How would you cut America's spending?

[Waylon 2]

I played this game the other day on how to reduce our debt and build a surplus so as the title asks, what would you do? What changes would you make? Even if you can't think of many, try to name one.

I would stop both wars which would cut trillions in spending.

Stop aid to countries such as Israel and Pakistan.

Stop the drug war which in return; trillions of saving. Let the private sector make their own rules on drug use.

Invest in alternative, green energy.

Stop importing as much.

Cut Senators and Congressman's wages by half. They don't deserve their wages. Also, if they have privatized companies, they cannot use those companies towards the purpose of war profiteering.

Raise taxes slightly. We are all in this together.

Create a program so people are able to get off welfare. (Don't cut the assistance once they start working. Give them a month or two to catch up). Require urinalysis to get assistance (other than cannabis) so we know they are using the assistance for their addiction/s.

Offer tax incentives for smaller families (to help reduce population). Many get offended by the topic but its the truth. Overpopulation is not sustainable.

Stop allowing foreigners work visas when they send their money home. Every Russian, Jamaican, or Mexican that I've ever worked with (while they were here on a visa) sent their money home.

I would stop all lobbying in politics. It would get people to be a little more honest and give the underdog a voice.

These are some things I would consider changing. I'm definitely open to opinions and change, so if you are offended by some of these, explain yourself and try not to flame.

[Nitestalker 792]

Love all of those points, waylon. You should run for office hah, but as far as taxes go...you might have to raise them more than slightly on the people who make billions of dollars in profits each quarter (or at least, i would) and instead of urinalysis i would take hair samples to check for drug use in people on welfare(can't fake that shit, and all the people showing up 100% bald are definitely guilty of something). Also, for people like that dumb bitch with 14 kids, i would cut off all assistance to. It's sad to say, but it's sadder that people like that can have so many kids without the ability to take care of all of them.

[LOPEZ 1750]

Legalize drugs -> No Drug War -> Lower crime rate -> Less people in prison to feed, also if the US legalizes soft drugs such as marijuana they would make profits on it.

[Waylon 2]

Legalize drugs -> No Drug War -> Lower crime rate -> Less people in prison to feed, also if the US legalizes soft drugs such as marijuana they would make profits on it.

I wouldn't necessarily say lower crime rate, as most drug arrests are cannabis users. I would say lower new aids/hiv cases. As for the prison, it would lessen prison population which in return probably save trillions. It is quite ridiculous the cost of imprisoning one person for a year, yet we imprison more people than any other country.

These are things thought our fearless leaders don't acknowledge. Probably because they sell drugs and with it legalized, they will lose business. I mean, the CIA was busted selling drugs....

[Anonymous 47]

did you know they spend almost $50,000 per year per inmates and they spend roughly $5000 on per students

[Jewinator 5000 750]

Bush tax cuts.

[Spell 331]

Sterilization of the incompetent citizens.

14 kids.. Bitch, get ready to get cut.

In all seriousness, that is a drastic, but realistic method to reduce over-population.

Also, cut welfare off from those who are drug users as has been said. You test positive for non pre-scription meds?, Well guess what, your funding is not yours anymore.

[Marine 2580]

Every single point you made I completely would love to have.

Except I'd say to higher the education for Americans. Meaning that I'd love to see education become more funded, as that is what separates us from the 3rd world countries.

I'd want to see the top 5% of our country be taxed more(considering the top 5% of the country has more then the bottom 95%)

The tax break for smaller families I'm not so sure about, as I've never thought that through at all.

I'd want marijuana to be legalized, but only through a set of laws that prohibit a certain age to use it(such as alcohol) a long with the ability to tax pot farmers as a business.(Also needing to make it needed to have a business license/permit to operate a pot farm)

I would also like to see defense budgets closely monitored on the spending as well. The reason for this would be due to the fact at how much money is wasted on new weapons that don't do what they're suppose too.(A.K.A. the Stryker and not finishing the E.F.V. program)

[Ponder 32]

I wish it were possible to just make these cuts and be done with it, but it can never be easy.

[Skotti 2105]

We could start by not letting every Congressmen and woman fly first class every week to the House and Senate.

And not pay every senate ~35k a year for the rest of their lives for being in office for 7ish years.

Idk if this was said, if so, I said it again.

[Ponder 32]

Stop aid to countries such as Israel and Pakistan.

That could be quite a big problem I believe.

