quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

For USAID pretty much everything has been debunked or fake news.

Sources?

Factcheck.org breaks it down pretty well.

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$220 billion, so a drop on the bucket compared to the yearly budget.

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"Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves" is attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

Wisdom is timeless. A Couple of billion $'s here, a couple of billion $'s there and soon you're talking about real money.

The government doesn't create wealth it consumes it. Cutting taxes encourages growth + spending which increases tax revenues.

Money in the private sector changes hands 5 times.

https://www.tampabay.com/opini...ity-of-money-column/

We've got half a trillion dollars in Ukraine. Not only was it none of our business in the first place, but a good half of that has been siphoned off and never got there.

quote:

Originally posted by WickedJester:
For USAID pretty much everything has been debunked or fake news.

What do you mean by this? Specifics. What has been "debunked"?

He refers us to factcheck.org. Lol.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
Nobody is saying all government employees are bad. Just the useless ones.

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There are only 2.2 mil gov employees and they make an average $100k a year. If they fire all of them thats $220 billion, so a drop on the bucket compared to the yearly budget.

So we shouldn't even try? And do you think this is the only area we're trying to improve efficiency?

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Wouldn't it make more since [sic] to raise taxes and reduce spending?

We have had taxes raised here, raised there, raised everywhere, without result. Reducing spending does make sense. But nobody has tried it until now. Republicans are not blameless here.

We should definitely try, nothing I said was meant to imply we should not. I just think it should be done strategically.

Yeah I should reword that, instead of raise taxes. Close loops holes and charge a fair tax for all citizens, corporations etc. Not really looking for taxes to be raised, but reducing them drastically doesn't work either.

Reducing spend has been tried in the past and I thought Clinton did it successfully. And the debt/spending have been reduced in the past.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
He refers us to factcheck.org. Lol.

LOL is right, factcheck.org and PolitiFact are both leftist biased, look at their "facts" on Jan 6th, Obamacare, and Covid, just hilarious. Might as well list the NYT and CNN as "reliable" sources .

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Reducing spend has been tried in the past and I thought Clinton did it successfully. And the debt/spending have been reduced in the past.

In 1994 a Republican congress was elected for the first time in 50 years. Newt Gingrich actually attempted to reduce spending.

When President Bill Clinton made his famous declaration that the “era of big government is over”, on Jan. 23, 1996, during that year’s State of the Union address, it was in response to Newt and the boys in Congress.

We did actually achieve a balanced budget, for ONE YEAR, in 1999-2000, but that was because so much capital gains revenue was rolling in during the .dot com boom, which bust in March, 2020.

We never actually reduced spending, except under Calvin Coolidge.

I'm routinely seeing how cutting this or that, no matter how questionable the spending, e.g., $$$ to Taliban, DEI, LGBTQ+++, Power Forward/Rewiring America, etc. etc. etc. all over the World, is only a tiny percentage of the Federal budget. The implication being, that it doesn't matter, don't worry about it, continue snoozing, move along, nothing to see here. Didn't that attitude help us get to the Federal Government borrowing 1/3 of everything spent? Reportedly, just the interest on our borrowing is about $3,000,000,000 a day, only $90,000,000,000 a month. That's only a tiny percentage of our Federal budget, so.........

That's the mentality from the "My position is indispensable, I am irreplaceable" entitled crowd.

quote:

Originally posted by WickedJester:
Whats everyones thoughts on the labeling government and federal employees as villains and the mass firings? Seems unwarranted but who knows.

There are only 2.2 mil gov employees and they make an average $100k a year. If they fire all of them thats $220 billion, so a drop on the bucket compared to the yearly budget.

Wouldn't it make more since to raise taxes and reduce spending?

You have got to be kidding?

Have you ever worked with any Government employees or their Contractors? The last company I worked for, I worked over 3000 hours of overtime in eleven years with someone else taking credit for my work.

I have seen Base Commanders work seven days a week putting in twelve hour days. Go crawl back under your rock.

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Wouldn't it make more since to raise taxes and reduce spending?

^^^^^^^^^^^^
You a Democrat?? Raise YOUR taxes.

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Originally posted by oddball:

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
He refers us to factcheck.org. Lol.

LOL is right, factcheck.org and PolitiFact are both leftist biased, look at their "facts" on Jan 6th, Obamacare, and Covid, just hilarious. Might as well list the NYT and CNN as "reliable" sources .

What sources do you recommend?

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

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Wouldn't it make more since to raise taxes and reduce spending?

^^^^^^^^^^^^
You a Democrat?? Raise YOUR taxes.

Nope

I'll have an answer or this thread will simply go away, and then your fun will be over.

quote:

Originally posted by 41:

quote:

Originally posted by WickedJester:
Whats everyones thoughts on the labeling government and federal employees as villains and the mass firings? Seems unwarranted but who knows.

There are only 2.2 mil gov employees and they make an average $100k a year. If they fire all of them thats $220 billion, so a drop on the bucket compared to the yearly budget.

Wouldn't it make more since to raise taxes and reduce spending?

You have got to be kidding?

Have you ever worked with any Government employees or their Contractors? The last company I worked for, I worked over 3000 hours of overtime in eleven years with someone else taking credit for my work.

I have seen Base Commanders work seven days a week putting in twelve hour days. Go crawl back under your rock.

Yes I have, have you? Not sure what someone stealing your work has to do with it lol. I would never let someone else steal my work.

Yes military typically works more hours since there are no restriction on their hours. Where as laws/regulations restrict government employee from working overtime etc unless they have approval.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
I'll have an answer or this thread will simply go away, and then your fun will be over.

What are you referring to?

Play games elsewhere.