I think someone found where some cuts could have been made!!

[Guest083013]

Salary of the US President .............$400,000
Salary of retired US Presidents .......$180,000
Salary of House/Senate .................$174,000
Salary of Speaker of the House .......$223,500
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders . $193,400

Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN WAR ZONES==>$38,000

[satexasguy]

Come on dennisrn, don't you know our politicians are more valuable than any one of our servicemen? Afterall, they are our chosen ones! (all said with sarcasm)

Sad to think some politicians and citizens think our servicemen are overpaid.

[RobbThrobb]

Its also sad to think that unless military cuts are on the negotiating dems won't participate.

[Gladman]

Originally Posted by dennisrn

Salary of the US President .............$400,000
Salary of retired US Presidents .......$180,000
Salary of House/Senate .................$174,000
Salary of Speaker of the House .......$223,500
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders . $193,400

Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN WAR ZONES==>$38,000

That's sad indeed. Though somehow I see that ol' Irishman Barry O'Bama reminding us that he pays higher taxes, and if his salary were cut, so would his taxes.

[Rakhir]

Is there anything listed that you can't live without?
These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.
Save America 's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.
International Fund for Ireland . $17 million annual savings.
Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.
National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.
National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.
Hope VI Program.. $250 million annual savings.
Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings.
Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings.
Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings.
Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings.
John C. Stennis Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings.
Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings.
Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings.
Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings.
Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings.
Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings.
Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings.
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings.
Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings.
Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings.
New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings.
Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts . $9 million annual savings. What the hell is this anyway…?
Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings.
Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings.
Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings.
Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings.
Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings.
Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings.

FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings.

Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings.

Economic Assistance to Egypt . $250 million annually.

U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings.

General Assistance to District of Columbia . $210 million annual savings.

Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings.

Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years.

No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings.

End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services. Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually.

IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing payments to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years.

Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings. WHAT THE HELL…!

Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years.

Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings.

Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.

Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.$12.5 million annual savings.

Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.

USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.

Subsidy to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).$93 million annual savings.

Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million annual savings.

Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.

Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings.

Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.

HUD Ph.D. Program.

Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act

TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years

My question, what is all this doing in the budget in the first place…?

[JMcB]

Besides the pay for house and senate members please list their perks which could also be cut ... free health care for life (even when no longer in office), free postal service etc. Make them pay like the rest of us and lower their pay to the average of their representative districts and see how they will squeal like the swine that the majority are.

[oshins]

OK, Rakhir (nice cut and paste, btw), et al. Is the US really the land of what can you live without? Furthermore, is that really what it is? Why aren't corporations (other than the corporation for public broadcasting) asked to give up their tax breaks?

Where is the provision to close the tax loopholes? Why do people think the tea-baggers are a puppets of corporate America? This is why.

Example: How is it we allow a company to 'relocate' to Switzerland, open a corporate office with 12 employees, while the original 1300+ remain in the US and they save $1.3 billion in taxes.

Another aspect that hits close to home right now - how many thousands lose their jobs when this spending goes away? Does the new Republican House propose to take credit for that also?

Another abstract thought, perhaps corporations should fund the education of any employee it wishes to hire. Maybe trade them like professional athletes. Are they (businesses) not profiting from an education system they are not funding?

The one I am looking for on the list, and am not finding and should be right above

Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings.WHAT!!!

is tax policy reform. Let corporate America, if you are doing business here (not where your corporate HQ is) pay the same rate I do. Corporations need to pay their share. I pay mine. Close the loopholes!

As far as I am concerned the real patriots in this country aren't the loudmouths screaming about being patriots, and trying to get out of paying their fair share to be a citizen of this great country. The real patriots are those who accept that there is a price that comes with the freedoms we enjoy. I am retired Navy, I paid part of that price... but I volunteered for that. It was luck that I was born here. For that, I believe we all owe. This includes paying for the privilege of doing business here, everyone (China included).

Before the bandwagon starts rolling... do you know what all of those actually are? How would they affect the country? Local communities?

Some that jumped out at me...

Save America 's Treasures Program - I like preserving our historical sites. Does The Alamo count?

Legal Services Corporation - Legal aid for the poor. Bad thing? Only the rich get legal advice? How many people out of work on this one?

International Fund for Ireland* - What it doesn't say, $0.00 appropriated in 2011, and $2.5 million for 2012. Where are the savings? Any other USAID cuts? This looks like grandstanding. Advertising $17 million in cuts when it was already cut? Personally I am all for removing this one as it funds Northern Ireland's existence. FRAUD

National Endowments for the Arrts & Humanities - Do you really want to live in a country without art, music, literature? FAIL

Hope VI - Revitalizing HUD properties. So, we should make the initial investment and then let them fall down?

