So you want to be a Budget Hero?
Here is the link. Play the game and then post your comments. What were your goals? What were your successes? What were your failures? Post your comments by noon, Nov. 8th. The assignment is worth 10 points...15 points will be awarded if you can delay the budget bust to 2113 (a century from now).
We need a budget hero! Let that person be you!
Mr. Thompson
posted by erdecker @ 8:50 AM
64 comments
64 Comments:
I tried actually funding and defunding certain programs and after an hour got to 2034, and then my computer crashed. So I basically vented my rage on the American public and went through and cut funds for every program and raised every tax,i pushed the budget deficit to 2039, and got 2 badges.
So, I focused on cutting everything but education and science. Those two I increased to the max amount of spending and then for taxes I increased them as much as possible. This had the result of pushing the budget bust to 2038 and almost accomplishing all three of my badges: Green, Energy Independence, and Competitive Advantage.
-Ryan Christianson
My goals were to have an efficient government and avoid a fiscal cliff. I completely filled the efficient government badge by cutting everything I could and raising taxes which decreased the debt from 70.3% to 43.7%. I failed to push the budget past 2036 and did not avoid the fiscal cliff.
My goals were to follow democratic ideals and focus on energy and education. However I found that most of the programs that seemed to fit what I wanted to do increased the deficit and lowered the budget bust. So in the interest of attempting to push the budget bust as far out as I could, I began cutting almost everything, resulting in less and less spending and moving into a surplus.
- Chris Lam
My badges were for an efficient government and Green. I only halfway fulfilled Green, but I did so by increasing taxes on big oil (felt pretty accomplished). Was able to push the budget bust until 2039. The first thing I did when I entered the game was cut the military to the ground, which was a success for me. My personal failure was that I had to cut Healthcare more than what I would have liked.
So I went in with no optimism or hope because after the example in class I deduced that it is absolutely impossible for us to even try and balance the budget in a reasonable way. so I went through and cut the things that I thought we could maybe do without, but only gained 2 years. I wanted to keep the environment clean and keep military spending because I don't want to die of global warming and I also don't want to die of a north korean invasion. Eventually, I was down to the wire of "well we need this" and "but we also need this" and after that I just got frustrated because let's be honest. If a whole team of people in washington can't figure out the budget I sure can't. I earned at most half of one of my badges and about a smidgen of the other two.
So at first I tried really hard to make smart choices but there was too much reading involved so I just played every card that would lower the debt. Made it out to 2039 (and got both of my badges!) Played every card in the game and made it to 2035, and got my fiscal cliff badge! So then I just wanted to see when the earliest I could put the government in 100% debt would be, and I got 2026. I think you can't go further out than 2039. This game is hard.
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My goal was to have a competitive advantage, be a safety net for the disadvantaged, and to have an efficient government. I accomplished being an efficient government by Reforming and Simplifying the Tax Code. Raising medicare eligibility to 67. Increase drug costs for wealthier seniors. Revamping Medicaid. And Increasing Social Security taxes for the wealthy.
In the end, I was able to reduce the debt from $17.2 trillion, to $13.9 trillion. I did not reach the other two goals
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I tried to cut everything but education and science, and i didn't raise the spending on anything. I reduced the debt from 70.3% of GDP to 63.4% of GDP. I also pushed the deficit to 2038.
I went for the efficient government badge which I successfully completed by shrinking the GDP percentage of the debt from 70.3 to 36.9 percent. I completely overhauled the social security, healthcare, and housing systems basically getting rid of all entitlement spending and all of the tax breaks for those who definitely don't need them. I pushed the budget bust back to 2038 but I'm pretty sure I would've been publicly assassinated first due to my wild unpopularity with the rich and the poor! Also it is definitely impossible to increase the budget bust date to 2113 so congratulations on making me spend WAY more time on this than I ever intended too.
My goals were for energy, education, and efficient government. I invested in education and cut a lot of social security- did not raise any taxes. I only lowered the 17 trillion debt by 10%. I cut a bunch of military. I didn't get any badges and only extended the budget by a year from what I started at- 2032.
Hannah Lehman said...
