Hey APLG'ers,
It is time to put on your "FISCAL POLICY" hat and become a Budget Hero. Here is the link to the Budget Hero website. Play the game for as long as you wish and then post the following. What badges did you select (what were your priorities), what were some of your key moves (what did you attempt to balance the budget ie. spending cuts and/or tax increases) and what were the results of your actions
And if you do become a Budget Hero, please run for Congress ASAP and get us out of this mess. Posts are due by 3:03 on Thursday Nov. 8th.
Mr. Thompson
posted by erdecker @ 1:36 PM
57 comments
57 Comments:
The badges I selected were Health and Wellness, Competitive Advantage, and January Surprise. I attempted to balance the budget by playing a couple of key cards and focusing on cutting spending; I raised the age of receiving social security, revamped Medicaid, cut discretionary spending by 10%, and cut military spending. As a result, I delayed the budget bust to 2035 and reduced debt by over 12% of the GDP from 2013 to 2022. I was unable to earn any badges, but in the span of time that I played, almost achieved the Health and Wellness badge as well as the Competitive Advantage badge; it remains a mystery to me what January Surprise is...
-Melissa Parry
I picked the Helath and Wellness and Efficient Government Badges. Some of my key moves included: cutting discretionary spending by 10%, revamping medicaid, increasing drug costs for wealthy seniors and keeping Bush tax breaks for all but the wealthy. I made my moves in an attempt to cut unnecessary spending and balance the budget. In playing the game I delayed the budget bust to 2033 and I shrank the GDP from 22.1% to 20.1% from 2012 to 2022. I filled the Efficient government badge a little bit more then halfway in the time I played and the Helath and Wellness badge was filled a little bit by the time I was done. The moves that I made more effectively fit with the Effiecient Government badge.
The badges I chose, and failed to earn, were Health and Wellness, Efficient Governement, and Barack Obama. I increased drug costs for wealthier seniors, revamped Medicaid, cut discretionary spending, cut military spending, and cut social programs. I ended up reducing the debt from 58.6% of GDP in 2013 to 38.5% of GDP in 2022. I delayed the budget bust from 2033 to 2037. I also shrank the size of government from 22.1% of GDP in 2013 to 18.8% of GDP in 2022. I almost filled the Efficient Government badge, barely filled the Health and Wellness badge, and could not fill the Obama badge at all.
I actually played this twice. The first time I tried to play it according to actual vaules, the second time just to see how far I could push the budget bust date out.
The legit time: I tried for and faied to earn the January Suprise, Competitive Advantage, and Green Badges. My largest moves were to raise social security age, to reform and simplify the tax code, and to cut discretionary spending by ten percent. I was able to reduce the debt to 47.8% of the GDP by 2022 and to delay the budget bust to 2036.
The second time I played I aimed for and earned the Efficient Government badge. I did this by clicking on all the cards allowed which reduced spending and increased taxes. By doing this, the debt was reduced to 2.2% of the GDP by 2022 and the budget bust date was delayed to 2042. The largest cards played here were to reform and simplify the tax codes, to revamp medicaid, to cut military spending, to phase out mortgage interest deduction, and to eliminate most of federal education funding. Overall not a very bright future, but one where looming debt is less of an issue.
I selected energy independence, competitive advantage, and efficient government. my main motives were cutting social security and health care significantly. I shrank the size of government to 19.2%. I did not get any badges, but I was close in the efficient government.
I should not be a Congress woman.
My badges were: National Security, Health and Wellness, and Safety Net. I tried very very hard to cut some spending in hopes that it will lower the percent of GDP debt. I raised the age on Medicare and revamped Medicaid. I also raised funding for education, raised funding for science and math fields, and attempted to make college more affordable. In addition, I also cut some programs that I thought were unnecessary or not as important as the rest. I also implemented safety by funding clean up for nuclear waste sites and clean energy. I went from 78.9% of GDP debt in 2013 to 58.3% of GDP debt in 2023. I was not able to get any badges, but I did manage to fill up most of the Safety Net badge and filled up some of the other two badges.
