Atryn, how do you propose we avoid default within the naxt 5-10 years? If you could have any policy in place, how would you change it?

The only politically viable option I see is one that ties the hands of both sides on revenue and expenditures. Otherwise, the fight for power trumps the need to negotiate. They are the type of folks on the Titanic still arguing over who gets the last chair.

The vehicle could be something like a Balanced Budget Amendment that carries automatic cuts and taxes.

who the hell says a US default is going to happen in the next 10 years? pretty much every forecast there is, even if there is an optimistic bias, has the US not defaulting. the market has the US not defaulting.

this default fluff that republicans are justifying this retardedness with is just that - complete fluff. if the US defaults it will be because congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, not because the US is running out of money in the next 10 years.

is the long term fiscal trajectory looking bad? sure, but the effects of that on actual government ability to pay it's debts won't be realized until 20/30 years from now and that's if nothing changes. the idea that the US is headed towards default in the next few years is just tarded.

and finally, "Obamacare" is not the reason the US' fiscal situation doesn't look that great

the rising cost of healthcare is the reason that our fiscal situation doesn't look that great and Obamacare is the Messiah that will save us?

wrt controlling the budget in the future, I like the failed grand bargain that John Bohner was forced to walk away from. Obama still has it on the table and will gladly negotiate it if the Repubs pass a clean spending bill.

+cuts to entitlements
+lower tax rates for corporations
+increases in top tax rates
+decrease in social welfare programs
+increase/diversion of spending to research, education, and infrastructure
+Defense spending cuts

Yes, this is the same CBO trajectories we were discussing earlier. It's all educated guessing.

There is a lurking issue for how long can you raise the debt ceiling without seriously jeopardizing your credit ratings. The debt still has to be bought by something or someone, somewhere. If we find ourselves racing toward bbb then it may come much quicker.

Obamacare costs more money because of Medicaid expansion. The theory is it will save money down the road because of preventative medicine through more people on insurance, ergo the reason preventative care was included in the essential health benefits. Similar to CBO predictions, we will have to see what comes of it.

Define "clean." The "clean" bill offered by the senate does not incorporate the Budget Control Act's sequestration-mandated cuts. So it's not clean, it's an increase in spending.

Obama's promises to negotiate once Republicans hand over their leverage is amusing, but I'm sure people routinely agree to buy a car and then haggle on the price.

Not sure what you are referring to...

Make sure you are familiar with the U.S. Debt history... here is a good article from 2012.

http://www.theatlantic.com/...in-1-little-chart/265185/

Note that the article points out that the U.S. has ALWAYS been in debt. "The earliest full reckoning of US national debt was compiled by Alexander Hamilton, the first US Treasury Secretary... The analysis dates to 1790 and puts the newborn US at around a 30% debt-to-GDP ratio, with the debt a bit higher than $75 million."

In other words, debt doesn't make us default on our debt. Default on debt is based on an inability to pay the interest on the debt. We are in no danger of that.

The next concern is whether we can afford to continue spending at a deficit (increasing the debt) AND continue providing the benefits (largely entitlements) AND running the military we run. Social Security's disability fund should be insolvent in 2016 based on its current trajectory. The broader SS fund won't be insolvent until 2020 or later. But even if SS went totally bankrupt, that wouldn't impact our ability to service our debt.

So, not paying the interest on the debt isn't a matter of "can-do", it is a matter of WILL. The question is whether we will just decide not to pay the interest on the debt. Currently, by law, the U.S. Treasury pays the interest on the debt FIRST. If there isn't enough money, it is other bills that don't get paid (like entitlements, government salaries). If we don't raise the debt ceiling, the government won't default on its debt. But it will likely default on SS payments, veterans benefits, etc.

What does that actually look like? Well, if you are a U.S. Veteran, the U.S. by LAW owes you that money. But if it doesn't have the money, they will (literally) send you an I.O.U. promising to pay you at some later date. You could then sell the IOU on a publicly traded market for some cash value. Here is an interesting article on that:

http://money.cnn.com/...y/debt-ceiling/index.html

Now, as to your question, if I had the magic policy wand, I would significantly cut military spending FIRST. I would raise the retirement age SECOND. I would close tax loopholes and change the non-profit status issues THIRD.

Personally I would love to also tax church income. That's easy for me as someone who dislikes institutionalized religion. ;)

With just the above, we would be running a surplus. I would use that surplus in 2 ways:

1. Invest in education modernization and education-based incubators.

2. To pay down the debt until we are back to at most 50% debt-to-GDP.

wouldn't that mean that people on SS and Mediwhatsit could sell their benefits? it's only legal to sell the IOU?

You're going to need to wipe the military in half, raise that age to 75 and eliminate all loopholes to bring us down to 50% debt-to-gdp ;).

