Balancing act
April 10, 2004 12:07 AM Subscribe
Yes, yes I can.
Cut military spending, citizent tax cuts, and corporate tax breaks. Hold everything else even. Voila!
posted by falconred at 1:32 AM on April 10, 2004
Cut military spending, citizent tax cuts, and corporate tax breaks. Hold everything else even. Voila!
posted by falconred at 1:32 AM on April 10, 2004
Never, ever let me near the federal treasury. I managed to soak the hell out of everyone but me taxwise, and I still blew my entire wad and them some blowing up Iraq a couple times.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 1:38 AM on April 10, 2004
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 1:38 AM on April 10, 2004
I think a better question would be, "can anyone NOT balance the budget?" The rest of this paragraph is so damn obvious, it chose to erase itself rather than partake in partisan *VOORP*
posted by kevspace at 1:42 AM on April 10, 2004
posted by kevspace at 1:42 AM on April 10, 2004
Let's see, eliminate agricultural, environmental and welfare spending... yup.
posted by dagny at 2:28 AM on April 10, 2004
posted by dagny at 2:28 AM on April 10, 2004
Your new deficit is $-42.15 billion.
Oops!
You've cut so much that the federal budget now contains a substantial surplus. Many economists warn that this budget may help induce or prolong a recession, and ordinary citizens demand a refund. You might want to cut taxes or raise spending.
Hmm, all I did was eliminate military spending: I didn't touch anything else. Could probably re-balance the budget by spending that surplus on education and health, or giving the poor some tax cuts as well as the ones I left the rich guys with.
posted by reklaw at 5:59 AM on April 10, 2004
Oops!
You've cut so much that the federal budget now contains a substantial surplus. Many economists warn that this budget may help induce or prolong a recession, and ordinary citizens demand a refund. You might want to cut taxes or raise spending.
Hmm, all I did was eliminate military spending: I didn't touch anything else. Could probably re-balance the budget by spending that surplus on education and health, or giving the poor some tax cuts as well as the ones I left the rich guys with.
posted by reklaw at 5:59 AM on April 10, 2004
just for an arbitrary look at a world-without-W, I eliminated the tax cuts and spending on the war and rolled back defense spending and corporate tax breaks and got a $21 billion dollar surplus.
posted by mcsweetie at 6:24 AM on April 10, 2004
posted by mcsweetie at 6:24 AM on April 10, 2004
I'm trying to figure out roughly how much each tax payer would get if the hypothetical surplus was given back as a rebate of some sort, but I'm not sure how to find out how many people in america actually pay.
I looked up the us population in the cia world fact book and got 193,690,028 people aged 15-64 and worked it out to about $103 per person, but obviously not everyone in that group has to pay their income tax, etc. any ideas?
posted by mcsweetie at 6:54 AM on April 10, 2004
I looked up the us population in the cia world fact book and got 193,690,028 people aged 15-64 and worked it out to about $103 per person, but obviously not everyone in that group has to pay their income tax, etc. any ideas?
posted by mcsweetie at 6:54 AM on April 10, 2004
You have cut the deficit by $434.73 billion.
Your new deficit is $-77.72 billion.
Well, that was easy. Less than five minutes, and I didn't even have to take any meetings, or attend a press conference.
posted by LeLiLo at 10:54 AM on April 10, 2004
Your new deficit is $-77.72 billion.
Well, that was easy. Less than five minutes, and I didn't even have to take any meetings, or attend a press conference.
posted by LeLiLo at 10:54 AM on April 10, 2004
Yay I cutted 7 billion out of the deficit :) What do I win ?!
posted by elpapacito at 11:13 AM on April 10, 2004
posted by elpapacito at 11:13 AM on April 10, 2004
Old budget was $3274.734 billion
($2292.807 billion in spending, $981.927 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
New budget is $176.4 billion
($176.4 billion in spending, $0 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
You have cut the deficit by $3098.33 billion.
Your new deficit is $-2741.32 billion.
I rock. Elect me. I can cut the deficit by 3 trillion dollars.
posted by Hypharse at 12:15 PM on April 10, 2004
($2292.807 billion in spending, $981.927 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
New budget is $176.4 billion
($176.4 billion in spending, $0 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
You have cut the deficit by $3098.33 billion.
Your new deficit is $-2741.32 billion.
I rock. Elect me. I can cut the deficit by 3 trillion dollars.
posted by Hypharse at 12:15 PM on April 10, 2004
and now for the other side of things!
this time I implemented a 50% increase in military spending and in the war in Iraq (but none for retirement); eliminated non-defense energy, enviromental, medicare, welfare, and social security spending; cut agriculture, transportation, community and regional development, education, non-medicare health, and employer-paid health insurance spending by half, and added 20% to both tax cuts, coporate tax breaks, and personal business & investment benefits.
You have cut the deficit by $950.73 billion.
Your new deficit is $-593.72 billion.
WOW! that's enough to cut everyone in my arbitrarily defined group of tax payers $3,065, which can be somewhat used to put one child through a year of private school at an average cost of $3,116 since public schooling is pretty much out of the question, figuring in how bad they are now plus the sanctions of losing half of their budget. that is, assuming one of the three global ubercorporations that are capitalism is this little scorched earth scenario don't goudge the prices.
posted by mcsweetie at 12:41 PM on April 10, 2004
this time I implemented a 50% increase in military spending and in the war in Iraq (but none for retirement); eliminated non-defense energy, enviromental, medicare, welfare, and social security spending; cut agriculture, transportation, community and regional development, education, non-medicare health, and employer-paid health insurance spending by half, and added 20% to both tax cuts, coporate tax breaks, and personal business & investment benefits.
You have cut the deficit by $950.73 billion.
Your new deficit is $-593.72 billion.
WOW! that's enough to cut everyone in my arbitrarily defined group of tax payers $3,065, which can be somewhat used to put one child through a year of private school at an average cost of $3,116 since public schooling is pretty much out of the question, figuring in how bad they are now plus the sanctions of losing half of their budget. that is, assuming one of the three global ubercorporations that are capitalism is this little scorched earth scenario don't goudge the prices.
posted by mcsweetie at 12:41 PM on April 10, 2004
I cut everything in natural resources and environment, agriculture (the damn farmers can go pound sand with the rest of us), social security (I figure that'll also make medicare cheaper to pay for when all the damn old people end up starving to death), net interest, tax cuts (OH NO, THE SUPER RICH ARE GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH WITHOUT THEIR TAX CUTS), and corporate tax breaks (I figure killing industry will fix the pollution problem).
Old budget was $3251.488 billion
($2264.172 billion in spending, $987.316 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
New budget is $2255.11 billion
($1551.1 billion in spending, $704.01 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
You have cut the deficit by $996.38 billion.
Your new deficit is $-639.37 billion.
Yay! I just saved a trillion dollars a year.
posted by Veritron at 2:01 PM on April 10, 2004
Old budget was $3251.488 billion
($2264.172 billion in spending, $987.316 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
New budget is $2255.11 billion
($1551.1 billion in spending, $704.01 billion in tax expenditures and cuts).
You have cut the deficit by $996.38 billion.
Your new deficit is $-639.37 billion.
Yay! I just saved a trillion dollars a year.
posted by Veritron at 2:01 PM on April 10, 2004
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Your new deficit is $355.73 billion.
Yay! I cut the deficit! Do I get to keep a percentage of the savings...?
And I did it by raising military & judicial spending, cutting environmental & general administrative spending, and leaving the tax cuts in place. Heh.
posted by davidmsc at 1:20 AM on April 10, 2004