NYT Interactive Puzzle -- Okay, You Fix The Budget

this interactive game is fascinating and fun/depressing in equal measure.

okay, you fix the budget

what programs do you cut, and whose taxes do you raise? or is the whole exercise worthless, since budget deficits are irrelevant?

budget deficits are OK in a recession. the 2030 figure is disturbing though.

i increased the medicare/soc security age to 68, stopped the wars, and put taxes back to 90s levels.

oh bad luck- you were assassinated

yes to every military cut and reducing troops in iraq and afghanistan + reduce tax break for employer-provided health insurance + return estate tax to clinton-era levels + allow bush tax cut expiration for income above $250,000 + millionaire's tax on income above $1 million + elimiate loopholes but keep taxes slightly higher + carbon and bank tax = no 2030 shortfall and no domestic cuts

cutting programs i don't like and raising taxes on other people solves the shortfall. c'mon congress!

tbf isn't that what presidents do?

raising taxes on other people

for maximum efficiency, i recommend raising taxes only to those on a specially-prepared "enemies list"

• carrot top
• vince machmanon
• sarah palin
• tom brady
• everyone i don't like

i think i did what iatee did

no I raised taxes on k3vin k too

nvm didn't read the last bullet point

your taxes are now 105% of income btw

it's ok i like taxes

I dunno I think this game just highlights that our deficit is an impossible political problem and not an impossible economic problem. as big as the gap might be, it doesn't require raising taxes to 50% on everybody (excep kev) it just requires a handful of huge reforms

I did more or less what iatee did, too. Cut any tax breaks and social security for rich people/employers, cut military spending (not all of it, though), yanked Fed. government contractors. Pretty OTM about this being a political problem and not an economic one. I want someone in charge who thinks like I do and doesn't care about pissing off people who don't like like I do.

think like I do, not "like like I do."

cut/froze pay of fed workers
reduce federal workforce
cut govt contractors
cut aid to states
reduce nuclear arsenal/sdi
reduce troops in iraq/afghanistan to 60k by 2015
enact medical malpractice reform
increase medicare eligibility to 70
increase social security eligibility to 70
means testing for social security
tighten disability eligibility
cap medicare growth
return estate tax to clinton levels
return capital gains tax to clinton levels
return income tax to clinton levels

DONE

Why the government contracts out what it could do itself for 1/3 the price is baffling to me.

part of the problem with this game is that it doesn't force you to make the really hard and specific choices. killing gov't contracts sounds easy -- even appealing -- in the abstract, but it's hard when you have to consider the projects that would be abandoned, and the economic damage to the affected contractors and their employees and their communities.

Hey... they started this whole contractor business, not me.

In my world, we cut the contractors and hire employees instead. This is based on something I read somewhere some time ago about the relative cost of using contractors vs. employees, and how most of the federal jobs cut under GWB ended up being contracted out (often to his buddies) at a higher cost. It's also based on working in the public sector and seeing a similar dynamic in my place of employment.

So, to be fair, under my scheme, there won't be the same amount of savings, but I like full-time w/ bennies/pension job creation a lot and am willing to sacrifice a totally balanced budget for that.