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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scumbria who wrote (134382)	3/9/2001 6:27:12 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 1575427

What programs do you propose we cut? For many programs I would have a spending freeze, at least in inflation adjusted dollars. I would eliminate all or almost all federal government subsides to business. (Corporate welfare). Agricultural subsidies in particular not only cost money but often act to drive the price of food up causing either poor people to suffer or government programs to have to spend more to feed them, or both. I would probably support eliminating the Commerce dept., perhaps keeping a few of its programs under different depts or independent offices, but eliminating a lot of it. We could also close things like the TVA and the Rural Electrification Administration and perhaps the Legal Services Corp. I also don't want to see an expanded role for the federal government in education. I think that non-interstate highways should be funded by the states or localities, so a lot of federal government transportation spending should go to the states, and some regulations that inflate federal spending on highways such as the Davis-Bacon Act should be repealed. I would probably shut down the National Endowment for the Arts. I would support selling some non environmentally sensitive federal land. I don't think we need the federal Helium reserve. Some restructuring should probably occur in Medicare and Medicaid. Defense is an area where I would not seek to cut back capability but I its accounting for the money is a mess (its not the only part of the federal government with this problem but it might be the biggest). I think a lot of work needs to be done here and I hope Rumsfeld is up to the task. Reagan didn't clear this up, neither did Bush Sr. or Clinton or the defense secretaries at the time, instead its just gotten worse. I know that some of these ideas are just mentioned rather then spelled out in detail but I don't feel like writing a book right now. I think the retirement age of social security should go up. It was set at 65 because not a whole lot of people lived that much past 65 at the time. But even without these ideas if we just stop creating major new programs or expansions of old ones then spending will be brought somewhat under control. As for the tax cuts for millionaires, under Bush's plan the percentage of federal income taxes paid by millionaires will probably go up. Tim

To: Scumbria who wrote (134382)	3/10/2001 9:10:32 PM
From: hmaly	Respond to of 1575427

Scumbria Re..What programs do you propose we cut? <<<< The first programs that should be cut is the tax breaks which corporations and the rich get in return for the bribes; oops campaign donations; the corporations and rich and unions and special interest groups are giving. We need to get rid of corruption at all levels of gov. , which should more than make up for the tax losses. Just because your buddy Bill specialized in corruption doesn't mean it is sacrocinct, and shouldn't be gotten rid of. Get rid of the evil in gov. first. I have no idea why you think federal debt is so much worse than foreign debt and personal debt. At least with federal debt, most of the money we pay out goes back to the citizens of this country. Which the gov. can again tax, and get more money. Who owns the most T-bills? The rich. Who pays the most taxes? The rich. The gov. collects taxes from the rich and dives it back to them in interest. As long as we keep the money in this country, and keep it circulating, what is the difference. If you make under $25,000/ yr. a family of four doesn't pay taxes anyway, so if my kids make what I do, they still won't be paying off the federal debt. With a trade deficit, foreigners get rich, and we don't keep the money in this country. High Personal debt slows down consumer spending and can throw the economy int recession.