Budget Voting Thread

[Sam Spade]

Aye to all the cuts.

[Sam Spade]

Bumping, I will have something to say on this tonight, as well as the Budget Amendment.

[Sam Spade]

Ok, well we have now cut the Budget Deficit to 502.953 billion.

My suggestion is going to be this:

In the next three or four days, if anyone would like to propose some cuts, we can have a vote on those.

Also, I would like to see how everyone feels on the question I posed in the Budget Amendment earlier.

Otherwise, I think we ought to officially approve this thing and try to get the Budget Deficit down to the magic 223.56 billion dollars it would need to be 2% of the GDP for the next Federal budget in the meantime. (imo)

[Sam Spade]

Though I wish we could reduce the budget deficit soon enough, I would like to propose that we have a vote on passing this one and work on getting things figured for the next budget (which will presumbly be governed by the proposed Budget Amendment next time).

Gabu, I'd like to motion that this be brought to a vote.

[Sam Spade]

Though I wish we could reduce the budget deficit soon enough, I would like to propose that we have a vote on passing this one and work on getting things figured for the next budget (which will presumbly be governed by the proposed Budget Amendment next time).

Gabu, I'd like to motion that this be brought to a vote.

We cannot put the budget defecit off.  We need to deal with it now.  We should at least halve the defecit for this budget before moving on.

Even though I think that is unwise, then I guess the answer is that we should have a vote on whether we want to approve this budget now or go back to the drawing table again.

If we do go back, then trust me, I've got a number of things that I'll propose, though honestly others may not like it.

[Sam Spade]

Aye.

[Sam Spade]

If you're looking for two ways to cut the deficit, repealing the Medicare Rx Benefit and raising the Cap Gains tax back to 20% (And the dividend tax with it, I'd presume) would go a long way.  Of course that looks at the budget in a vacuum, but hey.

I already proposed repealing the Medicare Rx Benefit in the earlier Budget thread to Al as a potential cost-cutting method I would support, though I must admit that I didn't think it would have much support.

Maybe I'll reconsider it now.

[Sam Spade]

Perhaps we could cut something from the Treasury Sub-Dept.  Could a Senator (probably Sam Spade) post a rundown of what is basically included in the Treasury sub-dept. budget?

Ok, but if the President would look through the Treasury budget himself, he would discover that other than some rather minor expenses here and there (1 billion to run the Mint, 8 billion for Financial Management Services and a couple of other minor things), there are basically two major expenses that the Treasury Dept. does that make up all of its budget.

1.  Running of the IRS (roughly about 59 billion)

2.  Paying off the interest on the National Debt (roughly about 350 billion)

Now, if you want to get rid of the IRS, I have no problem with that, but we'd better have an alternative tax system in place before.
Simply put, there is pretty much no way to really get into the budget deficit without cutting either:

1. Social programs (things to do with Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, in that order)

2. Defense expenditures  (I think there are some things you can cut out of here, but probably not more than 50 billion max.)

Or you can:

3. Raise taxes.

Or you can:

4. Keep spending increases down and hope for another 1990s to boom the federal coffers.

[Sam Spade]

I just realized that I haven't even voted yet, so...

Aye.

Not that it would have mattered; with nine votes in favor to none against, the budget has passed.

This Budget has brought up another interesting conundrum in the Budget Amendment to be voted on soon and that is that in the Budget Amendment, the President (whoever that is) must approve each version of the Budget, whereas here it seems like that we're just approving it, and that the President (whoever it is at that time) will only approve the final version.

What are your thoughts on this, Gabu?

[Sam Spade]

I think the President should only approve the final budget, unless an the Senate chooses to have him approve every part.  The debate should be left up to the Senate.

I am actually going to work something up in the Budget Amendment for the Senate to vote on answering that question.

[Sam Spade]

Did anything happen to this?

I just realized that I haven't even voted yet, so...

Aye.

Not that it would have mattered; with nine votes in favor to none against, the budget has passed.

The preliminary budget (or the first revision for that matter) doesn't have to be approved by the President.  Only the final version must.  Or so it says in the rewritten Budget Amendment that passed.

I thought you noticed that considerable gain in Senatorial power earlier. 

[Sam Spade]

Okay I think I've worked out what's going on by reading the Budget Amendment again.

Should this "Preliminary Version" be archived on the Wiki?

Sure, if you want to, I have no problem with that.

[Sam Spade]

bumping for Budget matters

[Sam Spade]

bumping