Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget

[sokpupet]

This looks interesting. Let's see if any of us has the answer!

Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.

LINK

 

[Deuce]

Solution:
Raise taxes, cut everything.

is pretty much what I get out of it.

 

[Kushinator]

The solution is simple: stimulate demand in the short term via fiscal and monetary policy. Once labor market slack begins to fade, we can then begin cutting government spending and raising taxes.

Implementing the simple solution, in a sea of ideology, is the hard part.

 

[sokpupet]

Click the link and follow the interactive program then link it back for us to see. :comp:

 

[Cephus]

I did it purely through cuts and never raised taxes a bit. In fact, I would make even more dramatic cuts than the link provides.

 

[imagep]

I did it purely through cuts and never raised taxes a bit. In fact, I would make even more dramatic cuts than the link provides.

same here!!!

 

[drz-400]

Here is mine:

Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

 

[ksu_aviator]

Here's what I did:

Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

$418 billion short by 2015 and $200 billion surplus by 2030. But! I would have eliminated foreign aid, phased out Medicare and transitioned SS to an individual private account rather than a general fund. I also cut some military spending, but would like to see a consolidation of foreign bases to the essentials. The only tax I would enact would be one on to punish employers for providing health insurance.

 

[ksu_aviator]

Here is mine:

Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

The only problem with yours is that the website does not account for the lost economic activity that is to come from increased taxes. We cannot pretend that taxes do not have an affect on the economy. So yours may or may not actually balance the budget.

 

[drz-400]

The only problem with yours is that the website does not account for the lost economic activity that is to come from increased taxes. We cannot pretend that taxes do not have an affect on the economy. So yours may or may not actually balance the budget.

True, increasing taxes will decrease economic activity, but so will decreasing spending, so its kinda a wash.

When I added a tax I tried to follow a rule, make the tax code more progressive, and/or eliminate a negative externality. I also tried to be reasonable a go with the more moderate proposals for estate and capital gains taxes.

 

[cpwill]

i even had a nice little surplus

the bowles-simpson plan, and getting rid of the employer health insurance and mortgage deductions is all the taxes i raised; most of my savings came from raising the retirement age and slowing the growth of the entitlements. 17% from tax hikes, 83% from budget cuts.