Kill the bush tax cuts now. Cut DoD by 50%

[Stinky The Clown]

Deficit fixed.

[Vincardog]

1. End the illegal imperial wars too and we are in surplus

[Swede]

2. Democracy is so easy.

[RC]

3. Agreed

It is really so obvious. But when your riches depend on the status quo...

[OhioChick]

4. Bingo n/t

[scheming daemons]

5. hell... at this point, I'll take one or the other.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Just ending the bush tax cuts would do it

Why isn't that happening?

That is a concept that can be sold by sound bites and is very difficult for the right wing cave dwellers to oppose

[indepat]

6. We are seeing the early stages of the culmination of the willful destruction of our government's

willingness to service its debts and meet its other obligations: all hail the mighty gipper and all his devotees and idolizers. :patriot:

[steelmania75]

8. Don't forget legalizing all drugs and taxing them, and the implementation of a universal health care

system.

[Myrina]

9. Yep

n/t

[progressoid]

10. Sadly, we can't just cut the DOD by 50%.

At least not immediately. It's going to have to be a slow carving away at the DOD.

The M-I-L is now an integral part of our "economy" such as it is. Raytheon alone has 72000 employees. A 50% cut would put hundreds of thousands of people out of work.

It's going to take some wise shifting of priorities and resources. And frankly, I haven't seen much in the wise dept lately in DC.

[tsuki]

11. This is from a 2008 report by UWF, but with Brac, I would bet the figures are up.

http://www.florida-edc.org/Military.htm

*About 35% of Northwest Florida regional output is driven by defense spending; 18% for NE Florida, 5% for Central Florida, and 3% for South Florida.
*Average earnings per military job in Florida are at 175% of average earnings across all Florida jobs.
*In 2005, average military earnings per job were $68,540 compared to an average of $39,990 for all Florida jobs.
*In Okaloosa County defense-related spending accounts for 73% of economic activity. (my bold)

BTW, I call it the War Department. I am almost 65, and in all those years, the US has been in some kind of war, whether overt, covert, or subvert. Very little had to do with defense.

[progressoid]

13. Wow, those are some stunning stats.

Imagine if that money was put toward making a better, sustainable society.

[tsuki]

17. Yes, but I wanted to support your statement that you just cannot cut

the budget by 50%. If 73% of the economy is from the military, you have not factored in the federal (non-military like the PO, SS retirees, etc.) state, county and municipalities contributions to the economy. Can you imagine what will happen to places like Okaloosa County if the military is cut 50% immediately? It has taken since WWII, the Big One, to build this system. But it is a non-sustainable system. Something needs to be done. Thoughtfully.

[progressoid]

18. I agree.

I just got a little off topic.

[Johonny]

12. Yeah

you have to repurpose the defense spending and cut the spending on no return ventures like the wars. But you can't simply remove 50 % of defense spending and expect the economy to get better. It will get much worse.

[Unvanguard]

14. Forget the deficit, what we need is a JOBS PROGRAM. Now. n/t

[dionysus]

15. oh good. i assume you have a plan to pass that through the teabagging House. oh wait, you don't.

[FiveGoodMen]

16. But first you have to get the propagandists off the air and out of the pulpits

long enough for sanity to return.

Then you have to hope that voting still makes a difference.

(Obama will never take either of your suggestions. He's not on our side.)