By increasing taxes, revamping Medicaid, and cutting war related military spending. I was able to reduce debt to 21.5% of GDP in 2022 and delay the budget bust from 2033 to 2042. I also shrank the size of the government to 17.5% of GDP in 2022. I was able to earn all 3 of my badges, energy independence, "green", and efficient government.
My Score
You will not however see me in the government.
Nickolas Vasquez said,
I aimed at increasing gov't efficiency, competitive advantage, and energy independence. I obtained the badges: efficient gov't and energy independence. I reduced dept from 58.6% to 42.2% of GDP in 2022.I delayed the budget bust to 2038.I shrunk the gov't size from 22.1% to 20.5% of GDP in 2022. My biggest cards were raising sociol security age, reform and simplify the tax code, increase drug costs for wealthier seniors, cut discretionary spending by 10 percent and phase out mortgage interest deduction. I might be a good or bad congressman or senator.
At first when I started playing the game I attempted to keep what I thought was important and what I needed to get the badges. Quickly I realized that this game is rigged and that there is no way to become the winner. The badges I went for were Competitive Advantage, Energy Independence and Health and Wellness and I was only able to get the Health and Wellness badge. My budget bust was 2040. I had to radically cut some big ticket items like healthcare in order to stay on budget but eventually I could not get a surplus.
Bryan Flanagan
Much like Bryan when I first started playing I thought it was the most important to achieve the badges. I picked these badges based on morals. I quickly realized that all morals had to be thrown out the window to get the debt as low as possible. I was able to get the debt to 2040. I was able to get a little surplus as well as lower big government.
I chose the Barack Obama badge and the competitive edge badge. The top three things I cut were military spending, health care, and social security. This helped lower the debt but not very much. I then just let go of all my morals and cut everything and left taxes as they were this resulted in me delaying the budget bust until 2039. I had managed to earn both my badges prior to cutting everything. Overall I have decided that I am not a good person to put in charge of the U.S. budget.
The three badges i chose were the "clean energy" badge, the "Barack Obama" badge and the "efficient government" badge. While I was able to very successfully achieve these badges, the deficit only shrank a little bit and I was only able the postpone the budget meltdown to 2036. In order to be successful in this game one must not use their moral values as a source of inspiration. If an actual president were to try to lead the government without morals, nothing would get accomplished and he/she would most likely be impeached for proposing such blasphemous ideas. No current member of congress has the courage to try to do this, so it will not be solved any time soon.
-Janek Walker
I chose the Barack Obama, energy dependence, and efficient government badges. I knew with the policy i was going to take i would only be able to achieve the effective government badge. If I had been president with the policies i had used i would not be elected again. I knew that if i were going to decrease the deficit, increase our budget, and reduce the debt America would have to make some sacrifices. I raised all taxes, cut medicare and medicade benefits, raised the social security age while reducing their benefits, cut military spending and foreign aid, and cut out of other important programs like education and government spending. With my sacrificial policy i was able to push the budget bust to 2044. The first couple of times i played this, i tried to stick to my own personal morals as much as possible in cutting and increasing money to where i felt needed. All that resulted from this was an increase in our debt and pushing the budget bust back 2-3 years. I eventually just got frustrated and decided America would have suffer for awhile if our budget and debt were going to go anywhere, and it worked.
Timothy Mitchell Moore
I selected Health and Wellness as well as Barack Obama as my badges. I tried to reduce spending on the military and on social security, and increased spending on Education. Every move I made only increased the debt and deepened the deficit. It ended up pushing the debt back to 2030, taking up over 30% of our GDP. Of all my plays, increasing spending on education boosted my Obama badge, but I did not get any badges in the end.
The three badges I selected were Green, Barack Obama, and Health and Wellness. I attempted to balance the budget by first cutting military spending. After cutting military spending I raised the age of receiving social secuirty and revamped Medicare. I also cut out so miscellaneous things while also increasing spending on education and a few other miscellaneous things. I was able to earn my Green badge, 90% of my Barack Obama badge, and about 80% of my Health and Wellness badge. I delayed the budget bust till 2042 (I believe, sorry I played this 3 days ago) and reduced the debt by 13.1% of the GDP from 2013 to 2022.
