Author Topic: Obama wants to halve budget deficit  (Read 11652 times)

Reaves

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Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« on: February 22, 2009, 01:19:34 AM »
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090221/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_budget

As the article says, "a lofty goal". One I think is impossible. However, I am all for scaling government down. He says he wants to scale back spending and improve government efficiency by eliminating programs that don't work.

What do you guys think? Is it probable? Is it even possible? Are the ways he says he will do it effective or beneficial means?
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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2009, 02:22:02 AM »
Whether probable or possible, it is necessary.

That said, I don't see how he thinks he'll be able to do this while he goes throwing cash out left and right to subsidize this and that.  This recent stimulus package includes a HUGE subsidy for Cobra—individuals and businesses who pay for their own health insurance gain nothing (including the self-employed), but individuals who have lost their jobs get a massive subsidy to their healthcare—often making it less expensive than healthcare for people who pay for their own.

Essentially it's a big money-sink for the government which does not help the economy at all, but which does help unemployed folks keep health insurance (in fact, it reduces one incentive they might have had to get back to work).  With Obama passing these sorts of programs left and right, I don't see how he thinks he's going to be able to reduce the deficit.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2009, 02:26:06 AM by The Jade Knight »
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Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2009, 08:21:13 AM »
We're unable to get health insurance that's not through Cobra. When we applied to plans that would have halved our costs, we got rejected for reasons of preexisting conditions. So it's either $710 per month for Cobra, or no health insurance at all. Seems to me any help for Cobra people is to help them pay for health insurance, not to help the economy. But last I heard, we fall outside the Cobra help window because we started on it in July. Arrgh.

However, this is hardly the Obama administration's last word on health insurance. It's just a stopgap to help people out of a job, not any kind of long-term solution. I'm interested to see what actually happens.

Obama is not the first government official to talk about saving money by eliminating inefficiency. Has anyone been able to do it before? Dunno, maybe if they hadn't tried, our government would be even more wasteful now than it is. It seems pretty hard to get the government to be very efficient just because it is so darn massive—and even a "small" government in the eyes of any major politician is still going to have to be huge because there are tons of people in this country.

He does seem serious about it, though, making it a point in his inaugural address to talk about eliminating programs that don't work.
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Reaves

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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2009, 01:55:14 PM »
yes, I am curious as to how this will line up with his other policies. Even if he succeeds in decreasing the deficit by more than $ 500 billion, it still doesn't match the money spent in the stimulus bill...
Also, I am curious where most of the money that will go towards the deficit is coming from. Bush's tax cuts for those making $250, ooo will expire in 2011, and Obama also says he wants to raise taxes on "the rich" (don't know where that starts, although he may have defined it somewhere else) by 4%, from 35% to 39%.
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Nessa

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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2009, 04:07:14 PM »
Where will he get the money? It's called tax increases. And if we think the economy is bad now, just wait until he does that.
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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2009, 04:26:00 PM »
while reducing the defecit is, naturally, a good thing, i don't know if right now is the opportune time to do so. But I'm not the one calling the shots, so we'll see.
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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2009, 02:52:08 AM »
Right now, the US goverment spends approximatley 10% of its revenues servicing the debt (i.e., on interest).  It is critically important that we reduce the deficit and then debt as quickly as possible, before we end up spending higher and higher percentages on interest, and the government has to raise more and more taxes, or go deeper and deeper in debt, just to keep service the same.
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The Jade Knight

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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2009, 08:28:22 AM »
Obama's proposed budget has a decificit of FOUR TIMES the previous RECORD.  The man is going to ruin our country if he keeps this up:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Obama_budget_calls_for_record_US_deficit?curid=121593
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Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2009, 10:36:37 AM »
Yes, but how does it compare to previous years' deficits as a percentage of national GDP? (I don't know, and I'm going to bed so I'm not looking it up.) I think that's a more useful statistic than just the raw dollar amount.

Also if he quadruples it this year that makes it easy to cut it in half (compared to this year) within a few years like he wants to do, right? And you were wondering how he could pull it off.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2009, 10:38:21 AM by Ookla The Mok »
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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2009, 12:46:20 PM »
Heh, yes, quadruple the deficit (or worse), and then cut it in half.  Piece of cake!
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Reaves

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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2009, 02:06:01 PM »
I learned that one of the ways he is going to lower the deficit is by decreasing the amount those making over 250,000 get in tax returns...for CHARITY. He says the amount of money that charities are losing will be given back to them by the government.
...
So the charities are getting the same amount...the government is spending the same amount...and the rich people lose money. And that is if every dollar the government gives towards the charities actually make it to the charities, and none are spent on accounting etc.

Hooray for Robin Hood!
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The Jade Knight

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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #11 on: March 01, 2009, 05:21:19 PM »
His plans are just starting to sound dumber and dumber by the minute.
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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2009, 05:54:16 PM »
Huzzah!  For change!

Your's or mine?
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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #13 on: March 01, 2009, 08:55:19 PM »
To say that I'm not thrilled about Obama's current budget plan is a severe understatement. I read that over the next decade, the national debt will double under this plan. ...That...that couldn't possibly have any horrible ramifications...

I was hoping Obama would be smarter than this.
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Re: Obama wants to halve budget deficit
« Reply #14 on: March 01, 2009, 09:33:15 PM »
It's been worse.

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