Romney mentioned the "shut down PBS" thing from a few months ago. I've had this thing written up for a while, and wanted to share my thoughts on such trivial trimming:
There is a lot of noise in the government that we must eliminate the deficit; this is reasonable, because the US is 37% over budget- that is to say, for every dollar of taxes received, the government pays out $1.37. The proposals include shutting down NPR, cutting school funding, and lowering taxes in keeping with a disproved economic theory.
Allow me to present to you a hypothetical scenario. Let's suppose that we shut down everything. Close NASA; dissolve every public broadcasting group- every NPR station and every PBS studio. Literally sell the big bird costume to a furry shop in NJ. Stop all state and municipal grants, moving a mountain of debt from the feds to the localities, most likely causing many towns to go completely bankrupt.
We shut down each and every school and every single federal law agency. All reconstruction funds to places hit by disasters is ceased.
We close the white house- no, every federally-maintained national monument.
We keep only these things:
Social Security and Medicaid, the two most popular federal programs, the Department of Defense, which may NOT be interfered with, and the few mandatory expenses- things the government is legally obliged to pay out from previous contracts.
Finally, the specific mandatory "cost" which represents the interest in the debt.
With the budget slashed to shreds and virtually nothing left of the government- with every federal building abandoned and every federal employee expected to be working for free on the (unmaintained) streets with whatever office supplies they can scrounge from dumpsters, what do you suppose the deficit would be like? Do you imagine that the debit might be repaid in weeks? In months?
Years?
Paying exclusively for mandatory costs and for Medicaid, Social Security, the DoD, and interest on the debt, the government would still be 23% over budget. Instead of paying out $1.37 for each dollar received, they will be paying $1.23.
The truth is, Medicaid, Social Security, and the DoD are at once untouchable and the source of the entire problem.
The next time that someone tries to sell you some falsehood about how saving an impressive amount by shutting down some essential or valuable service, remember that they might as well suggest you bail a sinking ship with a thimble.
There is no attractive solution to this. The most basic conceivable one would be to increase tax receipts by 500 billion dollars and cut all spending by 1/6th- every welfare or social security check is only 5/6ths of what it currently is, and one in six soldiers is fired. One in six aircraft carriers is sold or scrapped. One in six teachers put on the unemployment line. One in six Muppets stuffed. Capricious? Yes. Fair? Perhaps the closest thing I can think of.
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Topic: American Election Megathread - It's Over (Read 769974 times)