QuakerOats;1839241 wrote:Obviously entitlements need to be addressed, and I would start with welfare. I am damn sick and tired of watching deadbeats roam the streets doing nothing all day but giving rise to the drug business while collecting food stamps and medical care for themselves and their illegitimate babies. If they want to live like that, they should do it on their nickel.
Then: eliminate the DoE - $74 billion, right now; cut the IRS budget in half -- save $6 billion; then dismantle the tax code and perhaps eliminate IRS altogether - save $12 billion. Eliminate 80% of the EPA - save $6 billion. And on and on and on.....whack at least 25% from every other department except defense.
Then, stop handing out SS disability to all the people who actually don't deserve it, which is probably half - recoup untold billions. Then privatize SS to preserve its future, and allow The People to keep their own money and leave it to their heirs.
Then move on to Medicare, and that is a whole other subject.
I can't believe we sit around wringing our hands over what to do; turnaround professionals could whip the budget into shape in a heartbeat, and hardly anyone would know otherwise. Would the Northern VA suburbs take a hit; your God damn right, and deservedly so. Big fucking deal.
Few things.
1. A social safety net is needed for people that are really poor and on welfare, because if not, it draws down society as a whole. (Drug treatment, incarceration increases, crime increases, etc. ). Some sort of net is needed. Should there be reform and better ways to weed out fraud, sure. But, to just get rid of it, does more harm than good.
2. DOE budget is not $74B. I'm not sure where you got that. It is usually in the 30s. I'll also add most of the Energy budget is related to nuclear weapons upkeep and the national labs. Soooo, that is not going away. So really, you are only cutting a few billion of non-nuclear items, if that.
3. In today's political environment, there is no way you can feasible eliminate the IRS. Sure you may be able to cut it, but short of a Constitutional amendment, it is not going away.
4. EPA, ok fine. But, the moment the air and water starts to degrade in certain areas of the country, I will blame Trump. The next Flint is around the corner, and that would be on Trump. Don't complain the next time drinking water is contaminated.
5. SS disability. I agree there are areas to reform that, and I am all for it. I just have not seen a popular plan that is politically feasible. I have yet to see one actual plan on privatizing SS that is feasible as well. Easy to say, hard to do.
Your last sentence is just full of smugness and arrogance. You are casting the same stones you blasted people in the DC for being. People in the DC area are not better than you, nor are you better than them. I do not wish financial harm on families in Ohio, and neither should you in VA.