lostone Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 It seems Europe tried to do this... and is taking a beating over the past few years. When will this "Balanced Budget" approach, pay off for the Europeans? How will it pay off for Scott Walker? Why is Kentucky changing its mind if it is the right thing to do? Just asking questions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Troutsky Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 It seems Europe tried to do this... and is taking a beating over the past few years. When will this "Balanced Budget" approach, pay off for the Europeans? How will it pay off for Scott Walker? Why is Kentucky changing its mind if it is the right thing to do?Just asking questions...Balancing the budget is great, as long as that is the actual goal. Too often "balancing the budget" is code word for slashing taxes on upper income earners, cutting social services and education spending, and then crossing your fingers hopping that things don't go to h*** and back while your party is in office.When rhetoric meets reality, things get really tough for the conservatives and libertarians out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostone Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 I can give you examples on how balanced budgets have played out. Who's healthcare is broke? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eatcorn Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 The same goes for socialized medicine over there. Do not emulate something that doesn't work especially economics and healthcare.The data disagrees. Many nations with socialized health care have better health outcomes than the US, and spend far less for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostone Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 The data disagrees. Many nations with socialized health care have better health outcomes than the US, and spend far less for them.Not the data he agrees with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eatcorn Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 And yet...http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Beast Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 It seems Europe tried to do this... and is taking a beating over the past few years. When will this "Balanced Budget" approach, pay off for the Europeans? How will it pay off for Scott Walker? Why is Kentucky changing its mind if it is the right thing to do?Just asking questions...There is no "Europe". There are over two dozen countries, each with totally different political and economical setup... and most importantly, a very different cultural setup.A balanced budget works very well for almost all northern European countries and somehow fails with almost all southern European countries.The difference maker is cultural mostly. Southern Europeans have cultivated a culture of dependency as their countries were for centuries ruled by foreign powers and that directly translates into todays lack of common responsibility like tax evasion, nepotism etc... obviously you can not balance a budget if taxes are not paid and public services are super inefficient because the idiot relative of someone is in charge.Add in polical systems that roughly are the same as they were 2000-2500 years ago, usually just two or three patrons competing for the top government job by providing all kinds of free services to the dependend masses. All that combines explains why balancing the budget will not work unless somehow the culture of a country changes as well. And changing a culture takes generations if possible at all. If it does not change than obviously a balanced budget means a.) you have to overtax because of all the tax evasion (which itself most likely triggers even more tax evasion) and b.) you have to cut back on an already incompetent public sector.Regarding the US, it probably is somewhere inbetween. Certainly some parts of the US will strive with a balanced budget, others will just fall apart. You might look stunned about how Europe is drifting apart north/south (and ultimately at least the Eurozone will break up) but you have to wonder if that could happen in the US as well because certainly there are cultural differences within the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychic Gibbon Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 It seems Europe tried to do this... and is taking a beating over the past few years. When will this "Balanced Budget" approach, pay off for the Europeans? How will it pay off for Scott Walker? Why is Kentucky changing its mind if it is the right thing to do?Just asking questions...If you're referring to countries like Greece then that is not a balanced budget approach. That is austerity.That is also not what Republicans have been doing or want to do. If it was they'd be gung ho about keeping taxes up. Instead their goal is to starve the beast: Slash taxes, create massive deficits, create crippling debt, then after breaking the government and the budget they point to those state of affairs to 'prove' their point that government doesn't work to defend breaking social programs. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum. This is why Wisconsin and Kansas are going down the financial shitter since Walker and Brownback took over those states. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Ocean Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 IV. Gary JohnsonLeft office with New Mexico as one of the only four states in the country with a balanced budgetLeft New Mexico with a budget surplusUsed Line Item Veto thousands of times to trim the budgetVetoed 750 bills during his time in office; more than all other governors combinedCut over 1,200 government jobs without firing anyoneCreated more than 20,000 new jobsFirst New Mexico Governor to challenge education status quo and propose statewide voucher programRestored State General Fund reserves to more than $222 million from a low of $28.1 millionLimited annual state budget growth to 5.0% during eight years in officeCut taxes 14 times while never raising them—a first for New MexicoVetoed 32% of the total number of bills submitted for his signatureElected to a second four-year term, winning the Latino vote against a Latino Democratic candidate in a heavily Democratic Latino state Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dago 3.0 Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 IV. Gary JohnsonLeft office with New Mexico as one of the only four states in the country with a balanced budgetLeft New Mexico with a budget surplusUsed Line Item Veto thousands of times to trim the budgetVetoed 750 bills during his time in office; more than all other governors combinedCut over 1,200 government jobs without firing anyoneCreated more than 20,000 new jobsFirst New Mexico Governor to challenge education status quo and propose statewide voucher programRestored State General Fund reserves to more than $222 million from a low of $28.1 millionLimited annual state budget growth to 5.0% during eight years in officeCut taxes 14 times while never raising them—a first for New MexicoVetoed 32% of the total number of bills submitted for his signatureElected to a second four-year term, winning the Latino vote against a Latino Democratic candidate in a heavily Democratic Latino stateits just funny how people pretend that this just never happened Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzummo Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 And yet...http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirrorThis rating is so skewed, it's laughable. They take into consideration the lowest common denominator, which is not indicative of the health services someone with insurance actually receives. Cost related problems, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives all drop the averages tremendously, which are all severely influenced by the number of people that do not have health insurance at all and the free medical clinics that are over-crowded and provide very poor care because they are under funded. