The deficit, solved

      8 Comments on The deficit, solved

Ross Douthat has solved America’s deficit problem:

Good news, America: Using the online budget simulator created by the good people at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, I’ve successfully reduced our deficit to a relatively stable 60 percent of G.D.P. by the year 2018. All it took was means-testing Social Security and raising the retirement age to 68, keeping health care reform in place but slashing its insurance subsidies by 20 percent, increasing cost-sharing and premiums for Medicare and raising the retirement age to 67, passing tort reform, returning food stamp spending to 2008 levels, slashing subsidies for agriculture and biofuels, cutting the federal workforce by 5 percent across the board, cutting earmarks by 50 percent, converting the home-mortgage deduction to a smaller credit, replacing the tax deduction for employer-provided health care with a flat credit, increasing the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon, cutting foreign aid and military spending by $200 billion, drawing down troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan to 60,000 in 2016, taxing life insurance benefits, letting the Bush tax cuts expire for high earners and partially phasing them out for the middle class, eliminating the state and local tax deduction, and cutting out a lot of smaller things as well.

Piece of cake, right? Try it for yourself.

It’s a start. Now, can they create an online government simulator, which would allow us to create from scratch a Congress that might have a snowball’s chance in Hell of actually passing anything remotely resembling this package of reforms? (Hint: it wouldn’t include very many Republicans, or Democrats, or for that matter, Tea Partiers.) And how about an online electorate simulator, with which we could generate a voting public that might actually elect such a Congress?

8 thoughts on “The deficit, solved”

  1. James Young

    Yeah, the part they leave out is the Second American Civil War that occurs while all this is going down. I mean, once you whack a few tens of millions of people, all the sudden the remaining folks get behind that whole “peaceful solutions” and “compromise” thing a lot easier.

  2. Pingback: Mark Purdy: San Jose Sharks on wrong end of deficit | NHL focus

  3. Pingback: Tweets that mention The deficit, solved -- Topsy.com

  4. Pingback: ‘Desperate’ Canadiens keep despair from their door | NHL focus

  5. Joe Loy

    “And how about an online electorate simulator, with which we could generate a voting public that might actually elect such a Congress?”

    Yes and not Altogether unrelatedly [excerpts :] ~~

    …According to the poll—which surveyed members of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches—9 out of 10 government officials reported feeling “disillusioned” by the populace and claimed to have “completely lost confidence” in the citizenry’s ability to act in the nation’s best interests.

    “All the vitriol and partisan bickering in Congress has caused most Americans to form negative opinions of the U.S. government,” Pew researcher Amy Ratner said. “However, over the same time period, the government has likewise grown wary of U.S. citizens, largely due to their utter lack of foresight, laziness, and overall incompetence.”

    …Citing the billions of dollars wasted annually on flavored water and boneless buffalo wings, the number of drunk-driving deaths each year, and the lack of citizen accountability for the rise of Kim Kardashian, government officials registered extremely low opinions of the American people overall.

    “This is the same American populace that failed to prevent us from deregulating the banks that almost caused a complete economic meltdown last year,” Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) said. “Year after year, they elect terrible officials who make terrible decisions on their behalf. The fact that I, Jim Bunning, am a two-term U.S. senator really shows you just how far Americans have gone off the rails.”

    “I wouldn’t trust anyone who voted me into office,” he added.

    …Added [President Barack] Obama, “At this point, the only positive thing I can say about the American people is that I’m pretty sure they’ve never rigged an election in their favor.”

  6. Joe Loy

    “I’ve successfully reduced our deficit to a relatively stable 60 percent of G.D.P. by the year 2018.”

    But shouldn’t it be, “debt” rather than “deficit” — as stated in the Online Simulator, e.g., “Stabilize the U.S. Debt”; “…the public debt of the U.S. is projected to grow to 85% of GDP by 2018…”, etc.? Or, has the Distinction come to be one that make no Difference?

  7. Pingback: Now it’s on to face upstart Montreal Canadiens for amazing Philadelphia Flyers | NHL focus

  8. Pingback: Philadelphia Flyers complete comeback to reach NHL’s conference finals | NHL focus

Comments are closed.