How would you change today’s federal government spending and taxes to balance the budget?
The Wall Street Journal has come out with an online tool where you can do just that, selecting from a menu of prepared options that have been discussed in the public debate.
There are three screens of options to consider. The first screen takes you through the various tax increases and deduction limitation options. The second screen gets into the federal government’s discretionary spending.
The third screen then gets into the more meaty options related to the federal government’s “mandatory” expenditures, which covers benefit and entitlement spending.
The default plan we’re pointing you toward was developed by Mike Shedlock, who took on the intellectual challenge of balancing the budget without either repealing Obamacare or hiking today’s tax rates.
But should those options be off the table? Or should we be looking at other combinations of reduced spending and tax code changes?
Go ahead – take it for a test drive! Let us know what your optimal solution is in the comments!
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Featured Image:
Source: U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk |
I was disappointed that the following was not considered fair game:
Congressional Pay Raises (House and Senate)
Congressional Healthcare
Presidential Pay Raises
Presidential Healthcare
Secret Service for lifetime of Retiring Presidents (we pay of course)
Payments of Food Stamps, Social Security and Disability, Medicaid/Medicare and any other payments for illegal aliens (they have enough ways to enter this country legally)
If all of these were included in balancing the budget, we wouldn’t have the problem that we have. I understand that we should pay the congressional and presidential salaries but they should be within reason and not 20-30 times what many of us make.
Big problem here – we need to cut foreign aid, cut the waste using the GAO List, cut funding to elected officials in DC for office expenses, etc., and put them on per diem. We should not limit our “cuts” to the things that don’t directly impinge on our Congressmen and women!
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