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should ignore the problems with our system. I'm just saying that a fair review that includes "expenditure per capita" should not exclude aspects of medicine our country invests heavily in. For example, the US spends $130 BILLION on medical research. In comparison, the UK spends $1 billion on medical research. They didn't fly anyone to any of those other countries with such great healthcare systems when they needed to get cured of Ebola. One other example to ponder. Our school system in the United States is always rated extremely low in comparison to other countries. That being said, we have 6 of the top 10 universities in the entire world for education. As it pertains to medicine, we have the top research center in the world. We have the top surgeons. We have the top sports doctors. We have a lot of the top rated XYZ in the world, which means there is access to the top medicine in the world in our country. It costs money to get that access, but that is something those other countries don't have, and there is 0 consideration to any of those facts about our health system.Last but not least, consider this opposing side of the blanket claim that "US health sucks". By 2009, the United States had 57 Nobel Prize winners in medicine and physiology. The EU, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and Austria combined for 40. There is a reason the HIV medicine helping millions across the world was developed in the United States. The first open heart transplant was in South Africa, but the person that did the first open heart surgery came to the United States to learn under the man that invented the procedure, and the first child heart transplant was in the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychic Gibbon Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 They didn't fly anyone to any of those other countries with such great healthcare systems when they needed to get cured of Ebola.lolWhen people from developed nations were infected treating the Ebola outbreak they were then brought back to their home countries for treatment. Some infected foreigners were brought to the United States relatively early on into the outbreak but that was due to the CDC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostone Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 I wonder what we can cut?I say close a lot of bases and slow down on mercenary spending... I mean defense contractors.. Turn welfare from cut off to ween off system so people will be more motivated to leave. End the war on drugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wokezone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Ask the people we owe how much their country is worth to them? Without us it would belong to Hitler and Japan. China was over half way conquered by Japan's forces and Europe was literally on its last leg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadfishtom Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 I wonder what we can cut?I say close a lot of bases and slow down on mercenary spending... I mean defense contractors.. Turn welfare from cut off to ween off system so people will be more motivated to leave. End the war on drugs.Lostone for president, you got my vote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostone Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Ask the people we owe how much their country is worth to them? Without us it would belong to Hitler and Japan. China was over half way conquered by Japan's forces and Europe was literally on its last leg.What does that have to do with this?? I am being a bit annoyed. So tired of the remove regulation rhetoric. Would love some examples. They can't all be visionaries.. Someone has to implement that stuff. We have no one coming up with real plans just words that the little guy has to implement... Sounds like corporate America.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wokezone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Do what Johnson did. Government infrastructure jobs and private company incentives across the nation with health benefits and agreeable wages. Put people to work instead of a. Sending it overseasB. Giving them a check to stay homebuild:RoadsHigh speed InternetRailBridgesWith those jobs you then create demand for shipping, security, materials, manufacturing, HRs, office jobs, etc.. but that would make too much sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wokezone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 $ coming in to more homes neans more spending, more house and cars being purchased, better infrastructure in the nation as a whole, economy goes boom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wokezone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) That's a start to getting more financially stable. Edited March 25, 2015 by T-Falcon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wokezone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) Limit congressional term limitsLimit elected officials wagesStop lifetime paymentsStop lifetime appointmentsThis changes the influence one person can hold over the nation and keeps fresh ideas coming in. As well as cutting lobbyists down.dissolve the party system and run as an individual.Set a limit on spending for campaignsMake changes to NAFTA & CAFTA in order balance a broken system Edited March 25, 2015 by T-Falcon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wokezone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) Get back to We the people instead of they the government. Edited March 25, 2015 by T-Falcon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostone Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Do what Johnson did. Government infrastructure jobs and private company incentives across the nation with health benefits and agreeable wages. Put people to work instead of a. Sending it overseas B. Giving them a check to stay home build: Roads High speed Internet Rail Bridges With those jobs you then create demand for shipping, security, materials, manufacturing, HRs, office jobs, etc.. but that would make too much sense.Agreed, the problem is when this is mentioned its always followed by "not considered sexy". Also, where do you get the money for this? Giving them a check to stay home? If welfare was not a cut off system, I believe it would work a lot better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wokezone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) Agreed, the problem is when this is mentioned its always followed by "not considered sexy". Also, where do you get the money for this? Giving them a check to stay home? If welfare was not a cut off system, I believe it would work a lot better.I agree ween off instead of 1 stop cut off. It could/Should beconsistent living wage for 1 year with a moving grant if you take a job out of your current city.this makes getting a job easier. Edited March 25, 2015 by T-Falcon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wokezone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) Less people on welfare opens up money, more people with jobs, they make money and pay in taxes, as well as taxes on all the new things they buy. So it's really double money. You don't give it and now they are giving you money Edited March 25, 2015 by T-Falcon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andras Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Less people on welfare opens up money, more people with jobs, they make money and pay in taxes, as well as taxes on all the new things they buy.LOL in the land of unicorns and fairies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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