[kabar]

There is no way we can make massive trillion dollar cuts in the short term. The entitlement programs need to be reformed first. Right now, our total tax revenue is just enough to fund the entitlement programs and other so called mandatories like food stamps and unemployment and our debt servicing costs. With 10,000 people retiring every day for the next 20 years, which will double our population over 65. By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older and there will be just 2 workers for every retiree compared to 3.3 today and 16 in 1950. This means that the costs of our entitlement programs will continue to increase rapidly.

[entropy12]

Very nice graphics! Seems to me besides the usual entitlements, the unemployment insurance is huge. Zero’s contribution in destroying jobs. I assume food stamps are inclusive in that.

[virgil]

It looks like we should be cutting defense spending too, but Ryan didn’t want to do that. We could cut costs of unemployment, food stamps and whatever other forms of relief by just putting people back to work and growing the market of good paying jobs. What R/R needs to do is to have a jobs plan, and right now, not after the election. This chart says that 41% of revenue comes from individual income tax. They’ll need that revenue to cut the deficit. Jobs!