A quick foray into politics again. This time about the budget.
Simply put, I am what I guess would be referred to as a deficit hawk. I don't like the idea of being in debt at all though I will grant allowances for both emergencies and investments. Personally I don't think the United States should be allowed to run budget deficits except during declared wars and economic depressions. Since neither situation is politically palatable, it's something that would rarely come up.
Despite what you may think, the United States is not at war. War has not been declared by Congress since the 1940s. That would mean, under my rules, the Korean Conflict, the Cold War, Vietnam, the first Gulf War, the Kosovo action, Afghanistan, and the second Gulf War (as well as any of the various minor insurgencies like Somalia that the USA has conducted over the years) would all had to have been paid for up front either through raised overall taxes or surtaxes whereas World Wars I & II could have been paid for through bond programs and promissory notes.
Our last economic depression was in the 1930s so the huge deficits of the past decades would also not have been permitted.
Now, I'm not a total hard-ass on this stuff. I understand investments. Things like highways (and roads in general) are designed to last for a certain number of years before replacement so setting up a bond program to pay for the building of the Interstate Highway System would have been totally justified, setting up a bond program to electrify the nation would have been totally justified, setting up a bond program to build sewer systems would have been totally justified, but setting up the TARP fund to bail out banks whose greed and arrogance caused them to fuck up so badly as to put the US economy into a tailspin however, would not have been justified for deficit spending. The current military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq are not justified under my rules for deficit spending since no formal Declaration of War has been issued. I don't care if declaring war sounds quaint these days, it's the Constitutional duty and SOLE authority of Congress to do so. Passing legislation effectively delegating the decision to the President by authorizing the use of force sounds Unconstitutional to me. And while I'm annoyed that President Obama did not order a full retreat upon entering office, that's not the point of this uneducated rant.
The Republicans, after decades of deficit spending on their watch, are suddenly against deficits again and all they wanna cut are bullshit programs that don't add up to nearly enough to reduce deficits or even eliminate them. They're not suggesting the return of "PayGo" either. While it's fairly clear at this point that their real agenda is a careful blend of hypocrisy, misogyny, and fucking the poor, no one is effectively calling them out on it. Now, I'm not suggesting that they be openly accused of hating women, no. They've made it a campaign platform that deficits are killing America, blah, blah, blah. Well, the New York Times several months ago presented a kind of game to allowing the reader to "Fix the Budget". They provided a list of options and such and I personally had no problem not only reducing the budget but eliminating it entirely and putting the US back in the black. I personally have no problems with raising taxes (they offered Clinton-era rates) and cutting the military down to size (I'm personally very annoyed to know we currently have troops stationed in over 150 countries...no, the US is not an empire, not at all *rolls eyes*) among other things.
What I don't get is, why not play chicken with these hypocritical Republicans and present to them a balanced budget? Hell, use the NY Times game to help figure it out. Balance the budget through a mix of tax hikes and budget cuts and balance it THIS YEAR, not ten years down the road and certainly none of this "we'll halve the deficit in ten years" bullshit. What's that supposed to mean? We're never gonna pay our bills? Balance the budget this year and fucking challenge these deficit-hawk hypocrites to not pass it. All their hemming and hawing about how the deficits are killing America - make them admit they're hypocrites. They'd have to pass it or admit that it's all bullshit.
Am I the only one who wants to play politics these days? Some days I really wish I were electable...and had a metal plate in my head like Shishio to protect against my likely assassins.
Turns out you can do it with cuts alone. I raised no taxes nor did I restore any old rates. Just cuts. See here.
This is what I personally would prefer. See here. If you would like me to explain the reasoning behind anything I've chosen, ask me in a comment.
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