My goals were to have an efficient government that focused on health/wellness and staying green. I filled about half of my efficient government badge by cutting spending and administrative costs. I earned all of my health/wellness badge by revamping medicaid doing things such as expanding states medicaid coverage. Finally, I almost completely filled my green badge by cleaning up nuclear defense waste sites and increasing mass transit. Overall, I stuck to most of my values but only decreased the debt from 70.3% to 57.2%. I also pushed the budget bust to 2037.
The badges that I was attempting to receive were to to be as "green" as possible and to create an efficient government. I went through and I cut anything that I deemed unnecessary and/or anything that hurt the environment. Then I went through again and cut anything that was spending too much money, relative to what the money was for. Lastly, I went through and added as many taxes as I could, so that the debt would go down as much as possible. Adding taxes also helped with the efficiency badge. When I was done, I received both of the badges, pushed the budget deficit to 2038, moved into a surplus of spending, and pushed the percent debt down to 40%.
I focused on having a competitive advantage in my economy that would allow our economy to compete with China's. My budget consisted of funding for projects that would educate American's further so that they would be able to innovate the work force.
I went for the Energy independence and the Green badge to try and improve on the positive impact that the government budget can have on the environment. I was able to accomplish both of those goals but I also selected the Efficient Government badge to compare to how they match up. It was interesting to see that the clean, green advocators would have an environment that is very efficient, but their government would not be efficient. I also put heavier taxes on large corporations so they can pay more with the money available while it helps smaller business come up because they would then have fewer taxes to worry about. I also shrunk the government by 2.3% of the GDP. In the end I was able to get the budget bust out to 2036.
I got the budget back to 2038 by cutting pretty much every entitlement program and increasing taxes based on my personal view on their usefulness. My badges we military and republican, but I didn't get either because I didn't see any value in playing the cards I could. I feel this game limits what you can do and so my realistic views on what should happen did not really fit into the cards I could play
My strategy was to cut most funding from all programs. As for taxes, I added all of the taxes possible. I mostly gained my badge for an efficient government but only gained about one third of my Health and Wellness badge. I shrank the size of the government and reduced the debt, but in the end, the budget bust was only delayed until 2036.
-Jamie Knox
I was able to get the budget to 2035 while attempting to satisfy both of my badges(green and safety net), but after I ran out of things to cut and taxes to add, I began turning my attention elsewhere. My next focus was to get the budget bust as far as I could into the future. When I reached 2039, I had to stop because there were no other cards left to take off. The sad part of this is though I did terrible things like cutting social programs and making military veterans pay more for health care,I simply could not save the budget! I drastically shrank government and was able to reduce the debt to 32.8% of GDP, but I think our country would be a pretty sad place to live if my plan was used. This game is incredibly frustrating, and it is proof of why hundreds of lawmakers in DC are struggling with the budget.
~Namrata Damle
My badges were green and democrat. I began to make all my decisions based on getting those two badges but I sooner realized that wasn't doing much. I then played with the game trying to reach all the extremes such as pushing the budget bust as far as possible into the future and lowering the debt as much as possible. But then I simply selected just about all the programs that would lower the debt and that got my budget bust pushed back to the mid 2030's and didn't get my badges. Then out of curiosity I selected every card and almost all taxes and got to 2037 and both my badges.
My badges were Democrat and Green. I looked for the programns that would benefit my badges. I soon realized, it was not getting me far, as I was still in the year 2033. Then I tried my best to uses everything and everything that would not crash the government. I made it the the year 2036. My successes were I earned both of my badges and I reduced debt from 70.3% to 56.1%. My failure was I did not live too long into the future and the government crashed, as I was striving for the year 2113.
I tried to make all my decisions based upon the fiscal cliff. At first, I read the cards and used what I thought would have a greatest effect. This strategy helped me gain about half of my fiscal cliff badge but only moved the budget bust out 4 years. At the end I started to reduce everything and taxed everything possible and this only moved me out to 2039. The conditions that would have had to be tolerated were not able to justify moving the budget bust out for 4 more years. It became apparent that there are many factors that affect our budget and make the process much more complicated.
