15 November 2010

I solved the federal budget deficit

You can try your hand at it as well, at a New York Times interactive article.  You will need to make choices about a) increasing taxes and b) cutting spending (there's no option to "grow our way out of" the deficit).

As you make your decisions, changes are displayed for both short-term (2015) and longer-term (2030) budgets.  The site then provides a link for your decision matrix, which you can then share with friends.

Here's my balanced budget; I'm not claiming it's the best possible one - I just clicked boxes for two minutes.  Have a go for yourself at this starting link.

Reddit discussion thread here.

9 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 15, 2010 at 10:19 AM

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=gmbln56r

    Obviously, I am biased by being European and seeing some things differently.

    It's a pity that hard caps for costs of medical procedures, medicine etc is not an option.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MinnesotastanNovember 15, 2010 at 10:46 AM

    I think the important thing is not HOW it is done, but that it CAN be done - by a variety of methods.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 15, 2010 at 11:13 AM

    I would be ecstatic if this topic actually becomes a major issue of the next election.

    Especially if it makes people realize that it would be SOOOOOO easy to fix the majority of our budget woes by simply reducing the military budget.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MikeNovember 15, 2010 at 12:13 PM

    This is exactly the kind of thing I've been trying to get my friends to do. Everyone wants a balanced budget, but none of them seem willing to make the hard choices to get it there.

    I did the exercise by hand using the publicly available budget estimates. This is much more streamlined, and gets the same point across.

    To Anonymous: The 'Tea Party' (of which I am not a part, btw) made the effort to make this topic a major issue in this election. Let's see if the American people at large are willing to actually see government cut, and taxes increased.

    ReplyDelete
  5. MinnesotastanNovember 15, 2010 at 12:19 PM

    One suggestion at the Reddit thread is that every congressman (Senators and Representatives) should be required to complete an exercise like this and make their results public.

    That would be interesting...

    ReplyDelete
  6. AmyNovember 15, 2010 at 6:25 PM

    I'd be curious to see how much revenue would be generated by no longer exempting churches. Payroll, property -- there has to be some serious money there.

    ReplyDelete
  7. BarbwireNovember 15, 2010 at 9:14 PM

    Decreasing military spending is a must. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are ruining us financially. The Bush tax cuts for the rich must be stopped. We should go back to the level of taxes under St. Ronald of Reagan. And I love Amy's idea. Evey bit of income from church investments should be taxed, beginning yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  8. M. WrightNovember 18, 2010 at 7:04 PM

    I've been lurking for a while and enjoy this blog.

    Here's how I "solved" the debt:
    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=8mbj45qv

    In order to end the deficit, I had to raise taxes more than I would have liked. On the other hand, I don't feel right about cutting benefits for the disabled, the elderly, veterans, or anyone who is vulnerable.

    Most of the taxes were raised on people who are well off.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousNovember 20, 2010 at 8:17 PM

    I went to the NYT widget, but was frustrated because there was no "Default on Debt to China" option.

    ReplyDelete