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[GlyphGryph]

Here is my solution, which not only greatly reduces the present and future deficit, but also puts a decent sized dent in the national debt.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=g5t2j5rc

[forsaken1111]

They should hire you to be the national fortress broker.

[GlyphGryph]

I figured the numbers are probably optimistic, and a surplus is better than a deficit if they turn out to be true, so putting a little bit more than necessary aside was probably a good idea.

[RedKing]

Ditto. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=d7uk4bm1

Three things really stand out from this:

1. Obama is more centrist in his proposals than Clinton was. Which is hilarious, considering the recent Republican nostalgia for Clinton and the insistence that Obama is so much further to the left.

2. The cost of military deployments is killing us.

3. Most of the proposals that Congress is knife-fighting about are piddly shit. There's five or six items on here that make sense and would save more money than twenty of the other proposals put together.

[forsaken1111]

http://consumerist.com/2010/11/animated-pig-bunnies-explain-quantitative-easing.html

Relevance: 32%

[Neonivek]

Well Obama was pretty much DOOMED to be hated

It is sort of the law of politics.

If you are the president while everyone is dipping into a depression you will be hated
If you are the president while everyone is leaving depression into a surplus you will be loved

[mainiac]

I do not think some of those decisions you made mean what you think they mean.  For instance "Reduce aid to states" means "massive layoffs in public education and police forces in the middle of a recession."  (Where do you think state government head count goes?)

"Raise retirement age to 68" means "make it so most poor people won't live to see social security while the richest and most expensive social security accounts are only reduced a bit."  (Who do you think retires early and starts collecting partial benefits regardless of retirement age and who do you think dies sooner?)

[Nikov]

Here is my solution, which not only greatly reduces the present and future deficit, but also puts a decent sized dent in the national debt.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=g5t2j5rc

[X]Cancel or delay some weapons programs
This option would cancel the purchase of some expensive equipment, like the F35 fighter jet and MV-22 Osprey, with less expensive equipment that the bipartisan Sustainable Defense Task Force judged to have similar capability. It would delay other purchases. Research and development spending, which the task force considered a relic of the cold war arms race, would be reduced.

Wow. Why do you hate our troops?

[X] Return the estate tax to Clinton-era levels
Under President Bill Clinton, the estate tax exempted $1 million from any taxable estate. This level would not grow with inflation over time, subjecting more estates to the tax. The rate would start at 18 percent and climb to 55 percent, as it did in the 1990s. The 55 percent rate would begin at $3 million. If Congress takes no action, this would become law on Jan. 1, 2011.

Wow. Why do you hate family farms?

[X] Carbon tax
This option would tax carbon emissions, starting at $23 per ton of CO2. The tax rate would increase at a constant annual rate of 5.8 percent, from 2012 through 2050.

Wow. Why do you hate industry?

Here's my plan: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=vx2rh010

[RedKing]

[X]Cancel or delay some weapons programs
This option would cancel the purchase of some expensive equipment, like the F35 fighter jet and MV-22 Osprey, with less expensive equipment that the bipartisan Sustainable Defense Task Force judged to have similar capability. It would delay other purchases. Research and development spending, which the task force considered a relic of the cold war arms race, would be reduced.

Wow. Why do you hate our troops?

Give me an effing break. Even Rumsfeld and Gates made a point of cutting expensive toys out of the Pentagon budget (about the only thing Rummy did *right*, IMHO). The F35 was a boondoggle, and frankly so is the Osprey. The over-reliance on expensive, complicated gear is one of our biggest national security vulnerabilities, IMHO.

Let's take a look at Nikov's "plan"...

Hmm, didn't want to cut those agribusiness subsidies, I see. Why do you hate small farms?

Alternate measure of inflation. Why do you hate the elderly?

And jack the Medicare and Social Security ages up to 70. Why do you hate...pretty much everyone?


Overall, it's typical conservative pablum -- blame the government and the poor, and give corporations and the wealthy a rim job.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

[X] Carbon tax
This option would tax carbon emissions, starting at $23 per ton of CO2. The tax rate would increase at a constant annual rate of 5.8 percent, from 2012 through 2050.

Wow. Why do you hate industry?

Alternatively, he doesn't want his children to live in a *completely* wrecked world, and if the only way to do that is taxing emissions, so be it. Quality of life and quality of the environment is much more important than making money.

[Leafsnail]

Overall, it's typical conservative pablum -- blame the government and the poor, and give corporations and the wealthy a rim job.

Holy fuck.  I never would have expected this from Nikov.

Eliminate loopholes, reduce rates (Bowles-Simpson plan)

The deficit commission proposed a series of tax overhaul plans. Each one would reduce tax breaks for companies and individuals, while lowering tax rates. On the whole, the plans would raise revenue. One plan would cut all tax breaks other than the child and earned-income tax credits and those for mortgages, health and retirement benefits. The corporate tax would then be cut to 28 percent, from 35 percent, while individual tax rates would be cut for all brackets too.

Hey, I like my option more.

Magically cut tax rates for everyone while raising revenue and hiding behind "loleconomics"

[Vector]

Vector taxes everything

But at least there's an enormous surplus?

[Leafsnail]

The thing is... this doesn't take into account other factors.

Like, cutting 10% of the federal workforce is all very well, but then you suddenly have 200,000 unemployed people with no work to go to.

[Vector]

You see that enormous surplus?

That's for education and funding arts + research programs/tree-planting.  I assume those 200k people will be employed planting trees and other plants.  Everywhere.

(This may be why my countries in computer games always end up looking so funky)

[Leafsnail]

Sounds pretty awesome.  A TREE IN EVERY GARDEN

I'm just waiting for Nikov's reaction to all the military cuts, now.