You Fix The Budget

it was put in there by persons after the origin, it can be just as easily removed by people, it needs to be done.

to enforce anti drug laws is the same as it was when they were trying to enforce prohibition, quite frankly a giant waste of money and time, and Ronald Reagan was a hack.

Taxes are backed by laws too, yet you seem so adverse to them ...

The fact is under Ronald Reagan government spending rose. He wasn't a small government hero. What he spent his money on might have changed, but he still ran a government that spent a ton of money and was very large.

So you believe that national security is not important?

You can't have a country without national security. You can have a country without medicare/medicaid/socialsecurity.

You are like 99.9999999999999999% of americans who don't know the difference between "needs" and entitlements.

In regard to the "It was the cold war" argument. Ronald Reagan presided over the largest government spending as a percentage of GDP during the entire Cold War.

Ronald Reagan was president from 1981-1989.

forgive me if I'm wrong but we tried a small federal government once, and let the states try to run ***on their own, how'd that pan out?

and our government over time decided that as a nation for our survival and to remain as a world power we needed these programs

No we didn't lol. Have you ever read a history book? SSI was enacted during the great depression as a means to help people who got *** over, NOT TO SUPPORT THEIR LIFE.

I say privatize it all.

No one I cared about died on 9/11 why should I have to pay for their revenge?

My family is well off why should I have to pay for people who were too stupid or lazy to be born into good homes?

Am I doing it right?

That's the problem with you people. You see everything as black and white. It's really sad to know that intelligent people are this blind.

I want smaller government so I'm automatically against poor people? Maybe I realize it's naive to think that we can uplift an entire society and still remain capitalist. Maybe I realize that the government should help the less fortunate but it has to be on a realistic scale.

I think.

I think he was being sarcastic -_-

excel knew he was being sarcastic and wrote his response accordingly

What are some of your realistic ways for our government to help the poor and unfortunate Excelior?

I usually here "let charities take care of everyone" from your side.

But I agree with Henry Ford: "Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty."

You were right that SSI was never intended to be someones retirement plan. It was created during the new deal to help family units deal with their aging, unemployed, soon to die members of house hold. In those days people lived with their older family members instead of putting them in assisted living communities and health care homes.

I agree that we need reforms to our entitlement programs. I just don't agree that those reforms should include wholesale abolishment of the programs.

it's kind of heartening to see the debate being about

taking an axe to social security versus eliminate it

as opposed to it being

keeping social security exactly how it is versus taking an axe to it

i hope to see a similar shift of grounds outside of the ah forums, but i'm probably hoping in vain

I said the programs, not the people who misuse them, pay attention.

Well the SSI age should be raised along with Medicare. After doing that they should constrain the funds to be proportionally equal to the % of revenue that is brought in specifically for these programs. Ideally the SSI program would be self-sustaining and thus not a burden.

State governments can provide things like wellfare, food stamps, unemployment, educations, and I think even healthcare.

If you want to help the people then you should start by helping those in your community. Have you helped anyone blind? No seriously, have you done any volenteer work? Probably not, but you'll sit here and talk about how tax dollars should go to their cause.

I'll agree that the money in Medicare should be solely spent on medicare, same with SS, if there's a budget surplus or shortfall then adjust accordingly.

i'm not saying i agree with ex on all counts

it should be noted though that a crisis is likely going to require a good deal of government intervention.

since heroes are made by responding successfully to crisis, and most crises are going to require heavy government intervention, it's unlikely you will find a small government hero

small government works well as a default state between crises, but the history books just don't tend to put your name in bold letters for managing the nation well with small government while nothing exciting happens

Obama could use this momment to stand up for our current crisis and demand cuts. He could risk his political future and job to do what he said he would do and balance the budget. Will he? I doubt it. If he did he'd probably go down as a hero in later years.

i think the point of the matter is that small government hero is a bit of a non-existent term.
edit: unless you are an idealist with your head in the stars of course.
edit:
implying that realism would function properly with idealism is utterly ridiculous.

the problem is that economic recovery

and a balanced budget

are diametrically opposed ends

to put what you stated in perverted terms.
a circle-jerk with no climax in the near future.

i wouldn't call it entirely non existent (teddy roosevelt)

that said, on the whole, i don't disagree

even so, i want to stress that the lack of small government heroes

by no means should imply that small government is a bad thing

firefighters are often heroes

farmers, not so much

a society needs both

How would you two suggest we creat jobs? That is the most important problem atm.

i think we need to remove ourselves from the concept of needing a hero.
it's childish to put it all one persons shoulders.
these people aren't perfect and nobody can fit the term "small business hero' because the term is tailor fit to have holes shot through it because we are all human.
sure you can be a hero but being in a position to manage many things I'd imagine it's pretty hard not to step on somebodies toes.
which is why people can be heroes without pleasing ever mouth-breather in the crowd.

separate small business and rich individuals

keep tax cuts on small businesses

let tax cuts expire on rich individuals

the problem is that we refuse to separate the two

You're right. I think everyone just needs to do their part and acknowledge some painful sacrifices might have to be made. Nobody is willing to give anything.

that goes in the realm of idealism of course.
separating these things would have a ton of government involvement and I honestly don't think it'd work that way.
Someone is going to get rich somehow.

Just need to have better checks on big business and bigger breaks for small.

i don't know where you came up with 'small business hero'

no one that i saw implied that that even existed

and no, some times call for heroes(world war two, chamberlain vs. churchill)

some times call for a lassez-faire approach(clinton years)

the problem comes when you treat your politics like your religion

and devoutly believe that a pure free market approach or heavy economic regulation is ALWAYS THE BEST APPROACH SITUATION BE DAMNED