-Ahmed Ahmed
I began the game with the Obama and Health and Wellness badges. I tried to receive my badges, but realized this was unreasonable when trying to get to the lowest debt and furthest year possible. The farthest I ended up getting was year 2041 before my budget busted. My debt was down to 23.9% of my GDP and I ended up with a surplus and a small government. I only got to this by forgetting morals and cutting a ton of things while taxing like crazy.
The badges I chose were health and wellness, green, and safety net. I doubled FDA funding, made college more affordable, increased food stamps, increased spending on research on clean energy, raised taxes as much as possible, etc. in order to earn these badges. I earned all of the badges, but the furthest year that the budget would last would be 2040.
--Kaitlyn Zander
The badges I chose were Health & Wellness, Barack Obama, and Green. The only way I could achive the Health and Wellness badge was to tax sugary drinks 1 cent per ounce, once I took that tax off, my badge went away. I also increased food stamps in order to achieve this badge. I failed to get the Barack Obama badge, however, I was almost able to get the Green badge by adding a tax to help clean up defense nuclear waste sites. I raised the debt from 58.6% to 59% and 2033 is the date when the budget fails.
--ClaireO
I selected the National Defense badge and the Green badge and the Efficient Government badge. At first I tried to decrease the dept but I got nowhere, then I tried getting the badges. The national defense and green badge were easy to get if I just put money into them and increased taxes. However I never made any improvement in efficient government. I had my taxes in the green at the end so I'm happy.
-Alexander Amundson
My badges were Green, Energy Independence, and Health+Wellness.
I decided just for fun to cut as much spending as I could and got to about .4 in the green on the deficit/surplus scale. The budget bust was at 2038.
However, when I decided to keep all of Bush's tax cuts out deficit went to about .1 in the red. The budget busted at 2033. All because of Bush's tax cuts.
My badges really didn't get filled because all I focused on was lowering the percent of GDP debt.
My badges were Energy Independence, Health+Wellness and Green.
I decided to do whatever possible just for fun to make it as far as I could.
I only made it to 2039.
This really makes me upset! Even though I was almost a budget hero I had to sacrifice almost everything I believed in to get there. Frowney Face.
Brandon Movall
The badges that I chose were Health and Wellness, Efficient Government, and Safety Net. I tried to balance the budget by cutting military spending. I cut pretty much everything I could from the military since I personally believe that funding schools are more important. I also revamped medicaid and cut discretionary spending by 10 percent. I achieved the safety net badge and the health and wellness badge. No matter what I tried, the efficient government badge could not be reached based on what cards I played. I reduced the debt from 58.6% of GDP to 36.3% of GDP in 2022.I delayed the budget bust, pushing it from 2033 to 2037. I also shrank the size of government from 22.1% of GDP to 18.6% of GDP in 2022. I would not recommend ever electing me to a position of authority in the US Congress or anywhere really, since I canned my morals to earn two of my badges.
-Sarah Leichty
I picked the Health and Wellness badge. I tried fixing the budget by working on one of the largest areas, social security. I increased the age, cut benefits for the wealthy, and other things. I was unable to even close to balancing everything. I also was unable to earn my badge.
Ethan Pottebaum
I choose Health and Wellness, Efficient Gov't and Energy Independance. At first I tried to get rid the debt but i ended increasing it 58.6% and raising the budget bust to 2029. I also did not earn any badges. Its turns out if u just choose the cards with the negative amounts it just makes everything worse. But at least i was called a downsizer Y(^_^)Y
-Naima Yusuf
That whole thing felt weird. I ended up choosing the Romney, National Security, and Efficient Gov't badges. I managed to push the budget to 2038. I kind of felt rather stupid as i looked through all the taxes and things that were being spent on, as i had to read most of the tags to figure out what exactly they were. If i had more time today i might actually try to beat my last score...Decker, Thompson, i understand now why you two are so obsessed with this game.
- Kathryn Ranfranz
I choose efficient government, healthcare and energy independence for my badges. To try and get the the debt down I pretty much cut as many programs as I could. Even by cutting funding in so many areas I was only able to extend the budget bust out to 2035. Government control was very high in my game. I only was able to earn the energy independence badge. I don't think I would want to balance the budget, I would have to compromise my own beliefs a lot.
