Britain, the US, and Balancing the Budget

Miscellaneous General
1

As many of you are probably aware, the big thing on the news this morning was the protests over in Britain about the 3x hike in college tuition. I honestly laughed when they said tuition was increasing from $5k to $14.2k because the university I graduated from is charging $41,500 for tuition (almost $55,000 with all things totaled). I received a generous financial aid package b/c I would have never been able to afford the full rate, but for many Americans, high college debt is a fact of life. Still, I realize a sudden 3x increase is jarring, and taxes in Britain are high enough already.

It’s encouraging to see some nations taking steps to balance their budgets, even if they are small ones. I have yet to see any efforts in Congress to actually balancing the American federal budget (not to mention my home state of New York is also neck-deep in red ink). It’s still basically all talk right now - but that has to start changing at some point here in the future.

My question is, considering the state of Federal spending in the U.S., where would be the most logical place to start cutting spending? ~55% of the budget comes from entitlement programs, ~20% is defense, a few points go to interest, and the rest is purely discretionary spending by the various federal departments. Assuming that we DO NOT raise taxes and meaningful economic recovery is still a ways away, we’re looking at 3.5 trillion in spending and about 2.3-2.4 trillion in revenue, with the debt : income ratio growing wider over time. In other words, Federal revenues only pay for 68% of current spending and it gets worse in the future. Considering the various interest groups out there, I’m not sure where it’s politically possible to start making cuts. Certainly not in entitlement programs, and defense lobbying is very powerful. I’ve read about a lot of people wanting to ax agencies like the Dept of Education, but their budget is just a drop in the bucket.

Thoughts? If there are previous threads on this subject, please let me know, and I apologize for the unnecessary duplication.

2

Well, it may be just a drop in the bucket now, but if we got rid of all of the other welfare agencies as well, the debt would quit growing as much.

The dept. of Education is raising the costs of private education. It’s not improving the quality of public education either and everyone needs to remember that education is not a natural right.

3

We do not need Congress approval to balance the budget, we can start balancing the budget today, if politicians get their thumb out of their ass… just stop spending and cut government programs

4

We do not need Congress approval to balance the budget, we can start balancing the budget today, if politicians get their thumb out of their ass… just stop spending and cut government programs

Right - but for someone like myself who is interested in pursuing a career in public policy, change has to begin somewhere regardless of the final destination. That’s what I’m trying to identify.