Amtrack & Intercity Rail (note, for those quick to condemn inner-city funding... that's intercity) Without trains, who wins? Oil? Can you imagine the traffic in Boston, DC, NYC...etc. without trains? Loss in productivity, job loss, ... - FAIL

Technology Innovation Program - Lets see... what kinds of things do we use that enable commerce, make for a better quality of life... etc. that were funded by government research? Hmmm... GPS, the internet, yeah, this line of funding is silly.

If I have more time I'll poke more holes.

Summary - there are actually uses in some of these programs, but as I see it there are none that ask corporate America to make the sacrifices that citizens are being asked to make, quite the opposite for some of them, they are a boon. Such as:

USDA Sugar Program - would eliminate tariffs on sugar from countries other than those we currently have treaties with. Who does it benefit? How much are the savings if we are also reducing the tariff income?

* USAID is also a separate line item

[satexasguy]

Several corporations will pay for an employee to further their education. Merck paid for my MBA.

Why help fund Amtrack and not other railroad companies such as Union Pacific? Amtrack is another example of a failed government backed project. Amtrack has a terrible track record and needs to go completely privately owned. The fact is that Amtrack is not near fully utilized. Americans would rather drive or fly. Europe has a great rail system because most Europeans realize it is more economical to take a train for long trips than to drive or fly. Americans are not programmed that way and it is wishful thinking that we will ever turn to trains for mass transportation. High speed rail projects are a waste of money. Name one city/state that has successfully implemented such a thing? The theory is good but the costs become VERY high. On a side note, I really don't understand why San ANtonio wants to implement a light rail system when several large cities throughout the US have decided to stop funding or not implement such a system because the costs become way too high. I have yet to see a VIA bus that has more than 6 passengers at any given time (except during Fiesta). VIA is not being fully utilized (translation .. not cost effective) so why the hell does our city council insist on implementing a light rail system that will be equally under-utilized and cost taxpayers more?

Hope VI - HUD housing starts off looking good. Why do residents of these housing units not take pride in them and maintain them themselves? It doesn't take much to keep them clean. Yes, the govt should help to fix damages due to normal wear and tear, but the residents should do their part in maintaining the property. I had an argument with someone once about the poor condition of inner city schools in NY/NJ. She thought they poor conditions made it difficult for students to get a good education and that is why students vandalize the schools with grafitti and breaking windows. I pointed out to her that when the schools were first opened, they were in good shape. The students CHOSE to let the schools get runned down by acts of vandalizm by the students. Why should tax dollars be spent to fix what they intentionally ruined?

America needs to stop becoming a land of handouts and start taking pride in itself again. What ever happened to the notion that if you work hard, you will be rewarded?

[RobbThrobb]

Our current TAX code.

[Gladman]

Oshins, you're failing to recall the basic rule of thumb about corporations: any tax imposed is passed to consumers. Government raises taxes on an oil company? You pay more at the pump. Government taxes a food source? You pay more at the supermarket, etc.,etc. And when you mention not "allowing a company to move" to wherever it wants----WHOA NELLIE! A lot of brave men and women (some on this board) fought and died to prevent the Iron Curtain from covering more sad space than it already did. Seriously? You really want to force a company to stay inside a country that is hurting it?
If so, get out your red flags, raise the hammer and sickle now, start building the walls with the minefields on this side of the border. :-( The preserved no-man's-land walls along the old border of East-West Germany ain't pretty.

Don't know much about it, but the Legal Services Corp seems to be a redundancy for pro bono legal work already recommended by state bars to lawyers. Redundancy kills economy.

As for paying for art: alllllll good art gets paid for. Allllll of it. If art is good, people snatch it up. I don't hear about the National Endowment for the Arts bidding on Van Gogh or O'Keeffe. The agency's original intent was to get unknown artists known. The Internet does that better than the govt agency can now.

And about the Alamo: last time I was there, a sign said that Texas pays for its upkeep, not the Feds, and before Texas I think it was the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. The Feds shouldn't ever pay for something's upkeep outside of Federal property.

Most of the stuff that should be cut is special-interest pork, redistributed from Uncle Sugar's cookie jar to states/locales to cover political bargains, votes, and compromises on other pork barrels. I say get rid of the 17th Amendment and force US senators to be once again responsible to state legislatures as intended, recallable at ANY moment for any single little thing that the state doesn't like. That won't stop all the pork, but it'll put an end to the hammiest.

