Balance the budget!

[catsittingstill]

The New York Times has an interactive puzzle where you try to balance the budget. The web page is here.

My choices are here (if I've figured out how this works.)

You know, you can do almost all of it simply by restoring taxes to their Clinton-era levels? I remember the Clinton years. The economy was quite healthy. I would like to see taxes indexed to inflation but that wasn't an option.

I did also reduce Social Security payouts for the very rich (but didn't make poor people, with their lower life expectancy, work longer) and institute a carbon tax (the latter not so much for the money but for the inevitable emphasis on conservation and switching to sustainable energy. I don't like that it hits the poor harder, but I hope we can find ways to fix that.)

Anyway, you are free to disagree with me. Go to the link and try your hand.

Comments

[durconnell.livejournal.com]

I thought this post from Kevin Drum summed it up fairly well. The problem is medical cost inflation. Social Security is very close to fully funded through the next 75 years as long as Congress treats the trust fund treasury bonds the way it treats regular treasury bonds. Discretionary spending can be(and is) changed year to year. The real problem is that medicare/medicaid costs are rising much faster than revenues.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/11/deficit-commission-serious

In particular, look at the CBO graph.