To erase our massive federal deficit, this is my list of wasteful and job-killing agencies:
• The Environmental Protection Agency: We can do with out it for a decade without anyone missing them. Cut the EPA’s budget for 10 years, keeping only what is the most urgent of their needs. This agency has too much power and needs to be stripped away from its rule over state’s rights. The EPA has led us to dependence on foreign oil and the agency is a major job killer while impeding America’s energy needs leading to higher costs.
• The CIA and FBI: These act as a government within a government. Stripping a large portion of their budget and relocating the money into the Coast Guard and Border Patrol will not show less spending but will show more results for the dollar. This would also require replacing the current INS director who is too political to be effective.
• United Nations: Funding to the United Nations should be cut off as well as participation and funding of the world monetary fund which is just a redistribution of wealth scheme based on socialism.
Gary Arbitter
Peoria
rrffcc1 posted at 6:36 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Maybe cutting the $18 Billion in oil company subsidies would be a better place to start. The MOST profitable industry in the world, exceeding 20% annual profits (billions in profits) and we, the taxpayers, keep subsidizing them.
Gotta love those political donations...
rrffcc1 posted at 6:47 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Oh, and while I'm thinking about oil companies...
Gary, YOU paid more in income tax last year than, say, ExxonMobil.
From the U.S. Congressional Record: "The most profitable corporation in the history of the world last year not only avoided paying any Federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million refund from the IRS. If that makes sense to anybody— maybe it does—it surely does not make sense to me….
ExxonMobil is the same huge oil company that has had enough money to provide a $398 million retirement package to its outgoing CEO, Lee Raymond, just a few years ago. They made more money than any corporation in the history of the world last year. They did not pay any Federal taxes..."
rrffcc1 posted at 7:04 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Heck, why stop now...
Yep, nearly 2/3 of US corporations and 68% of foreign corporation pay no federal income tax.
Enjoying record profits and taxpayer-funded bailouts as the economy slowly recovers from the financial crisis, nearly two-thirds of US corporations don't pay any income taxes, instead opting to abuse tax loopholes and offshore tax havens. According to a study from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, 83 of the top 100 publicly traded corporations that operate in the US exploit corporate tax havens.
Since 2009, America’s most profitable companies such as ExxonMobil, General Electric, Bank of America and Citigroup all paid a grand total of $0 in federal income taxes to Uncle Sam. Tax havens alone account for up to $1 trillion in tax revenue lost every decade, money that could be invested in K-12 education, colleges, public health, job creation and hundreds of other worthy public programs. (Or, just for you Gary, this could eliminate $1 Trillion from the deficit. And the Deficit equals how much....?)
But this is not good enough for the GOP. They are urging Obama to seek further corporate tax cuts while cutting 60 billion dollars out of education and programs that serve the poorest of the poor.
So Gary....do you really LIKE paying income taxes while your Senators and Congresscritters are becoming millionaires off of the bribes from these mega-corporations? Don't you think they, and the corporations, should SHARE some of that wealth with you? Maybe by paying THEIR fair share?
LinMesa posted at 4:29 pm on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Thank you for your comments rrffcc1. I love it when someone presents actual facts even though the Republicans don't want to read them.
Dale Whiting posted at 7:14 pm on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
How come no one, not here in these pages, and not there in Washington is up for cutting into the really big cheese, the Department of Defense?
Slabside posted at 3:50 pm on Mon, Mar 7, 2011.
Read the news Dale... the world is not playing nice. Given a chance, America will be attacked over and over by your buddies, radical Islamists. Defense is needed.
Rich posted at 11:18 am on Tue, Mar 8, 2011.
Seeing as we're involved in two wars, and the middle East, as well as North Africa is exploding, it'd probably be a good ides to make sure we fund our armed forces. That being said, we pay the government to do things, they don't do them, or do them really poorly. About 80% of what they do, is either not done, or done so poorly we wish they'd forgotten to do it. Politicians and their appointees are incompetent, and we all pay because of that. This leaves you with two choices: scale the government back to the point where it interferes with your life so infrequently it doesn't matter that they do everything badly, or elect people on the basis of education, intelligence and ability, not bombast, demagoguery, and advertising. Looking at the 'watch us we passed a law on bedbugs, beat up on Mexicans, and are figuring out the state gun, but take weekends off to beat up our girlfriends' legislature, the first option is probably the only workable one.