NYT federal budget widget

[merchimerch]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?src=me&ref=general

This is really awesome. It makes the decisions that need to be made about spending and taxes so much more tangible and conceivable to me.

Having played with it for a little while, I'm really convinced that spending cuts are so ineffectual at really addressing the budget problem, especially if military spending is untouchable. Every time I clicked on the spending cut links, it seemed like tiny slivers of the forecasted budget shortfall were repaired. Bringing taxes to Clinton era levels seems to be the way to fix the budget the quickest. I don't understand why people are so averse to this idea.

Comments

[sps.livejournal.com]

OTOH, if you do choose all the military curtailments except "reduce noncombat military compensation", you select the taxation options considered 'normal' in other Western nations, and you eliminate the items that seem like graft to me, you end up with a $300G surplus in 2015—without firing anyone or reducing anyone's pay outside the military. That leaves you with a lot of leeway to tinker with exactly how you want taxes structured. It seems, and I would argue unsurprisingly so, that the right-wing combination of appointing yourself the world's police force while paying yourself kickbacks is toxic.

[axo.livejournal.com]

done. and yeah, we gotta tax.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=d1b105y3