The New York Times created something very interesting that they call the “deficit puzzle.” It contains two large boxes segmented into smaller boxes, each of which represents one billion dollars (or 1/418th) of the projected FY20015 total Federal budget deficit, or 1/1355th of the projected 2030 deficit. Below the boxes is a list of 40 different actions that could be taken to either cut expenses or raise revenues along with their estimated financial impact; for example, cutting all farm subsidies would reduce costs by an estimated $14B while returning the estate (death) tax to Clinton-era levels would raise an additional $50B in 2015. By making a check-mark next to the programs you would cut, or the taxes you would raise, the deficit boxes are filled in and you can see what it will actually take to eliminate the deficit.
WARNING: You may find this exercise very depressing. What it illustrates more than anything is the enormity of the task, and you don’t have to be a deep political thinker to recognize that we are light years away from having a government with the courage to even publicly discuss what needs to be done, let alone the foresight to begin making the changes that will be necessary to keep the United States from becoming Greece.
If the political discourse now is reminiscent of the years leading up to the Civil War just imagine what’s coming.
An accompanying article by David Leonhardt can be found here.
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