Trump is gonna pass another tax cut by November

[barahona44]

Originally Posted by chadk66

I think your right. If the R's can hold both houses you'll see a balanced budget amendment before the next presidential election.

What's stopping them from doing so now? They have control of the White House, Senate , House and Supreme Court.

There will always be an excuse not to pass a balanced budget law as the things politicians like to do best, hand out goodies to people on the public's credit card, will be severely limited.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by barahona44

What's stopping them from doing so now? They have control of the White House, Senate , House and Supreme Court.

Reality. A balanced budget amendment would require approval by a vote of 290 members of the House and 67 Senators. You can't get that many members of Congress to agree on whether the sun is shining or not.

I doubt you could get such an amendment passed by a simple majority of either house right now. I doubt it would ever get out of committee.

[barahona44]

Originally Posted by Clocker

Reality. A balanced budget amendment would require approval by a vote of 290 members of the House and 67 Senators. You can't get that many members of Congress to agree on whether the sun is shining or not.

I doubt you could get such an amendment passed by a simple majority of either house right now. I doubt it would ever get out of committee.

Overlooked the word amendment in chad's post.
My mistake.Amendments are a 1000 times more difficult to get passed than a law.And they should be.

[elysiantraveller]

Originally Posted by Clocker

Trump Economic adviser Larry Kudlow is tap-dancing around the tax cut idea.

https://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...en-for-a-while

Trial balloon 30 days before an election.

Media and public didn't really bite on it.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by barahona44

Overlooked the word amendment in chad's post.

There are few in Congress on either side that really care about even reducing the deficit from year to year, let alone balancing the budget. A lot of Republicans pay lip-service to it, but when push comes to shove, they just keep kicking the can down the road. Trump is not doing anything to help matters. His proposed 5% decrease in Cabinet budgets is nothing, just PR to pretend to be doing something

[tucker6]

Originally Posted by Clocker

There are few in Congress on either side that really care about even reducing the deficit from year to year, let alone balancing the budget. A lot of Republicans pay lip-service to it, but when push comes to shove, they just keep kicking the can down the road. Trump is not doing anything to help matters. His proposed 5% decrease in Cabinet budgets is nothing, just PR to pretend to be doing something

What percent of the federal budget is department admin? 1%? 0.1%? When you take away entitlements, interest payments, and defense spending, there isn't much left with which to reduce the deficit. I'm afraid that our best hope is to hold the line on costs and hope we grow the revenue side in order to get out from under the deficit spending.

[incoming]

Originally Posted by Clocker

Trump Economic adviser Larry Kudlow is tap-dancing around the tax cut idea.

https://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...en-for-a-while

Personally, I would prefer that Trump makes the last round of tax cuts permanent. I think this would free up more money for families to spend. Save the additional tax cuts for the 2020 elections.

If we could fill the 71/2 million jobs that are now available it would certainly bring in more tax revenue. Build the wall......then increase legal merit immigration quotas. Build the wall and they will come and we get the pick of the crop. We would have the lowest taxes for consumers and industries. MOR` MONEY....MOR` MONEY

[elysiantraveller]

At some point the right needs to abandon this notion that cutting revenue somehow increases revenue...

We need to just close loopholes, broaden the base, adjust margins some and call it a day.

The right is obsessed with this idea that if we just get to that "one sweet spot" by lowering taxes there will be jobs, wage growth, equality, and 6% GDP growth for all!

The left is obsessed with the idea that if we just get to that "one sweet spot" by raising taxes there will be jobs, wage growth, equality, and 6% GDP growth for all!

[porchy44]

Originally Posted by Clocker

There are few in Congress on either side that really care about even reducing the deficit from year to year, let alone balancing the budget. A lot of Republicans pay lip-service to it, but when push comes to shove, they just keep kicking the can down the road. Trump is not doing anything to help matters. His proposed 5% decrease in Cabinet budgets is nothing, just PR to pretend to be doing something

That is definitely the FACTS.
It MAY be impossible now to balance the budget particularly with the baby boomers retiring and drawing a Social Security benefit which has already been spent and is now being paid by current workers.

[elysiantraveller]

Originally Posted by porchy44

That is definitely the FACTS.
It MAY be impossible now to balance the budget particularly with the baby boomers retiring and drawing a Social Security benefit which has already been spent and is now being paid by current workers.

10,000 a day...

For the past 10 years...

Think about that.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by porchy44

That is definitely the FACTS.
It MAY be impossible now to balance the budget particularly with the baby boomers retiring and drawing a Social Security benefit which has already been spent and is now being paid by current workers.

Which is why any current discussions of doing anything about the deficit or the debt are nonsense. Trump's 5% cut in administration spending is eye wash and ignores the problem. Dems in Congress want more spending, and about 97% of what Republicans say is posturing, also ignoring the problem.

The 800 pound gorilla in the federal government is entitlements. I would have trouble naming 5 out of 535 members of Congress that have spoken seriously about this problem.

Social Security plus Medicaid and Medicare plus unemployment insurance and, for the time being, Obamacare --- already absorb 70% of all federal spending. These budget items grow automatically and do not even come up in Congress’ annual appropriations process.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/miltone.../#495374ea5892

[porchy44]

Is there any economist who knows a NUMBER where the deficit grows to where we "go over the cliff" ? Common sense says there is a deficit number that is unsustainable.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by porchy44

Is there any economist who knows a NUMBER where the deficit grows to where we "go over the cliff" ? Common sense says there is a deficit number that is unsustainable.

When we spend more than we take in, and the debt keeps growing, then we are borrowing more and more money just to pay the interest on the debt. So as the debt goes up, the deficit each year grows, making the debt go up even more. And the debt grows even faster if interest rates, which are historically low, start to increase back into a more normal range.

In theory, there is no cliff as long as people are willing to lend us money and we as a country are willing to pay the ever-increasing cost of what is essentially an interest-only mortgage on our country. The cliff would be anything with negative impacts on the willingness of people to lend to our government. One such would be inflation of the dollar.

[chiguy]

I hate to wade into these discussions because I don't think either side is right. However if you just look at the numbers from 2015, there are three main drivers of our spending.


SS/Unemployment - 33%
Medicare and Health - 27%
Military - 16%


Now I don't believe in touching SS. It was a promise made to me and every American that you work, you pay into it and you get it back starting at 65. Now they have changed the rules and tweaked some stuff so with being born in 1961 I have to work till 67 to get my full benefit. I have worked my entire life and paid in since I was 15. Worked two jobs many of these years. I would be beyond pissed if they cut what I am supposed to get.


Medicare/Health. My gut feel from this after taking care of my mom the past few years is that the medical complex is really making a boatload on us. The bills she gets from simple procedures are unreal. I know we all have a story to tell about medical bills but truly it is unreal. There has to be savings here somewhere. I hear about them all the time regarding prescription drug prices etc. I think we just need political will to make some real savings here.


Military - obviously important but 16% of our spending? I have to believe there is money to be saved here. I work in an area of the country that has a major military supplier as the main tenant of a large industrial business park and actually share a building with said company. The excess I see around me on a daily basis makes me think that we are getting taken to the cleaners by some of these companies.


In all honestly I don't think we will live long enough to see anything change on any of this. I have saved outside of SS so that if it does go away I can survive but it would be a real burden to make it work. I know there are a lot of people who are not in that situation.