[Zachmanman 877]

stop spending so much fucking money on military

[Oracion 35]

stop spending so much fucking money on military

This.

If anything, raise pay of soldiers, but cut building stuff, such as planes and everything. I don't know why we need so much shit that blows shit up when we don't use most of it to begin with.

[JFK 546]

That could be quite a big problem I believe.

It ends in being accused of anti-semitism, which is what happens to nearly anyone publicly criticizes Israel. But of course, that's a whole different story.

[Zachmanman 877]

This.

If anything, raise pay of soldiers, but cut building stuff, such as planes and everything. I don't know why we need so much shit that blows shit up when we don't use most of it to begin with.

and the fact that we're stationed all over the world for no reason, its like we want to police the world

we still have soldiers in fucking Germany

[fontaine 1744]

and the fact that we're stationed all over the world for no reason, its like we want to police the world

we still have soldiers in fucking Germany

It's cuz we are Amurika. Da best country ever n we have 2 show dat.

[Dead Donkey 49]

Alot of these are really good, but some are just a bit drastic. And I agree with lopez, instead of just stopping drug war, legalize marijuana.

[Dead Donkey 49]

and the fact that we're stationed all over the world for no reason, its like we want to police the world

we still have soldiers in fucking Germany

And places like Japan and Greenland havent a competent or useful army at all, because theres so many US soldiers stationed there for no fucking reason that they are totally protected. So they dont have to pay military costs! Instead, the US pays for them, basically, woopee.

[water.exe 725]

I do not take credit for this but instead Credit goes to John Stossel who is a economic genius

On my show tonight at 10pm, I lay out a way to completely get rid of the deficit.

I don't claim to be a budget expert. But others, such as Chris Edwards at Cato and Stuart Butler at Heritage, are. They found lots of serious cuts. My staff found a few more, and put together a list that would completely balance the budget:

Defense cut by 2/3: $475 billion (Federal Budget, pg. 58)

Medicare/Medicaid*: $441 billion (Cato Institute)

Social Security Means Testing: $170 billion (Heritage Foundation)

Eliminate Dept. of Education (includes Pell Grants): $106.9 billion (Cato Institute)

Social Security*: $85.7 billion (Cato Institute)

Eliminate Dept. of Transportation: $84.8 billion (Cato Institute)

Tax Amnesty: $80 billion (Rep. Jared Polis D-Co.)

Eliminate Dept. of Labor*: $78.6 billion (Department of Labor and White House)

Eliminate HUD: $60.8 billion (Cato Institute)

Eliminate Dept. of Agriculture*: $33 billion (Cato Institute)

Cut civilian employee compensation: $30 billion (Cato Institute)

Stop maintaining vacant federal property: $25 billion (Heritage Foundation)

Eliminate Foreign Aid: $21.2 billion (Cato Institute)

Eliminate Dept. of Energy*: $20.8 billion (Cato Institute)

Eliminate NASA: $19.6 billion (Cato Institute)

Federal Drug War: $15 billion (White House)

Earmark moratorium: $16 billion (Heritage Foundation)

Eliminate Fannie/Freddie Subsidies: $14 billion (Federal Housing Finance Agency (p. 10))

Eliminate Dept. of Commerce: $13.9 billion (Department of Commerce)

Eliminate Dept. of Interior: $12 billion (White House)

Legalize Pot, Online gambling, Immigrants: $12 billion (Rep. Jared Polis D-Co.)

Privatize Army Corps of Engineers: $10.6 billion (Cato Institute)

Cut federal employee travel budget: $10 billion (Heritage Foundation)

Eliminate National Science Foundation: $7.4 billion (National Science Foundation)

End EPA’s State and Local grants: $6.5 billion (Cato Institute)

Repeal Davis-Bacon: $6 billion (Republican Study Committee)

Privatize TSA: $5.7 billion (Federal Budget)

Cut Dept. of Justice’s State and Local grants: $5 billion (Heritage Foundation)

Privatize Post Office: $4 billion (White House)

Eliminate Small Business Administration: $1.8 billion (Small Business Administration)

Lease coastal plain of ANWR: $1.5 billion (Heritage Foundation)

Eliminate Federal Flood Insurance: $1.3 billion (CBO, pg. 3)

Abolish SEC: $1.3 billion (SEC)

Eliminate Corporation for National Community Service: $1 billion (Cato Institute)

Suspend acquisition of federal office space: $1 billion (Heritage Foundation)

End subsidies for public broadcasting: $500 million (Cato Institute)

Eliminate the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp: $480 million (Heritage Foundation)

Eliminate the FCC: $439 million (FCC)

Eliminate the Endowments for Arts/Humanities: $332 million (NEA/NEH)

Total Cut: $1,882,619,000,000

Current deficit: $1,645,000,000,000

Surplus Achieved: $237,619,000,000

(Research by Maxim Lott and Charles Couger.)

