Beet
Atlas Star
Posts: 28,914
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« on: August 12, 2010, 06:13:35 PM » |
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Budget Hero: Click skip intro, click OK, drag at least 1 badge, and then click start in green at the lower right.
I played the following cards: Spending Cuts Bring Troops Home Soon -$210 Billion Cut Military Spending by 10 percent -$541 Billion Cut Foreign Aid -$218 Billion Cut Discretionary Spending -$265 Billion Simplify and Raise Medicare Fees -$31 Billion Tax High Premium Insurance Plans -$254 Billion Freeze Medicare payments -$284 Billion Cut Rates for private health plans in Medicare -$177 Billion ----------- Total Cuts: $1.98 Trillion
Spending Increases More Funding for Arts in Schools +0.53 Billion Increase NSF Grants by 50 Percent +$35 Billion Reform and Reduce Farm Subsidies -$10 Billion Give Prize for Cheaper Car +$0.30 Billion More Money for Child Care +$5 Billion More for Workesr Affected by Trade +$4 Billion Expand Unemployment Benefits +$22 Billion Provide Relief to States +$50 Billion Fund High Speed Rail +$10 Billion Cover More Low Income People +$42 Billion Computerize Health Information +$70 Billion Public Option +$0 Billion Require and Subsidize Health Insurance +$568 Billion --------------- Total Increases: $817 Billion
Tax Cuts Link AMT to Inflation: -$1.07 Trillion ----- Total Cuts: $1.07 Trillion
Tax Hikes Limit Breaks for Charitable Giving: +$255 Billion No Breaks for Extractive Industries: +$26 Billion End Breaks for Big Oil: $14 Billion Tax Private equity, Hedge Fund Managers: +$26 Billion Tilt Payroll Tax Burden to the Rich: +$77 Billion No state, local tax deduction: $701 Billion Repeal Bush Tax Cuts: +$2.954 Trillion -------------------------- $4.053 Trillion
You reduced the debt from 70.3% of GDP in 2009 to 44.0% in 2019. You delayed the budget bust, pushing it from 2031 to 2070+. You shrank the size of government from 23.4% of GDP in 2009 to 21.4% of GDP in 2019.
I just notice something f'ed up about this game, though. In calculating the debt impact they assume zero growth in GDP! Absurd. Revenue is half the story, yet it is totally missing here.
Further, this excludes the fact that in the short run, I would massively increase deficit spending to fund jobs programs; it also excludes that some of this would be funded by QE. These are critical points. Games like this are fun, but unrealistic.
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