I just went to a teaching meeting, and another instructor wanted to trade his 2:30 class for just about anything else, because there was a seminar he wanted to go to that's held at 2:30. I asked if he'd take my 8 AM in exchange for his 2:30, and he said yes. Then we had to involve one more person in the trade, so that I would have all my in-a-row classes in the same building, but we got it worked out so that he's got that 2:30 slot free, I teach one course at 11, then have a break for lunch, then teach three courses in a row, and the other guy has the same time schedule he had before, just different rooms, which is fine with him.

Great, Hil!

Seska, I wish you much closing-ma on the house.

Or cut the military budget significantly

If we're leaving Iraq, there's likely room to at least trim the military budget somewhat. (I'm no expert on military budgeting, so I'll let others argue over exactly how much room there is.)

Man, it's good politics though, there's really nothing the Dems can do about the deficit. Economic recovery is the only thing that will make a big difference unless we just stop medicare, medicaid, or social security tomorrow.

Are you suggesting to stop paying out Social Security? Because that's a separate tax, a separate fund. Social Security payments are paid out of Social Security taxes, not Federal Income taxes. If SS monies no longer go out to individual recipients, does that mean the govt. would no longer be collecting the SS taxes? If so, that does not solve the Federal Budget deficit in any way whatsoever. If the idea were to stop paying out SS, but still collect the taxes to put that toward the Federal Budget... well, why did we put Bernie Madoff in jail, we should have elected him President. It would be a scam, and a cheat worse than any congressional pork, or corporate bail-out ever perpetrated.

I should specify that I know you don't think those measures are a good idea and that you are actually recommending them.

ETA: And now I have to go get ready for work, so won't be able to stick around for clarification and discussion. Sorry.

Are you suggesting to stop paying out Social Security?

I'm not suggesting doing any of this, it's just that this is the scale of things that would have be done to make a big difference in the deficit. I left out the military because I figured there would be no way the right would suggest something like that. It's a pet peeve, nobody in the media seems to ever ask "what do want to cut that actually adds up to a significant amount"?

If we cut ALL entitlements tomorrow, it would have the effect of a hamster fart in a hurricane on the national debt. They are an almost insignificant portion of the US budget. This is the most infuriating part about the right's lies about "cutting spending."

Not to mention thy this is a f@&ing GOVERNMENT, not a household. Cutting expenses is a houshold soluion to finacial woes. Governments CANNOT afford to think like that because it's not just the wife and kids and car payment they need to worry about, it's ALL OF US WHO LIVE HERE! the government doesn't need to cut spending, IT NEEDS MORE MONEY!

When did "I don't wanna ever have to pay taxes" become the American Anthem? We have to pay for this, and the people with an order of magnitude more money than the rest of us need to pay an order of magnitude more in taxes. But all they have to do is make the people afraid of taxes, and they don't ever have to pay anything.

t cue bullshit Ayn Rand/Atlas Shrugged argument from the right here

Fox news and talk radio have created an alternate reality for the right. Suddenly, letting the tax rates for the top brackets revert to 3% higher is a Fascist-Communist (not an oxymoron in the right-wing media) plot to nationalize the private sector.

I think Fox/Limbaugh/Hannity should start calling the left "Communist Hippe Nazis", just to achieve maximum cognitive dissonance.

When did "I don't wanna ever have to pay taxes" become the American Anthem?

During the first meeting of the Continental Congress, if you want to get technical.

Of course, shortly after the war it was abandoned in favor of the far more sensible "Hey wait, we're gonna need money to pay for wars and stuff. Okay, fine, TAXES," policy that we've had in place ever since...

Of course, shortly after the war it was abandoned in favor of the far more sensible "Hey wait, we're gonna need money to pay for wars and stuff. Okay, fine, TAXES," policy that we've had in place ever since...

Actually, this was done away with during the Bush administration, who came up with the "Hey, let's cut taxes during wartime, and just borrow money from China to make up the difference."

I thought the Bush administration's tax policy was "Rich people always cheat on their taxes anyway - there'll be a lot less math involved if we just don't tax them in the first place. Math is hard, you know!"