Today is the first (I made this post on 1/1/10 put forgot to post it) day of the new year which means many people are making their new years resolutions. I believe of the government's new years resolutions should be reducing the deficit to $650 billion. Although I would still like the government to balance it's budget, because the deficit last physical year was over one trillion dollars , balancing the budget would be too much of an abrupt change, and may cause the stock market to decline. Because of this $650 billion seems like a fairly reasonable number. Since this physical year actually started around October this goal is harder to achieve then if it started today. However with cut in Social security, Medicare and defense spending this goal is achievable. Unfortunately
because of Obama's tax agreement and the larger amount of Republicans in the house and senate small tax increases are nearly impossible to achieve.
I meant to say I made this post on 1/1/11
ReplyDeleteTeen Deficit Hawk
I'm curious how you would propose to make cuts to the large entitlement programs? President Obama is clearly hopeful that he can work with the Congressional Republicans to tackle SS, Medicare, etc., but what would you suggest he propose as a way to begin making changes to those programs?
ReplyDeleteThank you for responding, David. I will start with Social Security. When this program was enacted, the life expectancy of the average american was under 65 years old. Most americans were not expected to receive Social Security benefits. Only a small percentage of americans were expected to receive benefits for a long period of time. Today most americans are expected to receive these benefits for 10 years or more. Because of this improvement in life expectancy, it makes sense to raise the age of eligibility for Social Security benefits. I propose a gradual increase in the age of eligibility to 70 years old. In addition, I also propose means testing for recipients. At first the top 1% of americans in net worth should no longer receive SS benefits. Gradually, I would extend this boundary to the top 10% of americans.
ReplyDeleteFor Medicare, I would also gradually raise the age of eligibility to 70 years old. I would also increase the Medicare tax for those making greater than one million dollars per year.
For defense spending, I would gradually reduce funding for programs that are out of date or are wasteful. The task of our military is changing with new technology. We need to reevaluate our defense spending and maximize the benefit of our tax dollars. Some old programs might be replaced by newer and better programs.
In conclusion, there are ways to cut these entitlement programs significantly. We just have to agree that these sacrifices are necessary to balance the budget and trim the national debt.
Thank you for your question.