My badges were competitive advance, green, and safety net. My goals were to keep the environment clean, get ahead of other countries in science and education, and to help people in need. At first I started with cuts in defense because I didn't think that the military needed that much funding and also cut as much as I could from social security and a couple cuts from health care. I then added some funds to my causes, I added as much as I could to science and nature and schooling and education. I also added some to housing and living to benefit the people who need food stamps. For taxes I first started out cutting everything I could, then I found that my years I had gained started to decrease again, so I had to raise taxes a lot to make up for the years I lost in cutting the taxes. Opps, my mistake. By the end of the game, I had achieved all 3 of my goals. I also reduced the debt from $17 trillion in 2013 to $13 trillion in 2022. I delayed the budget bust from 2031 to 2035.
-Maddie McCullough
Although I downsized the government, I raised the debt from 17 to 17.2 trillion. I brought the potential crash to 2029 instead of extending it. The only badge I filled was the republican one, big shock there. I tried to fix it, but I didn't want to read it.
I basically attempted to push back the budget bust as far as possible by reducing spending and raising taxes. After playing essentially every card that reduced our debt, I also played every card that increased taxation. I shrank the government from 5.5 Trillion to 4.4 Trillion and reduced the debt from 70% to 38%. This pushed back the bust date to 2039.
I was able to able to postpone the budget bust until 2039 by cutting spending on almost all of the different categories and by raising revenue gained from taxes. The effects of my policies resulted in smaller government and cutting the debt in approximately half.
I delayed the budget bust until 2037 by cutting a lot of what I thought were unnecessary spending. I shrank the size of the government and lowered the debt from 17.2 trillion to 10.1 trillion dollars. My badges were Health & Wellness, Efficient Government, and Energy Independence. I was able to fully complete my efficient government badge but didn't fill the health & wellness at all. My strategy was to basically stick it to the rich people because that is what helped delay the budget bust the most. This game provided good entertainment as I somewhat enjoyed cutting programs by just a click of a button.
-Shannon Adkins
My goal was to be environmentally friendly. I delayed the budget until 2034 and basically cut the biggest things possible but science and education. I reduced the debt from 70.3% to about 51% and did not earn much of my badge. I basically screwed the government and the people over at the same time.
-Lindsey Amundson
My badges were efficient government and Health&Wellness. Through primarily cutting defense, misc spending, and some health care, as well as increasing taxes I was able to delay the budget busting till 2037. Efficient government was completed and Health+Wellness was almost completed.
I earned the badges democrat, green, and efficient government. I cut a fair amount of defense, cutting some misc. spending, investing more in the EPA and such, and raising taxes for the wealthy and simplifying the tax code. I pushed the budget bust to 2034.
My goals were to have a competitive advantage, energy independence, and an efficient government. I was able to accomplish all three of these goals by adding more into the science and green programs and by removing many benefits given to Congress. I also reduced the debt of 70.3% GDP down to 44.7%. However I was unable to push the budget bust out past 2037.
~Lucky Volety
I attempted to earn the badges energy independence and democrat, and almost succeeded in earning the energy independence, but only got half-way with the democrat badge. I increased and reformed taxes as much as i could, cut military spending, and increased the taxes on social security. I reduced the debt to 57%, but only pushed the budget bust to 2035
Carleigh Pula said......
I focused mainly on keep taxes low because I know how mad it makes me being in the working world and not making all the money I earned. I raised the deficit to 2038 by lowering the expenses for schools and military expenses. I lowered the debt to 14 trillion but as I began cutting more things it started to rise again so I ended with it at 14 trillion.
I was interested in what would happen if we totally cut all spending and raised taxes drastically, so I just played all the cards that decreased spending and added all of the taxes. Much to my dismay, this only extended the budget deficit to 2039 and I didn't get any of the badges. So basically, the budget is beyond broken...I think we should move to Canada.
I increased thing I saw beneficial to the future of the country such as education, science, and research, as well as drilling for our own oil and funding research projects. I simplified the tax system and cut down on government aid. I raised the social security taxes and lowered the benefits for wealthy elderly people. I extended the budget to 2039 and received 1 out of 2 badges, the green badge.
My goals were to have stick to democratic ideals, specifically health and wellness and education. Unfortunately, most of the programs I wanted to keep increased the deficit and lowered the budget bust eventually going over a fiscal cliff in 2034. I found the only way to achieve my goals were to cut almost everything else.
