“We need to rein in spending today, and don’t tell me there is nothing to cut when we know every omnibus bill is loaded with pork and kickbacks.”
Palin is correct. The answer is to bring the budget into balance today. Cut to the bone and raise tariffs, not income or corporate taxes, if there is a shortfall. Let foreign factories pay for access to the US market via a stiff tariff.
In the business world, when a company is losing money and borrowing from the bank to fund operations, eventually the board of directors brings in new management. The first thing management does is cut expenses to the bone in order to meet or beat the break-even point. If expenses can’t be cut enough, the company will sell assets or cut unprofitable product lines and operations. Management does what it must to restore profitability. Those companies that can’t achieve break-even declare bankruptcy and go into liquidation.
Politically it isn’t easy to cut the budget to bring revenue in line with spending but it can be done. Entire departments and hundreds of programs will have to be eliminated, each of which has a constituency who will scream. The troops will have to be brought home from overseas bases. The bureaucracy will have to be cut across the board (most restricting companies cut headcount by a minimum of 10%). Bureaucrats and elected officials will have to take pay cuts and do without perks such as rides on government jets and big parties/conventions. The government will have to privatize some of its activities or shut them down Amtrak, TVA, Post Office, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, rural electrification, student loans, and the air traffic control system are some that come to mind for privatization or liquidation. Foreign aid has to end as well as discretionary spending by the President.
Russian, China, and Iran are working hard to end the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. When the Middle East oil producers fall in line, the game will be up for the dollar. Either we will take drastic measures to restore the fiscal integrity of the nation or we will see hyperinflation and the destruction of the nation’s economy.
Sarah and everyone in Washington know the can has been kicked down the road and has just about reached the point where it can no longer be moved. The time of reckoning is now.
If there is a shortfall?
Revenue is not the problem
Those of us who have been here for eons and have been through Corporate "Downsizing", "Reorganizing", and "Rightsizing" know what gets cut and sometimes what pain it brings. It means sometimes looking at your organization with fresh eyes and utilizing tools such as Kaizen, Demming in all it's flavors, Six Sigma etc etc. to re-due your assembly line if you will. I don't care if it is an auto assembly line, a bank teller window, or a underling @ EPA, their always is a better way.
I bugs me that the depts in DC to my knowledge have never gone through these processes.
It is long overdue, and even the likes of the sometimes Liberal "Business Insider" even get that the 5 Trillion number doesn't even put a dent in it...