Stop pretending to be a Libertarian.

They are going over the fiscal cliff because the fiscal cliff likley is the only way the US can get out of serious debt and the only politicans can give tough medicine without facing a political revolt.

Well there is a possibility of a small deal here. And even if they go over they will probably make a deal for the taxes, unemployment benefits, and the to offset the sequester. At least I hope they do or else I could be out of a job this year.

Thank god we got a deal
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/sena ... itics.html

It took some tense hours, and it looked like the whole deal might fall apart today. However, it got done and I am glad. Now we move on to the fights over spending cuts, the sequester, and the Debt ceiling.

So the economy probably won't crash this year with this deal. There is still a lot of work to be done. The country cannot continue to go further into debt for much longer. Here lies the major problem. The country spent 3.8 billion in 2012, and it made 2.7 billion in revenue.

A little over 60% of expenditures went to Social Security, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of defense.

Over 100 billion was also spent in each of Department of Agriculture and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Ironically, Department of Education came in just under 100 billion. Shouldn't that have a higher priority in order to prepare people for the job market? Anyway...

To cut funding from smaller departments won't get the job done. To make any real progress, we need to have savings be made in those top 3 expenditures. Also, our revenue has to go up. Much of that comes from taxes. Revenue WILL go up for the country in 2013 due to increased taxes on those with income over 400K, and the expiring of the payroll tax cut, but I fear not by enough.

As I understand it, in general, Republicans don't want to cut Defense or raise taxes, and Democrats don't want to make big cuts in Soc. Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. So how do we cut spending with any kind of real impact?

How does this problem get solved? Anybody?

I agree cutting funding from places like the Park Service, FEMA, or some other small govt. agency won't really help. Honestly, they need to cut funding from the Department of Defense, and I would get rid of the Department of Agriculture. They could just merge it with the Department of the Interior, and then cut most of the farm subsidies. And then they to reform Medicare and Medicaid to a lesser degree. I would say any seniors making more 250k shouldn't get Medicare first off. I am sure there are other ways to reform it as well.

Woah, sounding almost conservative there.

I don't know too many conservatives that want to touch DoD.

I want to and I work in the military industrial complex. I was pointing more to him advocating shuttering cabinet departments and reforming Medicare and Medicaid. Plus I said "almost."

The only department I would advocate shutting down is Agriculture. I just see it being more about subsidies for big corporations these days. And the other things in there like Forestry fits better in the Department of the Interior anyway. As for Medicare and Medicaid, well it has to be reformed and most democrats see that way as well. But it needs to be done carefully, and I am sure there are ways that it could be done without hurting too many people.

It distributes food stamps. We would die and starve without food stamps.

Sarcasm aside, it is mostly a sop to agribusiness.

yeah I think that is what it is now. I had to look it up, but didn't realize Abraham Lincoln established the Department of Agriculture. It was originally part of the Patent department (that would become the Department of the Interior). I guess the feeling was they wanted to keep some of the agrarian principals of Jefferson and other founders. And it was important during Reconstruction and after the dust bowl. Now, it just really has no purpose other than to help out agribusinesses. There are a few important agencies including the USDA, and Forestry. Forestry could go with Interior and USDA could go with the Department of Health and Human services.

Farmers were pretty radical and scary from the 1870s-1940s. Then small farmers went by the wayside or grew fat.