Sacre Bleu! Wealthy French Push for Higher Taxes, Warren Buffett Smiles

[mawilson 2,133]

That will make a real dent in the long term CBO deficit projections, no doubt. But it doesn't tackle Medicare, Medicaid, defense, interest payments on the ballooning debt, or discretionary spending. We'll still have a shortfall.

Medicare would have to be reformed as well, but yes, I'd be ok with a combination of revenue increases and spending cuts then, if we *still* had a shortfall.

2011 Budget Breakdown (Interactive)

[scandal 951]

.... I'd be ok with a combination of revenue increases and spending cuts ....

Wow! Was that so difficult?

[mawilson 2,133]

Wow! Was that so difficult?

No, it's not difficult, but increasing the tax burden should be a last resort. I'd like to see some genuine effort to reduce spending before they make that leap.

Here's the latest example of government waste: Pentagon pays $720M in late fees for storage containers

"This is real money. And we've spent a lot of it on what amounts to fines for overdue library books."

Edited August 29, 2011 by mawilson

[mawilson 2,133]

Hypothetically then, let's say we have it your way. We privatize Social Security and reformulate it for only small segments of our society with everyone else saving for their own retirement. I'm not saying I favor this (I don't, at least not at such an extreme), but let's go with this for a moment.

Let's call this "extreme" the "Australian model". You know everything's better in Australia.