thebigabd
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Messages
- 13,496
- Reaction score
- 77
The current budget shortfall is about $750 billion.
The formula really isn't that complicated... You just have to be willing to make some cuts. Let's start high level.
The Lankford Report (which Oklahoma Senator James Lankford releases every year) identified $383 billion in wasteful govt spending. There would likely be debate on items in that report, but lets assume for a moment that we can agree on this number (either from items within the report, or other items out of the report, or some combination).... $385 billion in savings.
Bring military spending down to 2% of GDP (NATO minimum requirement). This would reduce the military budget to $420 billion instead of $750 billion. $330 billion in savings. China, our primary military rival, currently spends $178 billion their military. Meaning, this drop would still have us spending more than double what they do. I would drop it to 1%, but that would cause problems with NATO potentially because of the 2% commitment.
Cancel all foreign aid. $50 billion in savings.
Smaller Items
Remove mandates on the USPS to pre-fund 75 years of future pension payments. $5.5 billion in annual savings.
Stop building the Mexican border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for. $2 billion in annual savings.
Let 450,000 non-violent drug offenders out of jail/prison (which is actually a Libertarian concept, not a liberal one). Unknown savings.
HIGH LEVEL SPENDING SAVINGS: $775 billion in savings
Taxation Changes
Implement Inequality Tax on Large Corporations
This is a proposed tax on large employers exorbitant pay gaps between their executives and typical workers. Revenue raised from McDonalds, Walmart, JP Morgan, Home Depot, Amazon, Apple, and American Airlines ALONE would be $4 billion in extra tax revenue.
Implement "Extreme Wealth" Tax
Implementing a wealth tax, which has been proposed by Mike Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren would generate roughly $250 billion in additional tax revenue per year
2 new taxes on extreme wealth and spending cuts would result in:
$775 billion in spending cuts
$255 billion in additional tax revenue
Total: $1.03 trillion
Can it be done? Yes. Will cuts have to be made? Yes. Do we need to raise more tax revenue? Yes.
There are lots of other things I would like to do, but this is a very high level example showing there is absolutely a solution to this problem.
The formula really isn't that complicated... You just have to be willing to make some cuts. Let's start high level.
The Lankford Report (which Oklahoma Senator James Lankford releases every year) identified $383 billion in wasteful govt spending. There would likely be debate on items in that report, but lets assume for a moment that we can agree on this number (either from items within the report, or other items out of the report, or some combination).... $385 billion in savings.
Bring military spending down to 2% of GDP (NATO minimum requirement). This would reduce the military budget to $420 billion instead of $750 billion. $330 billion in savings. China, our primary military rival, currently spends $178 billion their military. Meaning, this drop would still have us spending more than double what they do. I would drop it to 1%, but that would cause problems with NATO potentially because of the 2% commitment.
Cancel all foreign aid. $50 billion in savings.
Smaller Items
Remove mandates on the USPS to pre-fund 75 years of future pension payments. $5.5 billion in annual savings.
Stop building the Mexican border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for. $2 billion in annual savings.
Let 450,000 non-violent drug offenders out of jail/prison (which is actually a Libertarian concept, not a liberal one). Unknown savings.
HIGH LEVEL SPENDING SAVINGS: $775 billion in savings
Taxation Changes
Implement Inequality Tax on Large Corporations
This is a proposed tax on large employers exorbitant pay gaps between their executives and typical workers. Revenue raised from McDonalds, Walmart, JP Morgan, Home Depot, Amazon, Apple, and American Airlines ALONE would be $4 billion in extra tax revenue.
Implement "Extreme Wealth" Tax
Implementing a wealth tax, which has been proposed by Mike Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren would generate roughly $250 billion in additional tax revenue per year
2 new taxes on extreme wealth and spending cuts would result in:
$775 billion in spending cuts
$255 billion in additional tax revenue
Total: $1.03 trillion
Can it be done? Yes. Will cuts have to be made? Yes. Do we need to raise more tax revenue? Yes.
There are lots of other things I would like to do, but this is a very high level example showing there is absolutely a solution to this problem.
