“Obama panel recommends $200B in spending cuts”: The leaders of President Obama’s fiscal commission are recommending up to $200 billion a year in domestic and defense spending cuts from the federal budget, much of it by shrinking the size and freezing the pay of the federal workforce.
The plan, obtained by USA TODAY, includes 58 ideas for savings that range from $100 million to $28 billion. The overall total represents about 15% of the current $1.3 trillion annual deficit, but in 2015 would be about one-third of the projected $500 billion annual deficit.
The domestic and defense spending cuts are part of a broader proposal by the commission co-chairmen to save more than $3.8 trillion over the next decade, not only by cutting programs but also by squeezing Social Security and health benefits, wiping out tax breaks and overhauling the budget process…
WATCHDOG:
The proposal should be adopted as presented if for no other reason (and there are plenty)that it arouses the ire and resistance of every possible constituency! From this we deduce it must be wise and evenhanded.
However, what is not mentioned is the importance of our government keeping us out of senseless wars and reducing the astonishing number of military bases stationed throughout the world. God has not anointed us to police the world, nor can we afford to do.
A major reason for the rapid decline of our nation (apart from predatory mergers and acquisitions over the past three decades) is that our economic surpluses have gone into the military / industrial complex and mind boggling inefficient health care rather than research, development and new and improved products. We have impoverished and stunted our economy while others have modernized and grown.
From what I’ve read the proposal sounds pretty good. We’ll see how the politics play out. Agree about US military empire. It’s time to scale back and take care of our own..