~Carol Hickman
I chose healthcare and energy independence. I cut alot of social security programs and alot of military spending programs because they seemed to have alot of high expenses. I also put on a lot of taxes, basically I was mean to the American people and I know it wouldn't work in real life but it seemed to work very well in this game.
I chose energy independent, health and competitive advantage. I taxed the rich and put every spending card in my budget from the smaller departments. I cut pork barrel spending and cut military spending by 10%. I kept foreign aid and made new military units. I tried to make health care available for everyone and I increased social security benefits. I had a good surplus in billions and the government size was below mid range.
The badges that I selected were health and weallness and efficient spending. The first time I played I tried to keep in mind how each card would affect people. That didn't help me very much as I was as it only delayed the budget bust until 2037. The next time I played,with the same badges, I decided to take a tough love approach. Instead of caring what would happen after I had picked a card, I just chose cards and focused on the year that the budget would bust. I was not able to achieve either of my badges each time that I played, athough I did come very close to achieving the efficient government badge the first time I played and the heath and wellness badge the second time I played.
-Katie Ollenburg
I chose the Efficient Government badge on its own because I planned on making as many spending cuts and tax increases as I could. Key cards: Reform Tax Code,Revamp Medicaid, Cut Military Spending,Phase out Mortgage interest reduction, Eliminate most federal education spending. The debt bust was moved back to 2041, and I earned my badge.
_Montana
I chose the efficient government and the health and wellness badges. I tried to raise taxes and cut major spending that I thought people would agree with. I earned the effienct government badge but not the health and wellness one. It was difficult to make decsions that fit my values and helped the government. I got it so the budget would bust in 2040.
--Emily Sands
The badges I chose were Clean Energy, Defense, and Health and Wellness. I raised the taxes for the big corporations and kept all the health plans for the elderly and the poor. I tried to think in the best interest of the country rather then only benefitting me.
Katie Piens
I chose to go for the Obama and competitive edge badge. I cut military spending as well as social security. This wasn't very effective in cutting the debt. Then I decided to just be that bad guy and I cut all spending as much as I could and raised taxes through the roof. Before this though I had gotten my badges.I avoided the budget bust until 2034> I am obviously not cut out to run the budget.
-Aaron Grad
I chose the Mitt Romney badge, but failed in earning it. I chose to cut everything I possibly could and raise taxes as much as I could. I reduced the debt from 58.6% to 35.4%, delayed tge vydget bust utnill 2037 and shrank the size of the government from 22.1% to 18.7%. It was alot easier not to figure out a real plan and just do what everyone doesn't want.
-Alicia Karls
I went into this game with an idea of what things I would like to keep and what things I would like to do away with. But as I continued to play, I realized that in order to push back the date of the budget busting I had to get rid of my pre-determined values and cut a lot of programs that I otherwise would not. I selected the Health and Wellness, the Efficient Government, and the Safety Net badges.I struggled finding ways to fill these badges and lower the deficit at the same time.I pushed the budget bust back to 2042. This was done by cutting down on defense,increasing taxes, and revamping medicaid.My health and wellness badge was the most filled during the game. - Sarah Owens
I chose the badges for Barack Obama, efficient government, and being green, but as I played the game I didn't put much effort into earning those badges. My easiest budget choice was to raise the age requirement for Social Security. Additionally I reformed and simplified the tax code and rapidly cut war-related spending. I also tried to play cards that seemed to me to have minimal cost to citizens but provided big savings to the government, such as slightly raising airline security fees or taxing sugary drinks. In the end I reduced the budget to $9.8 trillion in 2022 (40.2% of the GDP), pushed the budget bust back to 2038, and slightly reduced the size of the government from 22.1% of the GDP to 20.4% of the GDP.
The badges i chose were competitive advantage and energy independance and mitt romney. the main thing i did was cut the medicare and medicaid to get the IOU's down which we owe to the other country. It was a very gradual process and i upped taxes to speed up the process. Never did get it to go to a positive number though.
-Tim Lindquist
I chose the badges Health and Wellness, Efficient Government, and National Security. I tried to increase or keep the spending the same as it is in "10 years" on most of these categories. I cut spending in a lot of other areas except for education. While playing this game I noticed that even when I was cutting billions of dollars from the national budget, the debt decreased very little. Playing this gave me a better understanding of why it is so difficult to get out of our national debt. But I did move the budget bust back to 2034.
