Slashdot Mirror
No U.S. Government Shutdown This Week
A Reader writes "If you were hoping for a government shutdown today, you are going to be disappointed. In a last-hour cliffhanger, Democrats and Republicans managed to agree with each other enough to keep the government funded for the rest of the current fiscal year. Since the budget bill that finally passed was a compromise, no one is happy with it. So it goes. That's how things work in a representative government."
anymore.
I seriously doubt any of us have much in common with any of them.
anymore
Without a government shutdown how will the media try to frighten the general public with predictions and assumptions? I'll tell you what the 'almost' shutdown did for the economy - it gave a whole lot of 'journalists' and people who blog something to blather about. It's all about ads and page views, people.
Why is this on Slashdot? How is it even "news for nerds"?
This is just general political news. There's really nothing technical about it. It has nothing to do with science. It has nothing to do with computing. It has nothing to do with science fiction. It has nothing to do with anything related to Slashdot.
If I wanted to read crap like this, I could go to CNN's web site.
[Obama] praised the [budget] deal as a model of bipartisan cooperation.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/09/congress.budget/index.html?iref=NS1
If this whole budget fiasco, in which hundreds of thousands of Americans were put in jeopardy over something that should have been taken care of weeks if not months ago instead literally at the very last minute is a model of how our government wants issues taken care of, then we have a big problem. This is basically confirming that Washington prefers politics to people. Our country can not afford to have our elected representatives playing chicken with anything, let alone something as important as the budget. Stop trying to make the other guy look bad, stop pandering to your donors and special interests, and just get the god damn job done. You're supposed to be helping this country, not holding it hostage.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
"That's how things work in a representative government." No, that's how things work in a schizophrenic government. Nowhere in the constitution is power over the government given to political parties. They were invented solely for overcoming slow communications and lack of education during elections. We have significantly improved both. Yet our "representatives" do not represent us at all; they vote according to who they party with rather than in the interests of their constituencies. You've heard the phrase "across the aisle." What it refers to is the fact that senators and representatives do not sit with others from their own state - they sit in two big camps of Democrats vs. Republicans. They should be forced to sit by state and to completely deny any party affiliation once they are elected. Right now most of a politician's time is spent trying to thwart the efforts of half the government. It's a wonder we get anything done at all the way this beast keeps tearing at itself.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
(Rhetorical)
Nah, keep the tax cuts. Just pulverize the military. Do the whole Cardassians Left Bajor thing and we can use the pantheon of DS9 to guide us through the mess. (/Rhetorical)
No? See, that's the deadliest political trap of all, the one the Republicans built their party on - "We'll have fun giving people tax cuts and we'll make the Democrats clean up the mess!" Then the Masses don't understand why things are so tough, and they elect in more Republicans who "ease the burdens of sacrifice" with more tax cuts.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
You could eliminate the military and raise income taxes to 100% and still not balance the budget.
The 800lb gorilla of spending in the room is entitlements: social security, medicare and medicaid. If these programs aren't fixed and soon it will be too late.
Start with "Defense" spending....
"According to figures Wheeler compiled for The Pentagon Labyrinth, the military’s base budget of $549 billion in 2011 is just the starting point for calculating military dollars. Adding in war spending ($159 billion), homeland defense ($44 billion), Veterans Affairs ($122 billion), interest on defense-related debt ($48 billion) and other items pushes the total to more than $1 trillion a year. In constant dollars, adjusted for inflation, the regular military budget, not including the add-ons, has doubled from a low of about $360 billion in 1998 to more than $739 billion in 2011. It’s so much money that, as the Bipartisan Policy report points out, by 2009 US spending on military research and development alone, about $80 billion, surpassed China’s entire military budget by more than $10 billion. The budget for the US Special Forces alone is greater than the total military spending of nearly 100 countries; overall, the United States spends about as much on defense as the rest of the world combined."
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
The US government is based on one idea nowadays:
Government of the people by the government, for the government.
They do what they do to stay in power.
While it is true that ultimately the people DO have the ability to replace the government, in practice this would be hard to achieve- everything is set up to maintain the status quo.
And most of the Money in the US likes the status quo: they get still more money.
The largest cooperative groups in the US are the "scary people"- the religious conservatives and corporate entities that continue to make more money. The religious groups have been catered to by a large number of politicians in order to gain/retain the political clout and the corporations have funded the same politicians to continue to receive tax breaks and federal policies that allow them to make still more money.
The PEOPLE in the US are a fractured group, many of whom are so busy simply believing what the Talking Heads say (even when contradicting themselves) that they can not get past pre-conceived ideas that are not based on facts. The PEOPLE in the US are therefore unable to exert much real influence on real issues- every time we get close a topic that is truly silly will be brought up to de-focus attention from important subjects.
Our government is rarely able to accomplish anything meaningful FOR the people of the US and this will continue as long as so many citizens believe that things like gay marriage, presidential infidelity or building a physical fence along our borders are truly important agenda items.
Wake up, America.
Linux computers, watercooled, photography
With over a $1.5 trillion deficit, congrats, you've just reduced the deficit by .025%. The coming forced austerity is going to be a lot worse than if Congress got it's head out of its ass and worked to cut the deficit.
Fixing our budget problems is easy.
1) Take a sheet of paper and divide it into two columns. Title the sheet "Budget"
2) Under the left column list all absolutely necessary for government as spelled out by the Constitution (see 10th Amendment)
3) STOP
#3 is the most important part.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
That's sort of the point. From what was being said, it was primarily the GOP trying to abuse the budgeting process that was causing the trouble. Nearly all of the actual budget related negotiations had been completed, it was just ideological amendments which were holding it up. Things like preventing access to Planned Parenthood, cutting funds to regulate banks, cutting funds to enact the healthcare reform and reducing funds to NOAA and the EPA which were sticking points.
