[jagrmeister]

Cutting spending is a political impossibility. Reagan could not do it. Bush cannot do it. Entrenched interests won't permit it and the American people, for a variety of reasons, punish politicians for cuts. Instead, we should look to privatize services where possible.

Another way to alter the system is to create incentives for bureaucracies to cut costs. I would offer hefty financial bonuses to Secretaries who cut spending in their departments. All of the upper management would get bonuses in the tens of thousands of dollars for each % point they cut in their budget. That would offer a countervailing force to the instiutional pressure of demanding an increasing budget.

[Reagan Man]

>>>Cutting spending is a political impossibility.

Spoken like a true "Pragmatist".

>>>Reagan could not do it.

Reagan did cut federal spending. He lowered discreationary spending in his first three years in office. If Reagan had a GOP majority control like PresBush has, he would have cut government a lot more.

>>>Bush cannot do it.

Bush doesn't want to do it. Yet. I've been holding out for some serious downsizing in a second Bush-Cheney term and this may be an early indicator of things to come.

I do not recommend draconian spending cuts and support political incrementaism. Incentives given for good management efforts are fine with me, but that only scrapes the surface. To kick start some serious fiscal responsibility in the federal government, I would support a spending freeze for one year.

Politics is a slow process, but at the rate that Social Security and Medicare are growing, before we know it these two entitlement programs will consume half of the federal budget. Right now SS and Medicare eat up 1/3rd of the federal budget and "Human Resources" --- aka. SOCIAL SPENDING --- consumes over 66% of the federal budgetary expenditures. There needs to be real reform of these two out of control federal programs, before its too late.

[Fledermaus]

Cutting spending is a political impossibility.

Not if we get people off their duffs to vote and counter the LIES the bureaucrats spread.

WAKE UP PEOPLE! YOU HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THIS MESS!