Anna Hicok
The first time I played, I chose the Mitt Romney badge, the efficient government badge, and the competitive advantage badge. As I set out on my quest ,I knew my first order of business would be to extend all Bush tax cuts as well as cut corporate taxes and eliminate the AMT. I then proceeded to cut most funding for education and revamp Medicaid and cut Medicare. I also saved tons of money by raising the retirement age for social security and cutting benefits. At this point I knew my job was complete, for the glorious Mitt Romney badge was full although the efficient government badge was only 2/3 full and the competitive advantage was empty. To my sheer disbelief, I had raised the debt to 74.2% of GDP and even more stunning, my kids had the nerve to call me, they wanted their future back!
Later that day, I picked up the game, knowing I could do better. This time I chose the Safety Net, Energy Independence, and Green badges. I started out by phasing out the mortgage interest deduction and simplifying the tax code, as well as raising all the taxes I could. I did however, extend the research and clean energy tax credits. To help stabilize social security, I raised social security taxes on the rich. To improve the health care system, I added the public plan to health care reform and increased costs for wealthy seniors. I then increased infrastructure spending and increased funding to the FDA and made industry pay for oversight. I then went on to slash military spending to pay for the increases in spending that I enacted in other areas. In the end, I reduced the debt to 41.3% of GDP and pushed the budget bust back to 2037 and shrank government to 20.7% of GDP. I also earned all 3 badges that I set out to get. I knew I was a Budget Hero!
-Angelo “President Jalapeno” Jaramillo
I did the "January Surprise" badge. I balanced the budget from 14.4 trillion to 9.4 trillion by cutting almost everything, increasing drug costs for wealthier seniors, revamp medicare, cut discretionary spending, cutting foreign aid, and military spending. I was surprised that whenever I tried to do the biggest taxes the debt increased.
Dimitra Andreadaki
The badges I chose were Efficient government, Competitive advantage, and health and wellness. Some of my key moves were to raise the social security age, revamp medicaid, cut discretionary spending by ten percent, cut military spending, and repeal Obamacare. I did not earn any badges, but I did reduce the debt by 3.6 trillion, extended the budget bust by two years, and I downsized the government. The game was very interesting, I played it twice, just to see how I would do, and I failed both times. Please remind me not to run for congress.
-Nathan Jones
Unfortunately I can't stand up to President Jalapeño's glorious Budget Hero achievements (he truly is wonderful is he not!), but I certainly did my best. I chose the Competitive Advantage, Barack Obama, and Green badges yet did not achieve even half of any of those badges. I made few, if any, blockbuster moves; the largest card I played rapidly cut war-related spending to the tune of $807 billion over 10 years. I played a bevy of mid-range tax cards, including one that taxed sugary drinks at 1 cent per ounce and raised $130 billion over 10 years. Meanwhile, I increased Social Security taxes on the wealthy, reduced Social Security benefits for wealthy seniors, and increased prescription drug costs for wealthy seniors (sorry to the wealthy!). I managed to cut about $240 billion from the deficit by slowing the increase of Social Security benefits and adding a "Public Plan" to healthcare reform. Somehow I found space to slightly increase funding for science and math education and research on clean energy.
In the end, I made modest positive changes to the U.S. government's budget. I reduced the debt by about 8% of GDP over ten years, equivalent to approximately $2 trillion. I also pushed the budget bust back two years to 2035 instead of 2033. (I'm not sure that warranted a call of congratulations from my unborn children, though.) Finally, I downsized the government from 22.1% of GDP to 20.9% of GDP over 10 years. I may not have saved the U.S. from its monstrous debt, but luckily for me, most politicians are elected on the back of sheer charisma, so the future of my political career shines bright as ever!
