US Treasury's Geithner says US to start "extraordinary" measures to stay under debt ceiling

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
reply to post by Mdv2

 

We could raise the debt ceiling, but we need to plan and prepare for gradual cuts and drawdown overtime, say over the next four years. This would mean drawing down forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Europe, especially Europe.
We could also reduce the size of the nuclear arsenal and possibly the number of Carrier Strike Groups and B-2s. The use of automated systems and robotics would help eliminate some costs related to personnel.

Totally agree with you. I think we need to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts and return to Clinton rates on the top earners. Warren Buffet and several others in this bracket have said they can afford the increase and in the long run it would benefit them as well. We definitely need to draw down forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These two issues alone would eliminate around 40% of the current debt issue.Thanks Bush!

At the same, Illegal immigration would have to be forceably brought under control. Work programs, community service, birth control and drug tests would have to accompany any sort of welfare or benefits.

Illegal immigration is at an all time low due to the recession and increased border security, and I'll have to disagree with the birth control and drug testing issues with welfare. Many of these people are underemployed or unemployed due to the financial collapse and simply can't find a job anywhere. Forcing them to undergo humiliating police state-esque measures won't help the problem and I think adds a ton of unnecessary administrative costs.

The prison system would have to be reformed, meaning we house primarily violent offenders only. Many non violent crimes, especially victimless, would be reduced to fines. Capital punishment would have to be expedited, inefficient systems such lethal injection, gas chambers, electric chairs would have to be replaced by something like Nitrogen asphyxiation.

I agree completely. Regulate and tax the stuff too, that'll add billions a year in revenue.

Drilling, offshore and in Alaska would have to be allowed, while buidling new refineries and exploring the Green River Formation for resource extraction.

I disagree here. It's already been stated that even if we dramatically increased domestic production, it would take years to have an affect and the environmental impact makes it completely not worth it. I say end oil subsidies and tax oil companies for their windfall profits, and use the tax to support green technology.

Other options include a National Mutual Fund, where all revenue collected by the IRS would be deposited, providing a another annual Citizen's Dividend in addition to the resource dividend. The retirement age should be brought up to 70, along with various entitlements. A push for privatization of some government services should also be pushed, especially in education.

Thats just a few ideas, but we can turn it around. It will require sacrifice, but the sacrifice will be far less that what we will lose if we do nothing.

I actually disagree on increasing the retirement age.

What is the biggest way to raise tax revenue without raising taxes? put the unemployed to work. If we actually lowered the retirement age to flush out older, more expensive workers then that would make room for younger and mid level workers to fill the gaps. This would reduce the unemployment and drive up revenue across the board, and older workers get to retire earlier. Everybody wins!

Besides, social security doesn't contribute to the deficit whatsoever, so I think it should pretty much be off the table until we get the things actually contributing to the deficit under control. It's solvent for decades, so let's cross that bridge when it is actually important.

reply to post by MikeboydUS


I hate to be a doom-thinker and sincerely hope you are right - that it is not too late yet, but I greatly have my doubts. Raising the debt ceiling is not as easy as it seems. The reason being that it would severely affect the credit worthiness of the US. In reality, US debts are close to junk already, raising the ceiling would hit investor confidence even harder.

If the world begin to lose confidence in the dollar in such a way that they fear the US could not repay its debts, they will start withdrawing their capital from the US and the dollar will be pressured even more. In the end, individual investors make a trade-off, meaning that they care more about their own investment than they do about the world economy. If the world economy comes to collapse, they lose much of their wealth anyway, but psychologically humans do not think like that.