[oshins]

Don't have a lot of time, and I'll address other points later.
Gladman - I didn't mean to imply that they can't move, just that they should bear the same tax burden if they wish to continue to profit here, so as to not incentivize them to move. Before invoking the halo of those who fought... I'm one of them. We have opinions too.

I honestly don't know about the Alamo, other than it is part of the National Park Service.

More to follow.

[Rakhir]

Tell ya what. Here's my tax plan to shut up all you liberals and your loophole bullshit.
Abolish the IRS in it's current form and go to a flat 10% national sales tax with no exemptions. Pass a balanced budget amendment with the added caveat limiting the size of government where it cannot exceed 20% of GDP.

Now everyone pays equally. There are no more untaxed cash businesses because everyone has to purchase goods & services and now cannot avoid taxation. Government has to live within it's means and politicians can no longer use the threat of taxation as a carrot or stick to enrich themselves. Now they have to govern to the will of the people. And most of all if GDP goes down due to lack of jobs government has to eliminate size and spending and I don't have to listen to horseshit liberal whining about how we need to fund bullshit causes where the only answer liberals ever have is let's throw more money at the problem!

[Guest083013]

10% keeps the LDS functioning rather well............jus saying!!

[oshins]

First, and here's the crazy part.... wait for it... not a liberal. Centrist. I want a government that doesn't favor one group/class of its citizens to the detriment of the others. Crazy talk, I know.

Loophole bullshit? Interesting. So, you are OK paying 33% while the largest corporations pay 9%? I'm not.

As for taxes, and I feel like I have said this many times before... a flat tax on all income generated in the US. No deductions, no bullshit loopholes, no breaks, NADA. You play, you pay.

satxguy - Yes, I'm aware that many do. The Navy paid for mine. What I meant was that perhaps the government should get out of funding education. Have those that benefit from it pay for the whole system. It was mostly tongue in cheek, but again... who benefits from an educated workforce that requires less training? Employers.

Why fund Amtrack? Why not privatize? Good questions. Why not privatize all public transportation. Ever been to DC? Boston? NYC? Now, imagine those places without trains....

All taxes are passed along to the consumer. Yes, I agree. I am also fine with that. The market will bear what the market will bear. I am not fine with paying my taxes while others are allowed to not pay theirs.

The Hope VI system is fucked. But, what happens when we do let the schools and housing collapse? Not to any one individual, but to our downtown? How many police will we need when the bottom tier of our society goes from a shitty life, to complete desperation. The upside - more hookers, the downside, a bunch of angry people who have nothing to lose. Sounds more like a third world country that the USA I fought for.

Bullshit causes... which ones are bullshit? And to whom. To you, they may all be. To me, a lot are. As for most of it being special interest pork... not really, look at the list.

Is that really the actual list? The reason I ask... as I pointed out earlier with the 'Ireland' line item, that's under USAID, another line item is Aid to Egypt... also under USAID.

OK, here's another interesting point. Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Where is the line item eliminating Subsidies to the top 5 oil companies? So, its good to eliminate that $12.5 million but not good to eliminate the ~$15.1 billion per year in subsidies to oil? Here's my cut and paste:

The United States government provides a large subsidy to oil companies, with major tax breaks at virtually every stage of oil exploration and extraction. Revenue attributable to capital investment, including the costs of oil field leases and drilling equipment, are taxed at an effective rate of nine percent, which is a much lower rate than the 25% rate for general business taxes and lower than the taxes of virtually any other industry, according to a 2005 study by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. For example, while the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was registered in the Marshall Islands, since registering off-shore lowered the U.S. tax liability, the U.S. government was giving the rig's owner, British Petroleum (BP), a major tax break when BP leased the rig: 70% of the rent was written off in the form of a tax break used only by the oil industry, for a tax deduction of more than $225,000 per day from the day the lease began.

Oh, and while we are at it, cutting the energy grants too? I'm sensing a trend.

That's one rig garnering $225,000 per day in tax deduction. How many rigs are there? Seems like simple math, and a shit load of cash.

I am not claiming to have all the answers. I am just asking for all parties to share the burden.

How about this. Think the same people who put this forward would go for this idea?

End ALL subsidies. I'm guessing that would be worth more than everything on their list by a factor of 10.

[Gladman]

Originally Posted by oshins

All taxes are passed along to the consumer. Yes, I agree. I am also fine with that. The market will bear what the market will bear. I am not fine with paying my taxes while others are allowed to not pay theirs.

It's like beating a dead horse. I can't bear to watch anymore.