After the recent elections, The New York Times ran an article challenging its readers to balance the national budget. This past Sunday, Doyle McManus ran a similar article in the LA Times.
The basic premise is to take the federal debt, which is about $14 trillion, and cut $2 trillion from it over the next 8 years, thus reducing the debt to about 60% of GDP. This would also stop it from growing larger. I know- the debt still being 60% of GDP sounds scary, but that's where we are.
This particular site is from the bi-partisan think tank Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. If you don't like theirs, there are several others you can Google. Of course, depending on your political ideology, you will have some issues with the choices offered, but this one seemed about as centrist as they come.
So, good luck- it's not as easy as you think it's going to be.
http://www.crfb.org/stabilizethedebt
We could start by not giving away 25 billion a year to other countries. We could then develop our untapped domestic oil resources like the Bakken Formation. Finally, we could re-invest in our own industry to minimize our dependence on foreign products like steel, tin, sulfer and coal. It would also help if we weren't such an aggressive country, starting wars without merit (Iraq). Should we be trying to instigate wars in other lands where we don't belong (Korea)? How much does the war effort and supporting troops abroad cost? what is the long term plan for Afghanistan?
ReplyDelete