-Alex Cheng
If this is anything like the real budget, we are doomed. My priorities (badges) were Health and Wellness, Safety Net, and Energy Independence; I wasn't even close earning any of them. My main focus was to get the debt meter to move into the surplus zone. I did this by increasing Social Security Taxes for the Wealthy, Tax reform and simplifying the tax code, Increasing drug costs for wealthier seniors, cutting foreign aid, and freezing military spending. The results were that I reduced the debt from 58.6% of the GDP in 2013 to 46.6% of the GDP in 2022, delayed the budget bust from 2033 to 2035, and shrank the size of the government from 22.1% of the GDP in 2013 to 20.9% of the GDP in 2022. The problem is that no one wants to make any of these changes, and the changes they do want to make would only increase the debt. I feel bad for those who are responsible for fixing this, because it obviously wont be me.
Herchran Singh
The badges that I selected were National Defense, Competitive Advantage, and Efficient Government. I nearly succeeded in National Defense, and I earned the other two badges.
Years ago, someone had the great idea to federally mandate some programs, which happen to be our biggest costs. These programs, which may have been good ideas at the time, are now not able to be modified to fit America's current situation. Lawmakers, whether real or virtual, must put forth massive tax increases or cut programs integral to our future as a world superpower such as education, scientific research, defense, and infrastructure.
Also, only small parts of each category were able to be modified by the player.
-Nick Cox
I aimed to earn the efficient government and competitive advantage badges. My main strategies were to cut Social Security, Health Care and Defense and Diplomacy as much as possible, while ending tax breaks and reforming the tax code. I also increased spending on Schools and Kids and Science and Nature. By the end I earned the efficient government badge and was very close to getting the competitive advantage badge, I created a 1.019 trillion dollar surplus, decreased the size of government to 18.6% of the GDP and lowered the debt to 20.5% of the GDP, and lastly moved the budget bust to 2041.
Sam Bellows
I chose the badges Health and Wellness, Efficient Government, and January Surprise. My main moves were to add a tax on sugary drinks, revamp Medicaid, freeze military spending, and slow increase of Social Security benefits. I managed to reduce the debt from 58.6% of GDP to 48.5%, delayed the bust until 2035, and shrunk the size of government from 22.1% to 20.8%. I got the health and wellness badge mostly filled and the other two barely at all.
I chose the Health & Wellness, National Security and Green badges. I literally got none of the three badges; also in the end I reduced the debt from 58.6% of the GDP to 33% and pushed the date of the bust to 2039. My plans while playing were to just cut everything and raise a bunch of taxes and such. Hopefully I will never be put in the position of balancing any budget for anyone ever in the future.
-Connor Smith
I chose Health&Wellness,Homesecurity, and Safety net I got two of the badges and decrease the debt by 46.1%. I raised the majority of the taxes and cut some spending and raised spending on stuff like college education. And the budget is said to be busted in 2037. I tried.
~ Anna Riley
I picked the Government Efficiency and Energy Independence badges. I did not earn either of them, but I did decrease the debt by about 5 trillion, downsize the government to 20%, and delay the budget bust to 2038. I accomplished this by raising taxes and cutting spending by making decisions such as: increasing Social Security taxes on the wealthy, raising the Social Security age, revamping Medicaid, and cutting war-related spending. While there are some components of government that should be changed, most cannot be without making major sacrifices.
Anna Riester
I started working towards the efficient government, energy independence, and green badges. I felt they all would contribute to the overall growth of the economy as well as help reduce the debt. Furthermore, the energy and green badges overlap a little in some areas. I managed to gain all three of these badges (so the site says I am a budget hero ^-^ ). I also managed to reduce the debt from 58.6% of GDP in 2013 to 20.5% of GDP in 2022, while pushing the budget bust back from 2033 to 2042. I shrank the size of government from 17.5% of GDP in 2013 to 17.5% of GDP in 2022 as well. In order to accomplish all of the aforementioned I first increased taxes or ended tax breaks whereever possible. I added a small amount of tax breaks regarding environmentalism and energy independence, such as giving tax credits in order to keep wind energy production, though. In regards to government spending, I cut all government spending that did not contradict an action I previously partook in. Again, I did increase governement spending in some instances in which the expendetures would be benefitial environmentally or in terms of energy independence, such as funding the research of clean energy.
