Sometimes a "Kid" Can Surprise you....

This was written by my niece who is a senior in High School. Well thought out my paduan learner (Okay - so she knows wayyyyyy more than I ever could). Very interesting breakdown - I recognize that her bias may be towards McCain - but even he is looked at as well. Way to go C. Way to think it all through.

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Rant ahead...

I'm all for helping out other countries in their times of need. Earthquakes, floods, etc. Really, I am. I've long since given in operation rice bowl every year for Easter (donating 50 dollars goes to feed a child for a year in a third world country). Anyone who knows me, knows I don't really like McCain. I think he is a moderately poor conservative. While reading the news (which I decided to try to keep up with stuff outside the bubble i live in), I noticed people saying that Obama was going to drastically reduce spending and a lot of other jazz. Well, he was going to pay for some of his spiffy new programs by cutting the Iraq war. Okay, lets look at that. The Congressional Budget Office says the cost of the war is at 9 billion a month. Okay, BAM!!! War's over, now... what to do with these funds.

First, Global Poverty Tax.
Sounds really nifty. "Directs the President, through the Secretary of State, to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the U.S. foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day." according to the Library of Congress (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d110:1:./temp/~bdgCbq:@@@L&summ2=m&|/bss/d110query.html|).
This is done by giving 0.7% of our GDP to poor countries that the UN pick. As of this time I have not been able to find out which countries those are. "The legislation would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid, which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 billion over and above what the U.S. already spends" (Accuracy in Reporting.org) Lets break that down.
=$845 billion over 13 years
=$65 billion per year
=$5.41 billion per month


Money left over
Iraq War per month: 9 billion
-Poverty Tax per month: 5.41 billion
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Residual Money: 3.59 billion

Okay, that's a lot of money that USA is saving right?! National debt could be gone in a couple years.

But wait there's more!
The famed Universal Health Care awaits our inquiries. Word from Obama is that this plan would cost 50-65 billion dollars a year (WashingtonTimes.com). A quick search on google will reveal a range of numbers however. But on average, I have found that among those who support Obama, 50 billion seems to be the number most touted to the public. Let's go with that.
=$50 billion dollars per year
=$4.17 billion dollars per month

Money Left Over
Residual Iraqi War Money (Monthly): 3.59 billion
-Universal Health Care (Monthly): 4.17 billion
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Residual Money (Monthly): -0.58 billion
(Yearly): -6.96 billion

But wait... I am confused. He must be raising taxes or something to cover the cost? How can he cut government spending if one of the major spending triads (Medicare, the War in Iraq, and Social Security) has gone away, and one of the triads has increased. Maybe it's the taxes. Yup must be. Wait... he plans to not have the elderly pay ANY takes on their Social Security incomes? I know that Social Security income is not a lot but what does that mean for the rest of us?

But of course! 85 billion in tax cuts and credits a year! (US News.com) Perfect way to solve the lack of money.
And the bad part is, these are only three of his proposed programs.
18 billion in education, 34 billion for universal pre-school.
15 billion in green energy spending.
3.5 billion for national service plan.

All paid for by closing up corporate loopholes (said to bring in an estimated 1 trillion dollars). Oh, and higher taxes on the rich. It is virtually impossible to close up all loopholes.Loopholes exist everywhere. But hey lets assume that all 1 trillion is able to be collected. We still have a 47 billion dollar deficit in the budget. And what happens to those companies that now have one trillion dollars less? One of a couple things. Option A) they say "to hell with this" and ship to china. Option B) they downsize their company size. Option C)They reduce the wages of their previously well-paid employees significantly.

One problem that all of these things present is: less money/jobs=less rich people to pay the remaining 47 billion dollars. Option A & B problem... (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/#invest-for-jobs) click the link that shows all of Obama's lovely sayings about American job security and wages. But even I am smart enough to realize that politicians promise a lot of things they can't deliver. McCain included.

Really what is the most alarming though, is what the budget actually boils down to.
"Other groups have attempted to model the candidates' proposals, and the results are not heartening...


McCain's plan, which generally promises more spending cuts but also more tax cuts than Obama's plan, will increase the budget deficit by nearly 50%, or $217 billion dollars each year over the next four years, according to a recent report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan watchdog group.

Obama's plan, which basically promises more spending offset by targeted cuts and higher taxes on the rich, would increase the deficit by even more - $281 billion" (CNNMoney.com)

So enlightenment would be nice (explanation).

Either way as I see it, Americans lose.

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