ACA Repeal/Replace: Progressives Face Moral Dilemma

[David Horn]

(09-07-2017, 07:48 PM)Kinser79 Wrote:

(09-06-2017, 09:28 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(09-05-2017, 02:53 PM)Kinser79 Wrote: Let us just suppose that we could abolish the IRS.  There are three possible taxation methods to raise funds for the government (after of course it is shrunk down to a more manageable size)...

Yeah, cut spending, but on what exactly?  You can't avoid debt payment, though they are historically low at the moment.  The GOP wants more for defense, so that's out.  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have very loud constituencies, that vote.  The rest is trivial.

If you're asking me what I want to cut from the federal budget:  Everything that isn't the military, the post office or related to other enumerated powers.  Everything else can be and probably should be turned over to the States to run.  And once most government falls to the state level it will be far easier to cut that down to size too.

To borrow a phrase from Paul Krugman, the US government is an insurance company with an army.  Good luck changing that, since the beneficiaries are reliable voters.  On the other hand, we have a Post Office that isn't anymore (the USPS is as much part of government today as SallieMae and FreddieMac) and the army is only a temporary part of our military, since it only exists by being funded at least once every two years.

We aren't a tiny country poised on the edge of a wilderness in the late Agricultural Age -- not anymore.  Pretending we are is both stupid and dangerous.