-Sam Sanders
I focused on cutting military spending, energy independence, and recreating social security and healthcare. The only badge I could get was the energy independence while almost filling the green and democrat badges. The budget bust went as far as 2037 but no farther.
I focused on cutting military spending, energy independence, and recreating social security and healthcare. The only badge I could get was the energy independence while almost filling the green and democrat badges. The budget bust went as far as 2037 but no farther.
Riley Kuhlman
I focused on decreasing spending as much as possible and increasing revenue by raising taxes in order to extend the budget. I extended the budget to 2039 and got one badge.
My goals were to go green and to avoid the fiscal cliff, and I also chose the Republican badge. By cutting all funding and raising all taxes, I almost filled the Republican badge and halfway filled both the fiscal cliff and the green badges. The furthest I could push the budget bust year was 2039.
I chose green environment and energy independence to begin, I first cut things that harmed the environment then added things like education and research this earned me a badge. This also only got me to 2032 and reduced the debt to 67.6%. So then I went on a cutting rampage and went against my badges and extended the budget bust three more years and got it down to 53.9%. even though rich people would be livid and poor would have to find a job and we'd all have to defend ourselves when the time for war came $13.2 trillion looks better than $17.2 trillion.
My goals were to go green and to avoid the fiscal cliff, and I also chose the Republican badge. By cutting all funding and raising all taxes, I almost filled the Republican badge and halfway filled both the fiscal cliff and the green badges. The furthest I could push the budget bust year was 2039.
I basically had to cut everything you could and increase taxes as much as possible, but I pushed the budget bust to 2039 and lowered the debt to 33.5% GDP, or $8.2 trillion. I think I did pretty well.
I also didn't get either of my badges, which were health and safety net. I tried keeping the programs that would help those people, but they cost too much.
I started out trying to achieve my cards (Green and Energy independence)and while I did quite well in getting the Green badge because I decided I was willing to spend some there, I didn't do very well in the energy independence because I refused to drill in the arctic. Eventually, seeing I hadn't fixed the budget much, I ended up cutting everything and increasing all the taxes I could. This got me to decreasing the debt to 33.6% of the GDP and pushing the budget bust out to 2039.
I got all 3 of my badges, for efficient government, republican, and energy independence. I focused on raising taxes on oil and cutting taxes on renewable energy, lowered the price of college and also focused on downsizing the government with some major spending cuts, just letting the country do its own thing in the private sector. Surprisingly enough, even with investing in renewable energy and putting more money towards Post-Secondary education, by cutting back some "big government" programs (revamping medicare/medicaid to make it more efficient, cutting some minor military programs, and cutting discretionary spending) I was able to push the budget out to 2037.
Jake Titus
I raised all spending on education while cutting everything else including all military spending and raising all taxes. This delayed the budget bust to 2039 but would not be a realistic approach to the real government budget. Playing Budget Hero at 11:30 has been the highlight of my week #yolo
I focused on attempting to achieve maximal domestic productivity and efficiency with an increase in diplomacy. I made our health care programs as limiting as I could, aided the defensive programs, and cut discretionary spending. I succeeded in earning my efficient govt badge and almost achieved my competitive advantage badge due to primarily reforming the health care and tax systems. I couldnt achieve the national security badge due to the fact that it was difficult to balance being efficient and productive with continually paying for out defense programs. I managed to delay the budget to 2036.
-Amjad Murdos
Jared Bromberg-
To start, this game is frustrating. I've sat on my computer for too long this week trying figure it out only to be unsuccessful. The longest I could extend the budget was to 2034... Frustrated is an understatement. So I focused my efforts on trying to get my badges. This was somewhat easier as i achieved a Republican badge and a Military badge. I tried to not cut anything from military and add some benefits for them. I didn't really try anything unusual to get the Republican badge. I guess I'll hang my hat on that and call it a week.
I was able to delay the budget burst until 2037 by severely decreasing our GDP. However, there are certain programs that would have helped our debt significantly, but that I could bring myself to get rid of, primarily defense. I cut social security, miscellaneous, and a lot of infrastructure and housing. My badges were democrat, health-care, and fiscal cliff...this game made me realize that I suck at balancing a budget...but I did manage to fill up a decent amount on health-care and fiscal cliff. This game also depressed me as I found out that unless we give up all the luxuries we Americans enjoy, we are pretty much screwed on budget and deficit.
