What Needs to Be Done to End The Deficit - An Editorial (Congress, Iraq)

[Editorialist]

I am hearing all this talk by Republicans and Democrats about reducing the deficit with the Republicans taking the lead with proposals to reduce it by 80 billion. To this I say peanuts. We can reduce that deficit by at least a trillion by ending the senseless and ongoing war in Afghanistan, reduce the number of bases overseas from over 700 to about 100, end all foreign aid and stop all pork barreling.

There is a tremendous amount of waste in Federal spending. The Republicans holler at the waste in Social Security and Medicare spending. True there is a lot of waste and we who are in those programs need to stop that waste by reporting fraudulent practices, checking our hospital bills to see every item is legitimate and not be overcharged like $20.00 for an aspirin or $l5.00 for a simple band aid. If you know the problem involves a specialist go to him directly and save the cost of seeing your general practitioner who will send you to the specialist anyway. Try preventive medicine like losing weight and eating a proper diet. We all need to pitch in and get costs down.

Also no further programs should be added to Medicare and Social Security. When these programs came into existence Social Security was designed for one purpose--to provide supplemental income for citizens retiring to give them a backup if their retirement income didn't meet their needs. Today we have mental and physical disability added along with SSI payments. Medicare now is planning to cover illegal aliens. What additional programs (out of absolute necessity) we add to these two plans a separate department should be established to insure each is adequately funded to insure Social Security and Medicare as originally designed continue to receive the necessary funding to keep them afloat.

On the flip side of the coin Republicans need to cut out the waste in defense spending, make sure government contracts have cost containment that will not allow a simple hammer to bear a cost of $30.00. Defense projects cannot continue to have unaccounted appropriations and work sloppily done or not completed.

Pork barrel projects like finding out about the sex life of a frog cost millions of taxpayers dollars. PETA has followed the money on such wasteful animal research projects and it runs into billions of dollars annually. Listen to Katie Couric when she follows the money and it is downright shocking and totally inexcusable.

We all need to take responsibility with our personal involvement with the deficit and stop wasteful and needless spending. If we follow these suggestions there should be enough money to fund Social Security and Medicare and some other important projects this country needs taken care of.

One of the greatest problems causing this massive debt is greed, leading to inflation and crumbling of the economy. We must get prices down so people can afford the basic necessities of life. Inflation by the way is a leading killer in this country, killing hundreds of thousands because they can't afford medicine, food or heat. We must breath life into the free market system and capitalism by going back to competitive pricing which will allow goods to be sold at affordable prices, along with concern for the customer to meet his or her needs.

Also we must allow drilling for oil to place on land. We cannot continue to block all attempts to drill for oil, although drilling should not be allowed at sea since we cannot afford another BP spill disaster. We environmentalists need to back off a bit and allow drilling to take place in land areas which will not cause undue hardships on the environment. Let's face it we must have oil available until green energy can replace its use. Failure to do so will cause environmentalists problems as well--reduced revenues and inability to travel to areas of concern.

These are a few of things I believe we as a nation must achieve to restore financial stability to the government and the people of this republic. Failure to pull together to achieve these goals will destroy the economy and the United States of America as we know it.

[SoCalbound12]

Overall pretty good. You forgot, "Abolish the Fed" as that would be only thing that could put us the path to perpetual balanced budgets.

[Winter_Sucks]

Ending the deficit would actually require politicians and voters to act like adults, which won't happen any time soon. We need spending cuts, tax increases and entitlement reform. All three very unpopular ideas, but all three are needed to eliminate the deficit.

I actually support all three ways of closing the deficit.

[clb10]

If you are in a hole the first thing you do is STOP DIGGING!

Congress, STOP THE MADNESS!

CUT SPENDING NOW!

[LexusNexus]

First, Pubs need to acknowledge that their polices under Bush turned a surplus into a record deficit. This is a clear indication that their ideas, input, and perspectives are a severe detriment to any economic decisions that reduce the deficit short of screwing the middle class and poor.

Second, Pubs must not have a say because they haven't the slightest clue how to balance a budget or exist WITHOUT a deficit. Going after Obama because the deficit EXISTS does not hide the greater problem of Republican practices that significantly BUILT this current deficit.

Third, Bush's impact on the economic health of this country was so severe and pervasive, that this country MUST spend its way out of the problems and paying down the deficit is a long-term effort. Making it a short-term effort is a political move by the GOP to halt the momentum of this effective president. Focusing on spending NOW when they didn't under Bush makes it clear that they are doing so because a Dem is president. Pathetic.

Fourth, illegal immigration must be dealt with. Either we're going to put some bite into what it means to be "illegal" by penalizing those who break law and deporting them and their anchor babies or we're going to grant amnesty and get these people into programs to help them contribute and pay their share. Bush sat on his thumbs for 8 years and did nothing, so this neglect made the problem WORSE.

Fifth, stop the H1B program and sending jobs overseas. Plenty of qualified americans in this country or americans willing to be retrained to take the jobs that are available. Foreign labor sucks the hell ouf of our economy. Again, Bush/Republicans intensified the problem by preferring profit and cheap foreign labor over superior products and loyalty to american workforce. More GOP nonsense.

Sixth, we need to stop policing the world. Bush lied to commit us to Iraq and Afghanistan, two sovereign nations posing no threat to this country. GOP pompousness at work here cost this country a trillion dollars. Incredible. A formula for an INSTANT RECORD DEFICIT! We need to get the hell out of that Bush/Republican-created mess. Message to the world and the people of this country? When you make the mistake of sticking GOP in charge, they have no problem running up the deficit in maniacal military spending sprees, yelling "yeeee hah" and acting like swaggering pirates. All in the cause of "spreading democracy." We're paying for their behavior now.

Seventh, take a realistic view of the deficit. Obama given a record deficit that was the tip of the iceberg in terms of the array of problems that Bush created. It will take time to reduce. If you don't see this, you are merely making meaningless conversation because you want this president to be perceived as a failure. Focusing on the deficit is one way to sucker people into thinking you're right. Unfortunately, the facts slap the GOP squarely in the face.