Do we have a spending or revenue problem when it comes to the debt?

Do we have a spending or revenue problem when it comes to the debt?
All votes are public so not cheating.

Spending problem
Revenue problem
Mostly its a spending problem and some its a revenue problem
Mostly its a revenue problem and some its a spending problem
other.



I say its a spending problem and I believe raising taxes would only encourage the government to spend more. Every unnecessary program cut, overlapping agencies should be gotten rid of and we should make cuts to as many things as possible. Raising taxes should be the last thing done and avoided at all costs.

Spending problem.


You can spend an infinite amount assuming limitless debt but you do not have unlimited resources.

100% a Spending problem........

........and a "Democrats only want to spend more" problem.........
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6 in one, half a dozen in the other. As we progress as a society and decide to enact certain legislation and benefits such as Medicare or a true universal healthcare system, you have to pay for it. On the same front, the government spends a ton of money and a lot of it goes for things which do not serve the People as a whole. It's not a Republican or Democrat problem as this has happened continuously over their decades of rule. You're not really going to solve it by say putting in all Republicans. They do the same thing.

In the end the problem is the difference between spending and revenue; that difference will have to be made up and it's probably not all going to come at the hands of cuts.

I feel its mostly a spending problem. With the down turn in the economy, unemployment up, some business going under, revenue may be down. While its not at the national level, the small town I live in relies on sales tax for much of its revenue. That is way down, so changes in budget (spending) has had to be done to balance.

Regardless of what the problem is, the solution is to cut spending drastically, and increase revenue until we've brought spending fully under control.

Both. We have record low tax rates and record high spending. I doubt we can fix the problem without an increase of taxes and a reduction in spending.

roughdraft274 said:

Both. We have record low tax rates and record high spending. I doubt we can fix the problem without an increase of taxes and a reduction in spending.

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I agree on the cut spending. The issue is how to increase revenue for those that see a need. For those that are living paycheck to paycheck an increase in taxes may push them over the edge into insolvency. I major overhaul of our tax system needs to be done and not just change the rates.

mike2810 said:

I agree on the cut spending. The issue is how to increase revenue for those that see a need. For those that are living paycheck to paycheck an increase in taxes may push them over the edge into insolvency. I major overhaul of our tax system needs to be done and not just change the rates.

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Oh definitely, the tax code is s**t right now. We've got soo many loopholes, exceptions, special cases and other things, its freaking ridiculous. We need a simple proportional or graduated tax rate. And since corporations are "people" just put them into the same system, and create new tax brackets for those making upwards of, say, one million, 100 million, etc.

If we're doing that, I think we could just go with a simple proportional tax rate, graduated would become too much on the higher brackets.

Depends on how you define 'problem'.

I don't have a problem, for example, with small government and low spending, but it requires all levels of the economy practice values that are congruent with the moral and civic virtue every country needs to survive, all the more so if that country is a republic. There have been times and places in American history where such an arrangement existed, but it isn't the case now.

Presently, free trade treaties and corporate welfare (both results of globalization) have empowered America's higher income brackets to obtain heights of wealth unprecedented in human history, and judging from their post-recession actions, they are determined to keep multiplying that wealth regardless of the consequences; however, the economic and political policies that enable the acquisition of such wealth are inherently unstable, pushing the middle class into poverty (from loss of jobs and stagnated wages) and requiring the government expand welfare services to compensate for the lack of productive Americans (that is, to prevent civil upheaval from upsetting our economic and political system).

I consider that a sub-par arrangement; it creatures a weak and morally depraved cultures among both the middle class and the higher-income brackets, and in the end will destroy the United States as a superpower.

That's what you get from putting merchants and merchants' lawyers in power instead of warriors and scholars.

As far as the terms of the poll question can represent my opinion, I choose 'revenue' over 'spending' because high spending is required in the present economic-political system. Changing that requires altering the relationships that make up the system.

But since lack of balance is a problem, I'll add 'some spending' to my answer as well.

jamesrage said:

Do we have a spending or revenue problem when it comes to the debt?
All votes are public so not cheating.

Spending problem
Revenue problem
Mostly its a spending problem and some its a revenue problem
Mostly its a revenue problem and some its a spending problem
other.



I say its a spending problem and I believe raising taxes would only encourage the government to spend more. Every unnecessary program cut, overlapping agencies should be gotten rid of and we should make cuts to as many things as possible. Raising taxes should be the last thing done and avoided at all costs.

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Well considering that under Clinton and a Republican house, we were able to cut the deficit in a meaningful way, have higher taxes than we do now, have a budget surplus, and a massive economical expansion I see no problem with doing what Obama wants to now, and that is to phase out certain tax credits and close up loopholes. How will that hurt jobs or demand? I'll give you a great example of how it wouldn't. We used to have a $2000-3000 hybrid tax credit that got phased out, where were you when that went away? Well Toyota still has a hard time keeping up with the demand for Prius, so much so that the end of this year they begin building the Prius and hybrid Camry in Mississippi. Imagine that!

Anyways do that, phase out the bush tax cuts for the rich and once the unemployment is down to 5% and the dollar is up again phase them out for the middle class as well.

In the meantime besides phasing out tax credits and closing loopholes, each part of the government from the military to social services needs to be thoroughly examined, kept just as efficient (If not more) by finding better contracts with private companies (ie military contracts) and other areas. Perfect example is the IRS is saving quite a bit of money as their systems become more computerized, and they are far more efficient than ever before. As long as all services the government provides to its people stay just as good if not better, then cut away.

roughdraft274 said:

Both. We have record low tax rates and record high spending. I doubt we can fix the problem without an increase of taxes and a reduction in spending.

