Thread

1. valleyer · 1790820524 · focus · HN ↗

   Oy. I'm no fiscal conservative, but the US federal government absolutely needs to balance its budget. Otherwise, it's bound to either choke on interest payments, devalue the dollar, or both.

   Unlike most Trumpists, I see the the problem as a revenue issue, not expenditures; unlike many non-Trumpists, I doubt "tax the rich" is going to be enough to plug the hole.

   Government healthcare payments would be a good start -- it seems likely that the amount most employees already (effectively) pay for health insurance could fund equivalent government coverage with some money left over to help pay for other government expenses.

   1. MisterMower · 1790827659 · focus · HN ↗

      It is absolutely a spending problem. The Department of Agriculture has 100k employees and a $500B dollar budget. That’s just one department of many. Throw a dart at the MTS [1] report and you’ll find dozens of other agencies with similar levels of spending.

      There are plenty of places to cut spending before we start raising taxes on the W2 wage earners that are contributing the most to federal tax receipts.

      How would nationalizing health insurance even make a dent in spending? Ultimately the same amount of healthcare will be consumed. You are truly clueless about the federal fisc if you think these are even remotely serious ideas for fixing the federal budget deficit.

      1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fiscaldata.treasury.gov&#x2F;static-data&#x2F;published-reports&#x2F;mts&#x2F;MonthlyTreasuryStatement_202608.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fiscaldata.treasury.gov&#x2F;static-data&#x2F;published-report...

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