US needs to cut budget

The United States Federal Government will bring in $2.57 trillion in revenue and spend $3.83 trillion under President Obama’s proposed budget, according to The Washington Post. If any person or business tried to spend more than they have it spells one thing. Bankruptcy.

The $1.27 trillion deficit left in the budget is not healthy. I realize the budget hasn’t been balanced for a long time, but politicians need to stop bickering and padding their—or their district’s—wallet and buckle down.

The past three years have had a deficit between eight and 10 percent. That’s the worst deficit since World War II. That’s partly because the government has increased it’s spending, but it’s also partly due to a refusal of politicians to raise taxes.

And I get it; I really do. Taxes will cost you an election because no one likes to pay more money. I think that the politicians in office now need to seriously considering country first right now.

If we keep refusing to raise taxes, there’s no magical way to bring in more revenue. And it doesn’t have to be taxes on individuals that politicians need to fix. Obama’s budget gets only $297 billion from corporate income taxes and more $1.1 trillion from individual income taxes. I’m not economics genius but even I know that’s not right. Corporations make way more than individuals definitely need to pay accordingly.

Obviously, raising taxes won’t solve the budget problem. There also needs to be a serious, non-partisan look at spending that can be cut. The government spends a lot of money, and it’s not always vigilant about keeping the amounts in check. Over 18 percent of the 2010 budget was for non-defense discretionary spending.

If revenue isn’t going to increase, each and every penny spent needs to be examined. Earmarks and other political tricks need to stop. The government should be trying to right the spending ship by only spending on the necessities.

This week House Speaker John Boehner promised to work to cut $100 billion in funding by Sept. 30 as part of the GOP Pledge to America. These cuts are a great start, but more is going to have to be done to make things right. It’s also worth noting that Boehner had to be forced by freshman senators to make good on these cuts.

Eventually politicians are also going to have to look at the elephants in the room—Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Those three programs alone take up over $1.5 trillion in Obama’s proposed budget. Washington is going to have to bite the bullet and find ways to stop those programs from sucking up so much of the budget.

Posted by Matt Chambers on Feb 17 2011. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.