Trust me, there are no easy answers. And the way our system is setup means advocating the tough answers largely becomes a kamikazee mission.

just implement a 90% entertainment sales tax. will probably also eliminate a major portion of video game related crime.

cut the military spending in half and you get like what? the ability to spend 10% more for SS and Medicare each?

trumper-

clean --> raising the debt limit without tying it to Obamacare

why not just admit that we can't be charitable if we don't have the money to take care of ourselves? let's borrow some more money to prove that we are the most charitable nation on Earth.

hang on a sec. i have to wait for a second for the psychotic laughing episode to pass because the IRS sent me a letter about seizing my lack of assets.

True, I am also counting on continued revenue increases and inflation to help.

Deficit this year is estimated at $642B (CBO, http://www.cbo.gov/publication/44172).

So you need to cut ~$700B to get to any surplus in the short term, assuming no revenue increases.

http://www.nytimes.com/...s/budget.html?hp&_r=0

Its not easy. :)

Kill them all or gtfo.
Hestons plan to balance the budget.

1. Cut off all forms of welfare.
2. Shoot all looters, thieves ect when caught in the act.
3. Subsidise mortuaries and graveyards.
4. Blow up irs.
5. Shoot all currently elected politicians.
6. fluffcan all race catch up programs like affirmative action.
7. Disband all racially oriented organizations. Incarcerate anyone that challenges this.
8. Pull our military out of fluffing eu, middle east, asia and africa ect, then nuke iran and north korea.
9. Invade mexico. Immigration is now not an issue.
10. Take cuba.

+1000000000000

why should they invade cuba? that'd just increase expenses.

The problem is money in politics....not a two party system. If there were more parties that would just mean more targets for corporations/banks and lobbyists to bribe.

the problem is that nobody votes their conscience, they pick what they think will be the winning side and vote for it.

shut it down.

shut the federal government down.... let the states take care of themselves..!!!!

WAT? this is a joke right? America would cease to exist.

11. Destroy ATF.
12. Shut down homeland security
13. Shut down fbi, cia
14. Give alaska to canada
15. Send rosie odonell, cher, bette middler, barbara striesand, nancy pelosi, hillary clinton, ellen, chelsea clinton, al gore, michelle obama, justin beaver, kanye west, the kardashians and amber, this vegan i dated all to anywhere in the middle east.
16. Take panama.
17. Set fed tax rate @ 5%
18. Give eu , asia, russia , china ect the final bill for all our military service and services. Sieze all of of their us assets.
19. Close the boarders.
20. Outlaw horn rimmed glasses.

No no no, let's take Heston seriously.

What makes you think anyone would pay the bill for our military? You do realize we owe them money, not the other way around?

And seizing us assets would make no difference at all. You might as well print money since you have already destroyed our currency by this point in your plan.

Canada would gladly take Alaska and increase their oil stockpiles. You just gave control of the arctic and all northern shipping passages away.

Why the heck do you want mexico, cuba and panama given your other measures here? Your logical inconsistency is astounding.

Also, you do realize that with what you have taken and given away that hispanics are now the overwhelming majority in the country and will set all laws going forward (you added ~135M hispanics to the population).

Fed tax rate at 5% is totally irrelevant. Not only will 75%+ of your new population not pay it, you disbanded the agency responsible for collecting it.

How do you close the borders exactly? You disbanded homeland security and the military is abroad capturing other countries and trying to hold them against the will of their people. Plus any local sympathizers who want to help people across the border are running unchecked as there is no ATF/FBI/CIA to stop them. Lets assume liberal states won't use their state police or national guard to stop them either.

We should have (roughly) 185M hispanic/latino, 38M black, 15M asian and 197M non-hispanic white/european (most of whom are now deployed south of the current us border trying to subdue the new 135M we assume you conquered).

Atryn.....all of a sudden....not such a bad guy

My budget makes as much sense as the budgets and laws that get passed repeatedly. My kill them all platform will leave everyone dead. Its a win for EVERYBODY no matter where you stand.

Heston's views are still to the left of Ted Cruz....

Or obamas

Wiat that didnt make sense. Oh well none of this does.

is there something wrong with the 135m Hispanics south of US that i should know about?

The Government shutting down doesn't really bother me much. They don't do much of anything besides muck things up anyway.

What bothers me is they can hire and pay people to barricade monuments in Washington that have already been paid for, most by private donation, and don't really have any staff that tends them in the first place.

This is simply the governments way of making life more difficult for the average citizen, to prove that they have POWER.

Yeah how can you just block off world war 2 vets from a monument, but you allow illegal immigrants that are not supposed to have any rights in this country, you give them a place to hold a rally for amnesty, they should have just rounded them up since they had a bunch of them in one place and deported them. What a bunch of BS our government has become. Illegals have more rights than we do, as Americans we are losing the right to be in our own country.

They claim because the WWII Memorial is a "free speech zone" and therefore anyone claiming they wish to exercise their 1st Amendment Free Speech rights need only say so there. Of course, the Lincoln is somehow not a free speech zone (odd, given Lincoln's role in history and the various speeches delivered from the Memorial's steps).