Posted on 05/11/2019 7:44:51 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I think the time is coming for an idea that is so old that it is new again: cutting the Federal government in half.
The idea is: cancel all Federal welfare-type programs, including all means-tested welfare programs (apparently there are over 150 of them), all healthcare-related programs including Medicare and Medicaid, all education-related, arts-related and housing-related programs, and anything else of this sort -- in short, most everything except for the military, national parks, and maybe some public works. Social Security could eventually be reformed to a system of private retirement accounts, known as a "provident fund" system and in use today in over thirty countries.
No "block grants" or other such schemes. Just terminate the programs. This would make State governments responsible for all such welfare-type programs, to do as they see fit, and to impose taxes appropriately to pay for them. Give them twelve months to get ready. States like California and Massachusetts would be free to introduce the single-payer healthcare system of their dreams, while other states, like Utah or Texas, might have more private-sector-based solutions. States are active in all of these spheres already.
For a long time, such proposals have been on the outer fringe of political possibility. We have been in a period of political stasis, where things haven't changed much. Basically, today we have a spending structure that was built in the 1960s and 1970s, and a tax structure that was built in the late 1980s/early 1990s, with a few minor tweaks along the way. In the meantime, other governments have had huge changes. Some abandoned centrally-planned Communism and adopted free-market capitalism . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
PING!
It’s either massive change or bankruptcy.
Yes!
64.3% of the federal budget is mandatory spending... Social Security, Unemployment, Medicare, Veteran benefits, etc.
Good luck cutting any of it.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/
I used to love Forbes Magazine. It takes me about 60 seconds to read it now and I’m not renewing. Every issue is simply a list of the richest or the most famous or the most of this or the most of that. And the writer seemed to be liberal wackos + Steve Forbes is nothing but a chamber of commerce Croney. Actually Forbes used to be pretty darn conservative and he wrote good editorials near the introduction of each magazine. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I can throw them even if this editorial that you’ve put here is a good one. Yeah I’d love to cut the government in half. However everything that they featured in their magazine is about the opposite most of the companies they feature in their I have benefited from the Chamber of Commerce goodies or have made themselves rich off of everybody else or have gotten Venture Capital Money are nothing but a phony baloney Paper Company. Anyway that’s my two cents. I do agree however the government could be cut in half and we’ve never noticed.
Yes, let’s run on getting rid of Medicare. That way we can insure no conservative is ever elected to office again.
I’ve been for that for decades.
Bravo!
Thanks, I just added this book to my Kindle.
I see your point but the premise you have make is wrong. Just because that comprises 64% does not mean that items within that 64% also need to be cut in half. I would submit half the people on Social Security don’t need it half the people on Medicare don’t need it and shouldn’t get it because many of them are either dead scamming the system or probably from Mexico. You see my point?
We have state governments, no? Why can't states have their own Medicare-type plans?
That way we can insure no conservative is ever elected to office again.
Well the crap is going to hit the fan anyway, so I'd rather have Republicans tell the truth about Medicare/Medicaid and lose than to sugarcoat it and kick the can down the road some more.
To the list of entities that should be broken up such as Facebook, Google, etc, the federal government should be at the top of that list.
If 50% is good, 75% is even better.
Two ways to go about it: 1) Implement the changes in the article or 2) a short CWII will eliminate the need.
My guess is that more than half of the folks on FR are getting Social Security and Medicare. And we are not going to agree to losing our benefits. So this can be argued. And debated. But it’s dead on arrival.
“64.3% of the federal budget is mandatory spending... Social Security, Unemployment, Medicare, Veteran benefits, etc.”
Yep. The whole premise of this article is rather academic I am sorry to say. Trump was unable to get Congress to simply give back money that was not going to be spent in a budget year and Congress said no. This is with Trump and even with Trump there are Obama sized annual deficits.
I’m afraid the country will have to go through real suffering aka Greece before anything is done.
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