Found this video-clip of John Stewart talking about the deficit. It's most interesting in light of our discussion and simulation yesterday--Because a lot of these same issues addressed. Healthcare, Obamacare, Defense Spending, Medicare, Medicaid--It has it all! ...Or does it?
How can closing loopholes and deductions, get us to a similar position we were all aiming for yesterday?
Entertaining/Interesting clip nonetheless. (Daily Show)
Too funny. And yet, the simulation shows how hard it is to make cuts in anything, particularly if the point of government spending is to increase utility or profitability in the private sector. I am fascinated by the rhetoric surrounding cutting loopholes and deductions. Major ones are the deduct ability of mortgage interest and health insurance premiums---these are middle class loopholes. Combine closing these loopholes with an unchanged alternative minimum tax (ATM) and most middle class tax payers will be paying thousands more a year. But are voters aware of this? The assumption seems to be that other people get the loopholes and deductions.
ReplyDeleteGreat video! Jon Stewart really clears up a lot of the confusion that some people might have. Last night's, simulation gave us a taste of what it would be like to make those cuts. I personally didn't feel good about a lot of them as they would affect many people, so i understand why it might be difficult for the candidates, yet it has to be done. Romney's idea of cutting loopholes and deductions is really interesting as we can see from this video, although, i don't know if the plan is well established, and my guess is that many voters are clueless as to how it will happen.
ReplyDeleteAfter the exercise we did last night I can't help but empathize a little bit with Romney because it was so difficult and also confusing at times, to reduce the debt to an acceptable amount. Not to mention, making sure enough people are pleased in the process. His plan is vague, and he surely needs to explain himself better if he wants to have more trust from the voters. It's as though he wants to show everyone that he has great intentions to cut spending, but cannot actually pinpoint the exact spots that he will do so.
ReplyDeleteNice video! It is hard to make cuts as I experienced first hand in last nights simulation. So hard to make cuts that it's almost reasonable(sarcasm) that Romney is lying to Americans when he promises to expand so many programs. The deficit sucks and it is going to be really hard to get out of, but I think that is something our country as a whole needs to face. Romney simply stating in the video clips that he wants to cut spending without being very specific about where the cuts will take place makes we wonder if his plan is very though out. It's really easy to tell a bunch of people what they want to hear if you have no moral conscious, however if elected I don't see how Mr. Romney will possibly be able to cut the deficit while growing many government programs.
ReplyDeleteTo me Romney's plan does seem a bit vague as they call it, but considering just how bad of a situation we are in I don't know if there are any right answers at the time. The one major concern that I do have about Romney's plan is his focus on eliminating some of these deductions and exemptions. It seems as if he is using this idea to appear to the public that he has a plan to reduce our debt. However, his overall lack of clarity in his plan seems to make him and his plan a lot less credible. Hopefully I am wrong and his "plan" whatever it may be will greatly improve our current state.
ReplyDeleteIt is extremely worrisome to me that Romney's entire tax system is predicated upon closing the "loopholes and deductions" in our tax code in order to balance the budget. In light of this, his refusal to actually name anything that he might cut tends to make me think that he is simply lying, and actually has no plan. Romney has proved that he will say anything to get into office, even if it does not make sense. Politically, there are some points that I might even be tempted to agree with Romney on, but the lack of details in his stump speech plans makes me uneasy about the possibility of him winning. He has promised everything to everyone, so the public has no way of knowing what he will do when he gets into office, which just makes me think he will be a corporate lapdog, and do whatever his PACs want, which will likely be the extra push towards economic failure that will be our country's practical undoing.
ReplyDeleteRomney has promised that do everything that could get him into the office. But his speech are very unclear and vague. Their unwillingness to reveal the math makes their plans even more doubtful. Do they actually have a plan to reduce the debt? From the simulation, we knew how hard it was to make any of those cuts, so I can feel for Romney. I would really like to know his sources to cut the deficit.
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