The actual amount of money there was paltry and the only reason why those things were being targeted was because they're politically unpopular with conservatives.
For all the obsession about balanced budgets you rarely, if ever, hear the GOP pushing plans which would actually do it. It's all about tax cuts for billionaires, increased government spending on programs they like, and cuts to programs that help low and middle class citizens survive.
As a Kurt Vonnegut fan, my first question was "Who died?"
Then I saw what programs were getting cut drastically, and the answer is abundantly clear: poor people and old people.
I am officially gone from
You wouldn't need taxes anywhere near 100% to fully fund all those programs and have plenty left over to pay down the debt. Currently the US pays around 25% of GDP to taxes (of all kinds). So, raise that to 50% and you double the total tax taken, at all levels. Well, last year federal tax income was about $2.16 trillion, and expenditures were about $3.46 trillion. Double $2.16 trillion and you get $4.32 trillion. That means you can fund everything and have $860 billion left over to pay down the debt.
In actuality, it could even be more because we are talking about doubling total tax liability, which includes non-federal taxes. So less federal funding would need to be given to states since they'd be taking in more.
This is not impossible, by the way, Sweden pays about 50% in GDP in taxes.
For that matter, you wouldn't even need to go that far. In 2010 SS and Medicare taxes amounted to about $860 billion. The two programs cost about $1.5 trillion. So, double the SS and Medicare tax and you have $1.7 trillion in income, enough to fund it and extra, you don't even need to mess with income tax or anything else.
Not saying that this is what should be done, that the programs should be reexamined and modified, but this bullshit of "Oh we can't fund them no matter how much we tax!" is just that: bullshit. It is completely false. It is true they are quite underfunded, but they could be fixed by raising taxes. Right now the combined tax rate is 7.65% to you and to your employer so 15.3% total. Increase that to 15.3% each, 30.6% and both programs are fully funded with money to spare at current levels.
The issue is that we'd have to slash the defense budget by about $300bn in order to get anywhere near there. And we'd have to raise taxes on the rich as well. There's a lot of fixation on the spending, but the problem hasn't been relegated to just spending, there's also been dumb tax cuts to leeches which have further skewed the figures.
The GOP is responsible for at least $200bn of debt that they won't cut and won't allow to be taken from the rich to pay for. And that doesn't include the money that's been lost due to tax cuts either.
You forget part #4: "Defending against roving bands of marauders"
And part #5: "Disposal of bodies of dead seniors"
The only problem with your analysis is that it doesn't match the facts. Did inflation adjusted tax revenue go up or down during the Reagan and Bush years?
Since the answer is up, then how can you blame tax cuts for a larger deficit? Any chance the larger deficit was caused by Congress increasing spending ever more?
Your story leaves a LOT out....
Congress has been spending WAY too much for years. It gets worse when the Republicans control both houses. It gets even worse when Democrats control both houses.
When Republicans spend too much, their party members (not all, but a decent majority) make them lose primaries and general elections. When Democrats spend too much, they've just paid of their core constituency as expected.
Hence the cycle of Republicans always becoming the party of lower spending once they lose elections.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
The US isn't in the world to "bring peace" or to "help someone". Look around the globe and realize just where the US invade and why. Hint: It's not for human rights. It's for mining rights. And to protect the USD's position as the world's leading currency. If the world switched lead currencies tomorrow, the US would go bankrupt near instantly.
That's the whole deal and that's also the reason why that army is necessary. You have to keep countries in reign that even as much as consider creating a oil exchange based on another currency (little secret: That's the reason behind the Iraq war, Hussein dared to think of a Euro based oil trade hub. Also the reason why the UK were so eager to join the US in that fight while the rest of the EU was quite reluctant, but I ramble). This way, the US can easily "tax" every country in the world. How? By doing what they're doing currently, running the printing press like mad. Everyone's owing them money, but they control the amount of that money in circulation. If I get to print as much money as I want to, it doesn't really matter whether I owe you a thousand or a million bucks, does it?
Quite the opposite. Since everyone traded in that currency, everyone also has quite a bit of interest in keeping it stable since their debtors, too, owe them USDs. It's the money you trade in. Now would you want that money to lose value if you're supposed to get some from someone?
And now let's imagine for a moment that some countries decide, which would be in their best interest btw, to forgo the USD and trade in something else. Euros are a nice idea, mostly because the economies backing it are so diverse and prone to infighting that a sudden change in policy is near impossible. How'd you want to keep them in line and trading in USD if you can't put some gentle pressure on them?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Systems of governance are ultimately a reflection of their society. In this particular case - that of budgetary issues & massive debt - we're talking about a society with masses of people unable to keep balanced personal budgets; generally at the forefront when it comes to rates of living on a debt, consumptionism, etc.
And revolutions tend to not promote the "best" people, but the most ruthless ones.
One that hath name thou can not otter
For all this talk of "budget savings" no politician has the guts to tackle REAL savings by cutting the stuff that will actually make a difference in the long run.
How about stopping payments to farmers to grow crops on land that is otherwise un-viable to grow those crops on?
How about spending less money on buying fancy new scanners for airports that do nothing to make airplanes safer from bad guys?
How about giving less money to the coal industry?
How about removing tax cuts and subsidies for the big end of town and making them pay their fair share?
How about spending less money on IP enforcement on behalf of the big content companies?
Oh wait, this is America where big corporations and special interests rule the day and where saying bad things about corn can get you sued for everything you own and then some.