My ideas to tackle the budget

Ok so I have been slamming the Republicans repeatedly for what they are trying to cut out of the budget to try and balance it. Now one thing I think the Republicans don't get is that there is no way in hell you are going to balance the budget in one year. It is going to take 2 or 3 years. That being said, here is what I would do, and keep in mind with what I am going to propose that I am of the liberal political persuasion:



1) The Social Security age has to be raised to 70 or 75 years old. Not in 5 years, that has to happen now. People are living far longer now than they did in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. When you are pulling it out at 65 and living until you are 95, that is a lot of money. Social Security should be used to compliment certain people's retirement, but it shouldn't comprise the WHOLE thing. Also, people who have retirement incomes over say $50,000 a year (I'm willing to change this) should NOT be able to draw Social Security. For 2 people (each earning $50,000), with their house paid for, that should be more than enough to live comfortably. Now people will say "well I paid into it so I should get some" well guess what, every single person (at least in Utah) is paying for YOUR kids to go to school even though they have none of their own. Or a family with 2 kids is helping to pay for your 10 kids to go through school. Don't get me wrong, I am all for public schools but the fact is that some people will pay into it and never see a direct benefit.



2) DO NOT PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY! This is the absolute thing that could happen. As we saw with the recent recession, we can't afford to put that much risk on Social Security.



3) Stop the Medicare/Medicaid double dipping. If you can afford to pay for your own insurance premiums then you should not be able to use Medicare. With the recent health care reform bill, ANYONE can get insurance (granted I would have liked to see a Medicare for all but whatever) so the fear of being rejected due to age or medical conditions is gone. Also, if you retired from the military and as a result are covered by Tricare for life, then you should not be able to get Medicare/Medicaid. This may sound harsh but if you already get benefits we simply can't afford right now for those benefits to be doubled.



4) Cut the DoD budget. Secretary Gates has already said he is willing to cut $80 billion out of his budget, so let him. No one else is daring to do it, but the fact is that it has to be done. The DoD budget is one of the biggest after Medicare and Social Security and it cannot be ignored.



5) You HAVE to raise taxes. Even Reagan, who Republicans treat as a god, realized that he had to raise revenue. He did it by raising the gas tax and a few other things. There was an article on Yahoo Finance that said the population of millionaires in the U.S. has grown 8%. 8% in a recession! The tax rates on the wealthiest Americans needs to go up, at least back to the level it was at during Clinton (which I believe was 38%) or even just a tad higher.



6) Close the tax loopholes so that people who can afford to get accountants to wiggle out of paying ANY taxes will have to pay them.



7) Greatly eliminate farm subsidies. I know farming can be an expensive endeavor BUT some of these subsidies haven't done shit (such as ethanol).



8) Eliminate the tax breaks/loopholes for oil, coal, and natural gas companies. These guys are making PLENTY of money without the government helping them out.



9) End the War on Drugs and at least legalize pot. It stops some wasteful spending, and gives you a new tax base. It also betters the health of Americans because when you legalize it, you can put in safety and quality controls so that users don't end up getting something that contains something that could kill them.



These are the bulk of what I would do, and most would need time to see how they work out. They aren't easy to take in some cases but most need to be done.





http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-millionaires-population-cnnm-649773567.html?x=0



http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/17/house.of.reps.npr.funding/index.html?hpt=T2