Challenge - Balance the budget!

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Well, okay, not the Irish budget, Instead, courtesy of The Seattle Times, it is an interactive, adjustable version of the budget of Washington State (where lawmakers have much less of a problem to deal with their our own do).

No doubt people will find it easy since everyone always seems convinced that they know better than the politicians do.

Just remember though, as you adjust the figures, the old comments of:

"Cut-backs hurt the old, the young and the sick" and "No new taxes".

And, lest anyone wonder, Washington State's lawmakers doesn't have the IMF breathing down their necks as their budget is in much better shape than ours.

A Dub in Glasgo

Pete_Cavan

It seems difficult to balance the badget at first, until you get down to the taxes section. Simply enacting a capital gains tax alone almost does the job. It may seem acceptable to us because we have had it for a while, and it may not be as acceptable to American voters, but the government take a slice of income you have earned so why shouldnt they take a slice of income which is merely given to you, not earned?

Repealing the sales tax exemption on candy and gum seems like a no-brainer to me. Tapping the state rainy day fund and extending the business and occupation surcharge give a good boost without doing any major damage imo. There are a few other things which could be done for a small return.

It is hard to comment on cuts to teacher/state employees wages/health insurance without knowing precisely what they get and what they have to do to get it but these could be looked at.

Overall doesnt seem too difficult to balance that budget without cuts to health care, education or social services.

Jcarroll07

W are just going to have to make more cuts. We are living beyond our means. We can't tax much more if you keep raising taxes in the long run you lose money and put massive burdens on small business owners who are already struggling. In reality we can only start to balance the budget when we have decent economic growth not what we have now which varies from 0.3-0.7 basically stagnant.

We need growth by make a more business friendly environment. Which some may be unhappy to hear means cutting taxes and give the small business owners money back to reinvest and hire people.

Then when we have good consistent growth you can start to make cuts which wont have as much of an affect on the economy as they do now.

You can't tax and cut your way out of a recession. We have basically taxed as much as we can we needed more cuts unfortunately. Either way we are a long way from balancing the budget.