~Daniel Luedtke
I selected efficient government, energy independence, and competitive advantage as my badges. I tried to balance the budget by slashing things like defense spending to the bone. A couple of big ticket items like this brought the deficit down, while keeping taxes as a reasonable level. After I had those things in place, I played a few cards to expand our energy resources, and also limiting things like social security to streamline government. Maybe I don't have a full understanding of what is actually meant by all of these things, but I did not find this overly difficult. I shrank debt from 58.6% to 35.4%, budget didn't collapse until 2038, and I shrank government from 22.1% to 19.6%. I earned the energy independence badge, and got most of the way through the other badges.
--Micah Ray
I selected Health and Wellness, Efficient Government, and the Barack Obama badge. By removing the Bush Era tax breaks for the wealthy, and giving more tax breaks to middle income families, I was able to earn the Barack Obama Badge. I also raised the money for education, while balancing the increased cost by cutting back on the money spent in the military category that went overseas, and towards replacing outdated systems that were not needed at that point in time. I was able to push the budget bust back to 2037 by raising the taxes on the wealthiest of Americans, while adding several smaller taxes that applied across all of America. This exercise showed that while on paper it may be easy to achieve balancing a budget, in reality it is very hard to stick to the guidelines that the average American expects our politicians to follow.
Dean Allen
I selected the Health and Wellness, National Security, and Green badges. In order to earn the Health and Wellness badge I Repealed Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate, added a Public Plan to Obamacare, and Increased Drug costs for the wealthy. I tried to benefit the people's health not only monetarily but by doing what was best for the majority of the people. In order to earn the National Security badge I increased defense spending and boosted DARPA funding. Like for the Health and Wellness badge, I increased spending in this area since it was a priority for me. For the Green badge I kept the Wind Energy Tax and increased Amtrak spending. These will help keep the air less polluted. My Budget Bust is predicted to occur in 2034 and reduced the GDP by 2.9%.
I selected the Obama, January Surprise, and Efficient Government badges.I began my term in office by mostly reorganize funds, trying to cut debt in the areas of the most spending such as Healthcare and Social Security, without doing anything to drastic or raising taxes. However, this process barely affected the forward momentum of the debt. So in the end, I went and cut funds in almost all government programs and ramped up taxes to attempt to cover the costs. However, the poor state of the economy from this plan still lead to the eventual crash. I did the best in efficient government however I failed to fill up any of the badges.
-Kevin Moser
I call this budget the Mr. Johnson Plan, as he told us in Calculus class that the exponential growth of the national debt could only be reversed by cutting tons of programs and hiking taxes. My sole focus for my budget was to get the debt under control. I quickly discovered that Mr. Johnson was right about his debt theory. Anticipating this, I chose the Mitt Romney, Efficient Government and Energy Independence badges. I thought that the Mitt Romney badge would be easy considering how much I was cutting, but in the end it was the only badge I didn't get. I more than halved the debt in ten years, cutting it down to 23.8% of GDP. To do so, I reformed the tax code, revamped medicaid, cut military spending, phased out mortgage deductibles and cut most federal education spending (sorry Mr. Thompson). In doing this, I pushed the budget bust to 2041 and shrank the size of government by 4.1%. I did, however, include some new spending that I hoped would stimulate the economy enough to keep a stable surplus, such as drilling for oil in the Artic and investing in clean energy. In addition, I modernized the air-traffic control systems. The surplus lasted for about 8 of the 10 years. I have to admit though, it's kind of funny how a bunch of high school kids are doing a better job at handling the debt than the politicians in DC. Of course, if I would pass this budget as a Congressman I wouldn't expect to be reelected, but the nation faces too many big problems for the legislators to be avoiding tough decisions to stay in power. Maybe the maker of the game used the arrow labeled 2012 pointing in the red section of the debt dial and the image of tall towers of expensive federal programs in order to instil a sense of urgency in his/her players so that they fulfill the game creator's purpose of calling for constituents to contact their Congressional legislators so that the legislators can be compelled to do something about the debt besides talk about it.
My badges were competitive advantage, efficient government, and energy independence. I tried to balance the budget by downsizing the size of government, cutting social security and medicaid spending. I also cut the defense budget significantly. I delayed the budget bust until 2039 and reduced debt from 58% of GDP to 36% of GDP.
~Lauren Reuland
Post a Comment
<< Home