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You got the problem 100 % right. However, I think we can fix things without increasing taxes.

roughdraft274 said:

Both. We have record low tax rates and record high spending. I doubt we can fix the problem without an increase of taxes and a reduction in spending.

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100% correct

Badmutha said:

100% a Spending problem........

........and a "Republicans only want to spend more" problem.........
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Fixed that for you.. Now your statement is accurate.. Just remember it was a democrat that left Bush a budget surplus.. It was a republican that that spent that surplus to a deficit.. Not to mention cut taxes, which did nothing..

If you want people to take you seriously.. You would be wise to not look for every opportunity to bash liberals.. Especially when clearly you are wrong.. It isn't democratic spending that put us here.. It is republicans spending.. Try to remember that..

Redress said:

You got the problem 100 % right. However, I think we can fix things without increasing taxes.

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The Bush tax cuts need to go.. Call it raising taxes or whatever.. They need to expire.. That is $320 billion a year we don't have.. Nearly a third of the deficit is those tax cuts..

DemonMyst said:

Fixed that for you.. Now your statement is accurate.. Just remember it was a democrat that left Bush a budget surplus.. It was a republican that that spent that surplus to a deficit.. Not to mention cut taxes, which did nothing..

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Not that I don't agree with your statement, each of the two years with a surplus it was that year we had a surplus, meaning we still had a lot of debt, just we had a surplus that could have been applied to bring it down. I often wonder what the US would be like had the Bush tax cuts not have been applied and we would have not gone into Iraqi. What would be going on right now? A big "what if?" eh?

DemonMyst said:

The Bush tax cuts need to go.. Call it raising taxes or whatever.. They need to expire.. That is $320 billion a year we don't have.. Nearly a third of the deficit is those tax cuts..

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Also this is actually only when you consider taxing people at pre-Bush era that are making $250k or more. If the middle class Bush tax cuts were phased out it would be almost 700 billion.

The majority of it is a spending problem. If we're going to solve it in any reasonable length of time though, we're going to have to raise more revenue.

what revenue problem we have is the result of our spending problem. revenues came in reliably at around their historical average for 60 years until we dramatically increased the size of government relative to GDP. then, well, whattya know, it turns out the government doesn't tax itself quite like it taxes labor, production, and investment, and revenues fell relative to GDP.


both our revenue and our spending problems can be solved by reducing the size and scope of government, along with some fairly basic tax reforms in the manner proposed by the Presidents' Bi Partisan Debt Reduction Commission.

cpwill said:

what revenue problem we have is the result of our spending problem. revenues came in reliably at around their historical average for 60 years until we dramatically increased the size of government relative to GDP. then, well, whattya know, it turns out the government doesn't tax itself quite like it taxes labor, production, and investment, and revenues fell relative to GDP.


both our revenue and our spending problems can be solved by reducing the size and scope of government, along with some fairly basic tax reforms in the manner proposed by the Presidents' Bi Partisan Debt Reduction Commission.

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That is all fine and good, however in order to keep taxes where they are now and have no yearly debt we would have to not only drastically downsize entitlement programs, we would have to drastically downsize infrastructure spending, and the military. This can be counteracted by gradually progressing the tax code, loopholes, and such.

cpwill said:

what revenue problem we have is the result of our spending problem. revenues came in reliably at around their historical average for 60 years until we dramatically increased the size of government relative to GDP. then, well, whattya know, it turns out the government doesn't tax itself quite like it taxes labor, production, and investment, and revenues fell relative to GDP.


both our revenue and our spending problems can be solved by reducing the size and scope of government, along with some fairly basic tax reforms in the manner proposed by the Presidents' Bi Partisan Debt Reduction Commission.

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One of the reason I do not watch more tax increases because it gives the government an excuse to not make necessary cuts. Its like if your kid has a 20 dollar a week allowance and spends most of it on candy and then one day he says he needs a few extra bucks a week so he can save up for a video game, Most parents would tell their child that if they quit spending most of it on candy they can save up for that video game instead of giving that child a few extra bucks a week.

DemonMyst said:

Fixed that for you.. Now your statement is accurate.. Just remember it was a democrat that left Bush a budget surplus.. It was a republican that that spent that surplus to a deficit.. Not to mention cut taxes, which did nothing..

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Yeah BJ balanced the budget and reformed Welfare.......the Republican Congress was just a showpiece huh?

If you want people to take you seriously.. You would be wise to not look for every opportunity to bash liberals.. Especially when clearly you are wrong.. It isn't democratic spending that put us here.. It is republicans spending.. Try to remember that..[/

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70% of our budget was invented by Democrats.........and still they insist on inventing new ways of spending our money........while being unable to cut even a Cowboy Poetry Contest.

......you were saying?.......
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jamesrage said:

One of the reason I do not watch more tax increases because it gives the government an excuse to not make necessary cuts. Its like if your kid has a 20 dollar a week allowance and spends most of it on candy and then one day he says he needs a few extra bucks a week so he can save up for a video game, Most parents would tell their child that if they quit spending most of it on candy they can save up for that video game instead of giving that child a few extra bucks a week.

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I have the same feeling... i feel like the people have a lot more power in this situation to actually get the government to do their s***. I dont trust the government with things like raising the debt limit and increasing the taxes, their just going to continue what their doing because of the degree of greed be have all over the place.

Both. The revenue problem is mostly due to the weak state of the economy.

It's a spending problem. We have to live within our means, that means we cannot spend more than we take in. I don't care how much or little that happens to be, we cannot spend more than that. Of course, the government can't control itself, it spends up a storm and when more money becomes available, no matter how far in debt it is, it just finds more to spend it on.

There is no control because we, the taxpayers, don't demand it.