progress,...calculated that the (Republican) cuts -- a net of $59 billion in the last half of fiscal 2011 -- would lead to the loss of 650,000 government jobs, and the indirect loss of 325,000 more jobs as fewer government workers travel and buy things. That's nearly 1 million jobs -- possibly enough to tip the economy back into recession. "