Luckily for me I don't think I'll be alive to see the collapse. Did they ever pass an ammendment to balance the budget? I doubt it. Then they'd actually have to deal with the issues.

Here's a quick story .....

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budg ... core?mod=bb-creditreports

To a politician, money is power, and power is required for re-election. We have failed as a society. We have produced a political class that has few, if any, members that have a desire to do the right thing because it's the right thing. It's all about self interest with the political class. That's why you see party jumpers. People with no real political philosophy, just a desire to keep their cushy job regardless of the tag you hang on them.

We are so hosed.

Proposal:

Upon election, a politician should give up everything they own, all their money/property.

At the end of their term, they get it returned only in the credit cards (budget) is balanced, everything is paid up and the economy has prospered.

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We wouldn't even have to go that far. All it would take is to get them all together, House and Senate, and tell them, for every week you don't get the budget balanced, your pay is reduced $10k. It would be done in a week.

Your solution is much like tying a CEO's compensation to how the company performs. It's logical, and it's right, but those that make the rules, are the ones from benefit from the system being broken.

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I don't know Dale, I think a lot of them have enough money that the relatively small salary doesn't mean that much.

let's hit them where it hurts. Like:

Harry Reid told us in the last election: "I feel your pain, I'm on a fixed income too." (the idiot). All the time he's living in a million dollar suite at tha Ritz Carlton in D.C.

How about: If you guys keep screwing up, we move you to the Marriott for 2 months. Still screwing up? the Hoilday Inn for 2 months, still? a Motel 6, still a one bedroom house with gangbangers on one side and a crack house on the other.

The president and vice president are required to turn their investments over to a blind trust. This is supposed to remove the chances of conflicts of interest.

I have been arguing the point about the debt for nearly 25 years. As I have learned more, the more important it becomes to get rid of it.

We simply cannot afford to have our financial well being shored up by potentially hostile investors. We need to cut those ties, pay off these and all debts and get back to 0.

Some debt is good, yes, it oils the process. But too much is bad.

In the 1933, FDR took office and initiated the New Deal. It was an abstract of deficit spending... In 1936, he promised to balance the budget, so much of the New Deal was ended. That lead the country right back into recession. He had to back track so fast to keep the crash from taking us out again.

Reagan, for all the good he did, did two bad things: 1) he made deficit spending a popular idea. It isn't. It is a stop gap, not a way of life. and 2) he politicized the military.

As it stands, our economy is too fragile to force serious paydown... but we need to make it job 1 once it is more stable. I will warn this, unless we enter into a boom, much like the 1950s, the paydown will be painful.

The more telling aspect of the debt is this: either we are spending to much or taking in too little - or both.

Lower taxes wins elections, yes, but at the same time, we must have enough to sustain the government. Which leads to question #2, are we spending too much?

I say "yes." There are sooo many little pork barrel programs, fundings, etc, that really need to be addressed. A real cut in some of those areas would save us a bundle, I suspect.

The other problem... the damned budget itself... it's thousands of pages long. All sorts of shit can hide in plain sight, it ain't even funny.

The root cause is the debt, and the deficit. There are lots of reasons it's bad, from being mortgaged to potentially unfriendly nations, as you pointed out, to the huge amount of income, that is, taxes, needed simply to service the debt. The fixes aren't simple, in some cases painful, but not rocket science. Cut foriegn aid. Cut military spending. Draw down Iraq and Afghanistan. Cut entitlement programs. Reduce regulations, (it costs money to enforce all the stupid regulations we have). Eliminate Federal oversight departments, for example, does the Department of Education really do anything that can't be done, or isn't done on a state level? Means testing for SSI... etc.

The thing that blocks any progress or an attempt at fixing the problem is self interested politicians. Of the 535 members of congress, 535 have one thing as their number one goal, to remain one of the 535 members of congress. Spending tax dollars buys influence which gets them votes. Additionally, look at the list of cuts, everyone will find something objectionable there. A Congress that takes on things on that list will be rewarded by being booted out of office. The average American isn't well informed, and when a cut touches them, they'll reflexively vote for someone else. Look at what happened in 2010.

I think this is a case where nothing will be done until we crash, and crash hard.

What I don't understand is why some countries don't have debt. I get the middle east and the oil they own but where is China getting it all and what do they know that they keep buying our bonds?

We need to pay more in and cut costs. Understand though that a dollar is backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government. As long as they tell you a dollar has some worth then it must, right? It all started when they went off the gold standard I think. But there wasn't enough gold to cover the trillions needed to float this boat.

So they are making it up as they go along. That should help you sleep tonight.

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Reducing the cost of government is where all of this must start.
How many govt employees make over 100K/yr? Have pensions? Full medical?
AND are not involved in the same ret/medical systems as the rest of the nation?

Pork barrel and lower taxes are not the answer.

And neither of these ideas will ever happen.

I am a fan of the flat tax system...will it ever happen? Probably not. I am also a fan of documenting aliens (yes, illegal) with work numbers and letting them pay a tax rate, too.

Matthew

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What's your position on World Peace?

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No such thing.