They don't need to drive us deeper in debt. They choose to. Tune in tonight at 10pm to see how they could choose differently.

--

*Notes

Department of Energy is eliminated except for Nuclear arms maintenance

Department of Agriculture is eliminated, except for food programs for the needy

Department of Labor is eliminated, except for 26-week unemployment benefits

Defense budget would still be $243 billion, more than twice what the next highest country (China) spends

Medicare and Medicaid savings breakdown:

Block grant Medicaid and freeze spending (226)

Repeal 2010 healthcare law (87)

Increase Medicare premiums (39.8)

Cut non-Medicare premiums (37.7)

Cut Medicare payment error rate by 50% (28.6)

Increase Medicare deductibles (12.6)

Tort Reform (10)

Social Security savings breakdown:

Price index initial benefits** 41.1

Raise the normal retirement age** 31.4

Cut Social Security disability program by 10% 13.2

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2011/07/29/take-chainsaw-budget-2#ixzz1UK7eLrqH

[Marine 2580]

and the fact that we're stationed all over the world for no reason, its like we want to police the world

we still have soldiers in fucking Germany

Forward outposts. They help for supply lines and a quick surplus of troops, although I do wish we weren't as scattered with our troops.

And places like Japan and Greenland havent a competent or useful army at all, because theres so many US soldiers stationed there for no fucking reason that they are totally protected. So they dont have to pay military costs! Instead, the US pays for them, basically, woopee.

United States has controlled Japan's military since the defeat of Japan in World War 2. Japan is not allowed to build too big of an army, nor attack anyone unless attacked first. Since America had limited Japan's military, we are to be stationed over there also.

This.

If anything, raise pay of soldiers, but cut building stuff, such as planes and everything. I don't know why we need so much shit that blows shit up when we don't use most of it to begin with.

Air superiority is a key factor for winning any modern war. Personally I just think our military programs need to be monitored much better, so that it can help prevent wasteful spending on what we don't need. I understand troops put their life's on the line in a warzone, but considering the pay of an enlisted troop in his 40's who joined/has only his high school degree, then he'll probably be making a lot more then the other graduating members of his class, when you add in the benefits, bonuses, and grade of pay for his rank.

[water.exe 725]

For a second i thought marine was gonna bash my post

[Marine 2580]

For a second i thought marine was gonna bash my post

Nah, there's too much there for me to message about when it comes to that whole thing. I'd rather not reply to something so large, unless you were to point out key details that you think should happen.

[water.exe 725]

basically marine John Stossel did amazing math on what we really dont need the government todo.

Total Cut: $1,882,619,000,000

Current deficit: $1,645,000,000,000

Surplus Achieved: $237,619,000,000

If we did what Stossel did we would achieve a $237.6 Billion Surplus

[JFK 546]

And places like Japan and Greenland havent a competent or useful army at all, because theres so many US soldiers stationed there for no fucking reason that they are totally protected. So they dont have to pay military costs! Instead, the US pays for them, basically, woopee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Self-Defense_Forces

Yet we still have soldiers in Germany and Japan 76 years after their defeats in World War II. What a total farce this is.

[water.exe 725]

Article 9

In theory, Japan's rearmament is prohibited by Article 9 of the Japanese constitution which states: "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes", and also, "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." In practice however, the Diet (or Parliament), which Article 41 of the Constitution defines as "the highest organ of the state power", established the Self-Defense Forces in 1954. Although they are equipped as a conventional military force, they are by law an extension of the police force, created solely to ensure national security. Due to the constitutional debate concerning the Forces' status, any attempt at increasing the Forces' capabilities and budget tends to be controversial. Thus the JSDF's capabilities are mainly defensive, with only limited overseas capabilities. The JSDF lacks offensive capabilities such as aircraft carriers, long-range surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, strategic bombers,[11] marines, amphibious units, and large caches of ammunition. The Rules of Engagement are strictly defined by the Self-Defence Forces Act 1954.[citation needed]