I accomplished my badge of having an efficient government by essentially slashing funds from nearly all the federal programs. However, this strategy was not very friendly to some of by other goals, such as being green and having energy independence. Of course,even with all my federal spending cuts, the budget bust year came nowhere close to 2113, as it was only pushed back to 2039.
-John-Michael Eberhard
Alicia Quinones
My goals were to go more green and to avoid the fiscal cliff. I ended up choosing the Democratic badge. I started by cutting all funding and then raising all taxes. This in result didn't help in filling the Democratic badge, but it did halfway fill both the fiscal cliff and the green badges. With all of that done the furthest I could get the budget bust year was 2039.
I reduced the debt from 70.3% of GDP in 2013($17.2 trillion) to %7.0% of GDP in 2022 ($13.9 trillion). I also delayed the budget bust pushing it from 2013 to 2033. I shrank the size of government from 22.7% of GDP to 19.5% of GDP in 2022. I cut a lot of social security and health care. My biggest cards were Revamp Medicaid, Cut discretionary spending by 10 percent, Replace Medicare, Lower corporate taxes, and Eliminate the AMT. My badges were Republican, Fiscal Cliff, and Competitive Advantage. I completed the Republican badge, most of the Fiscal Cliff, and half way on the competitive Advantage.
- Ashton Andersen
Ciera Hardyman
My goals were to be green and energy efficient. I didn't get any of my badges but I decreased the debt from 70.3% to 54.6% and shrank the size of the government from 22.7% to 19.2%. Unfortunately my budget will crash in 2033 instead of 2031 and I failed.
My goals were to have an efficient government and avoid the fiscal cliff. I cut many federal programs such as discretionary programs that were not worth having. I raised taxes and decreased the debt by about 40%. I filled my efficient government badge. However, I was only able to push the budget to 2038 and I couldn't avoid the fiscal cliff.
-Zach Higgins
My goals were health and wellness, national security, and fiscal cliff. I cut the congressional budget by a quarter to aid in the fiscal cliff badge. Debt was "no match for me" because i reduced it from 70.3% in 2013 to 70.1% in 2022. Yesssssss. However, the budget still failed in 2031. I also shrank the government about 0.4%.
~Allison Garrett :)
My goals were health and wellness, national security, and fiscal cliff. I cut the congressional budget by a quarter to aid in the fiscal cliff badge. Debt was "no match for me" because i reduced it from 70.3% in 2013 to 70.1% in 2022. Yesssssss. However, the budget still failed in 2031. I also shrank the government about 0.4%.
~Allison Garrett :)
I DID IT!!! I delayed the budget bust by one year!
MY badges were Fiscal Cliff and Energy Interdependence. I didn't completely fill either of them but I was about 3/4th the way up with Energy Interdependence. I did this mostly by revamping both Medicare and Medicaid and making the age eligibility higher for social security. I also spent more money on making college less expensive and giving a bunch of money to NASA. I reduced the debt from 70% to 60% GDP. I also shrunk the size of the government by 3%.
I rock.
-Brianna Colvin
I achieved two of my three badges. The republican and competitive advantage badges. I also reduced debt from 70.4% to 50.5%. Lastly I pushed the budget deficit to 2036. It was fun but ultimately I failed to save our country from the dooming debt that will crush us.
-Elizabeth Deeds
After I got past 2030 i focused more of my cutting towards science and special interest rather than changing the basic infrastructure.
Thank you Cody for your comments posted at 12:00 straight up!
Mr. Thompson
Brooke Johnson- My goal was to keep the most important programs to e like schooling, health care, and science and research with the most money they could have. I succeeded for a while in keeping money for them but my year did not grow, I found the biggest changes in year and debt were the largest amounts, the smaller amounts didn't seem to matter much.
My goal was to cut as much budget spending as I could. I lowered the debt from 17.2 trillion to 12.0 trillion. I delayed the budget bust to 2035, and I downsized the government, but I don't think that the cuts I made would be pleasing to the majority of our society.
-Mikaela Thelen
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