Sorry to butt in SD/King... just had some thoughts
Things have to be cut, period. They can be smart about it and trim the fat, and make due where they can. Just like 99.9% of American families are doing. People talk about the people wanting cuts but don’t want to lose any gov’t services. I’d be happy to trim some services, like NEA funding, for example, that I don’t think is critical to the functioning of the federal government.
Look at Holland for example: for the middle class there is a 60% tax rate. Seems a little high, until you realize that this means people never have to pay for health care, public education as high up as undergraduate college is free, and immigrants (particularly malcontents from the US) are provided with free housing and a bunch of amazing advantages.
What is considered ‘middle class’ over there? If my family (on two full-time incomes) makes $90,000 gross, we would have $36,000 net after taxes. There is no way ‘free’ health care and other stuff makes up for that hit. That barely pays the mortgage and bills. I am assuming everything else is equal (cost of living, housing, etc…) which I know it is not.
Well like I said, whether through taxes or mortgage, the money doesn't just "disappear." It pays off some expense that we as citizens incur. Although I agree, we can definitely trim some fat, just be sure that trimming said fat doesn't cause further harm in the future.
On the other
other hand, I feel another fundamental problem that undercuts our inability to get past either raising taxes or cutting spending is the American lifestyle of affluence and comfort. People in America are used to living in affluence relative to the rest of the world. I know I'm a hypocrite for saying so because I want to live well same as everyone else, but we may just have to give that up for a while, at least until we can get the economy to catch up in a generation or two. I mean if you think about it, Dubya's insane spending habits are not the *only* reason we're in this mess; there were the credit shortcuts, Wall Street corruption, the housing bubble...much of it derived from people trying to live well beyond their means. If you
really want this economy to heal itself, you tell the American people to abandon their materialistic lifestyle, but that of course is foolish and impossible.
There's a place in Boston called Redbones. The cornmeal catfish and hushpuppys are to die for.
CC. That is what I'm saying. Somethings have to be cut. Now, I'm not smart enough to tell you which ones should but I would hope our elected officials could make some hard choices for us, since it's their job and they work for us, the tax payers.
Alright so I suppose that's a bad example, so I'll explain it simply, but I do feel as though it doesn't really do the matter justice: reducing cost means quality is reduced too, whether we're talking in terms of the private or public sectors of the economy. Giving health care to corporations and competition would produce the McDonald's effect: health care could become really cheap, but you'd be doing more for your well-being to consult WebMD for all of your medical advice.
Lower education spending = lower quality teachers and lower quality and outdated textbooks = lower quality classes = mediocre education
I agree with quite a bit of what you've said in this thread, but pouring money into a cause does not make it better. Spending more on education will not give us better teachers, better schools, a better system, and ultimately better educated kids.
The priority should be to optimize and improve the efficiency and efficacy of programs. Which, of course, requires money. But once the Republicans and Democrats have voted to put money into a given cause, they've "gotten credit" for it politically and publicly, so they don't care beyond that.
Both parties are misguided in their desires of where to allocate funding, but it doesn't even matter because they're both clueless with regard to fixing the problems inherent in the system.
-J
This is true and part of why I want to pursue a career in public policy. A brilliant Republican friend of mine noted that all the money in the world will do no good without proper distribution. That said however, all the skillful distribution of resources cannot occur if all that money is suddenly pulled out of the program.
Topic: G.O.P. 2011: Sacrificing tomorrow for a better today (Read 12365 times)
