The 20% club

[Hamlette]

Ross Perot was the most successful third party candidate in at least 100 years. He was nutty and wouldn't have made a good prez (in my opinion) but he hit a cord. He was concerned about the national debt. So am I.

We should be talking about it but I don't think Americans get it. How it affects their lives.

20% of every federal income tax dollar goes to pay the interest on the debt. If we want to lower taxes we could pay off the debt and all take home that 20%.

I want to wear a pin that says 20%. When anyone asks me what it means I will say "that's how much of my tax money goes to pay off interest on the national debt. I want to pay off the debt and keep all that money for myself."

It might be a way to get people talking about it. Instead of an American Flag pin if we all wore a pin that said 20% it would be hard to ignore.

Where could I get some pins made up?

Would you wear one?

After we get everyone talking about the debt (how tax cuts to the rich and this horrid war is not helping) we could get pins made up that said: "compassion, freedom, tolerance". When people asked why we were wearing that pin we could say "those are the American values I hold most dear." We could begin a discussion on what "moral values" really mean.

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. That's a very good idea!

I like it, I like it!

:thumbsup:

[Drifter]

2. It would also be interesting to ...

cite the amount of current tax dollars are going to pay for the debts created by Reagan.

People love him, but most do not realize that we still continue to pay for his National Credit Card abusing ways.

Cheers
Drifter

[DireStrike]

5. Can current costs be traced back to Reagan? How?

More info please. Didn't Clinton's surplus effectively cut raygun's influence (except all the deregulation)?

[Bandit]

6. We never had a surplus

We went a few years of spending less than we brought in but we still had a tremendous debt of trillions of dollars. Until that debt is erased we will have no surplus.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. No, Clinton balanced the budget and even created surpluses, but

that's like saying that even though the government didn't have to charge anything to its credit cards that year, it still hadn't finished paying off its credit card debt from previous years.

There's a difference between an annual budget deficit and a cumulative national debt.

[Lenape85]

3. I agree

I am of the younger generation and I am going to have to pay off this debt.

The burden will be on the shoulders of this 19-going-on-20 year old college student

[Hamlette]

4. your portion of the debt will go up $13,000 in the first 6 years of Bush's

terrible policies.

think about it.

In 2007 you will be $13,000 FURTHER in debt than you were when Bush took office.

Your portion of the national debt will be over $30,000. For a family of 4 that is over $120,000. that's that price of a house in some areas.

When my brother in law graduated from med school he was $100,000 in debt. That was many years ago. It took him 20 years to pay it off.

At least he had an education to show for it.

You'll have funded a bunch of millionaires and a war in Iraq with your $100,000.

[9119495]

7. Be careful what you wish for.

The Republicans may use your battle cry as an excuse to cut entitlements and social programs to the core. This would be awful. Cuts sure as hell won't come out of defense.

I think you've got a start but be ready to clarify HOW the 20% is to be paid.

[Hamlette]

10. you have to know the facts

Social Security is 20% of the "federal budget" (in quotes because it should be "off budget")
All welfare costs together are less than 2% of the federal budget.

Remind people.

20% of the budget goes to defense.
20% goes to social security
20% pays medical costs for the elderly, the poor and federal employees
20% goes to interest
20% is left to pay for everything else in government, courts, FBI, CIA, congress State Dept, Interior, parks, lands, prosecutors...everything.

You can't cut enough off the 20% to pay off the 20% in interest on the debt.

What else are you going to cut? (Is how I'd talk about it.)

[cally]

9. Baby tax, baby tax, baby tax

That's the meme. It's a baby tax because babies today and future babies will pay taxes to pay for our consumption. It's Lefer (sp??) idea.