Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (587767)	9/28/2010 12:46:19 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575121

No its a lot of substance, an actual lists of programs I'd cut, one's I'd eliminate, and one's I'd restrain the growth of. Its nowhere near a full budget proposal of course, but I don't shy away from the biggest programs and just make cuts in a bunch of small things. I proposed eliminating whole departments... More than dollar numbers the one thing that would really be needed is how the specific "cuts" (in quotes because they are reductions of future benefit increases, but not necessarily cuts from current spending), I didn't provide detail there because I was making a post about many areas of cuts, not going to minute detail about one, and also because I'm flexible about how its done. Raise the retirement age (perhaps index it to life expectancy), reduce benefit increases to not increase the real per person payment when wages go up more than inflation. There are any number of acceptable ideas of Social Security. Raising the eligibility age would also save money on Medicare. Medicaid would be trickier and more complex. I don't have a lot of specifics for you now on that one. Defense I mainly want to follow its long term trend of shrinking as a percentage of the economy because the economy grows over time more than defense spending does. I don't support making general nominal dollar cuts in capability. For medium sized programs, eliminating agriculture support programs would save in the low tens of billions per year. You would get billions more from killing other federal subsidies, and billions mar from canceling the war on drugs. There is lots of substance in that, at least for a forum like this. What there isn't is enough political power behind the changes.