Watch the following videos and answer the questions below...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yJRci2pARk&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X-qns-dM0U&feature=relmfu
There are two basic ways to handle solving our country's debt/deficit...cut government spending and raise taxes.
What are the positives and negatives of cutting government spending?
What are the positives and negatives of raising taxes?
Felton says...
ReplyDeleteIf you cut government spending you do help save more money and it allows you to do more things to help the American people with it but if you cut government spending then something weakens which could cause something bad to happen and we would have a weak point in our government.
If you raise taxes then the American people wouldn't be happy and they would lose money more quickly and they don't buy as many goods which drives companies to go out of buisness then more people are drove into poverty which means the government won't bring in as much money.
The positives of cutting Government spending is that Americans can feel more confident in our Government not having to raise taxes. We could feel like we wouldn't have to sacrifice our happiness because we have to cut back because of the high taxes.
ReplyDeleteRaising taxes is a very bad idea because many Americans are already mad at the Government high taxes. If the Government raised taxes Americans would become extremely frustrated. I don't see many positives in raising taxes besides it would help lower debt. Other than that I don't see many positives by raising taxes. Raising taxes is a very bad idea unless you want millions of angry Americans charging your door.
-Ellie ;O
Cutting government spending might mean a weaker military and/or weaker programs like medicare and social security that really matter to people. However, it would allow taxpayers to keep more of their money and therefore "self-start" the economy by buying things they want or need instead of paying the government. Another positive is that it might eliminate some juvenile spending on such things as sponsoring a NASCAR driver or supporting a kangaroo farm.
ReplyDeleteRaising taxes takes away taxpayers money and does not allow them the freedom to spend their money as they choose. The money is entrusted to the federal government and as evidenced by the recent failed attempt to jumpstart our economy, the federal government cannot be trusted with this money. Billions of dollars were wasted and the unemployment rate has still increased.
The government has been plagued by the decision of how to boost our economy. There are pros and cons to each side. Raising taxes is a dangerous move because many people feel as if they are taxed enough already. The TEA party has been growing in popularity and could override the Republican Party. However, the raising of taxes would keep the government from having to cut back on any of its missions.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the government spends money on things that are not necessary, so cutting back on spending would be favor able. The people would as a whole might e pleased that there I no raise in taxes. Yet the organization on which the budget is cut would be angry no matter which group you deducted from. It is my personal opinion that cutting back on government spending is the most favorable of these options. There are opinions and solutions to this problem; hopefully it will be solved soon.
By cutting government spending, debt decreases and the government borrows less money; less debt is owned by foreign countries. These are the positives of cutting government spending.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, cutting government spending can weaken parts of the government (i.e. public schools, Social Security, military, etc.) If the government cut spending on the military, for example, America would be more vulnerable to attack. If the government cut spending on public schools, teachers would be upset at their lower pay. These are the negatives of cutting government spending.
If the government raised taxes, debt would decrease. In addition, the government would have the necessary funds to support needed programs (i.e. education, roads), and they wouldn't have to borrow money; they would get the money directly from the American public. These are the positives of raising taxes.
Conversely, raising taxes would enrage most Americans, especially if the economy was already bad. The bust cycle (people don't have as much money --> people buy less goods --> companies don't make as much money --> companies lay off workers --> income decreases --> the cycle starts again) would probably occur. These are the negatives of raising taxes.
If you cut government spending we will not be so far in debt. Some positive effects are, people aren't in debt and the government dosn't have to borrow money. A negitive affect is people can lose there jobs.
ReplyDeleteIf the government raises taxes we won't be as far into debt and the government won't have to borrow money. But people will also have to pay more to the government. then people will have to borrow from the bank and get into debt and become poor.i think that cutting government spending's is a better idea than raising taxes.
Cutting government spending has two sides to the story. I have to agree that there are some ridiculous things that the gov. should stop spending on. There are important things though like military , education, and healthcare. People can lose their jobs though if you cut government spending. A positive effect though is that as a nation we might not be so much in debt.
ReplyDeleteThe government usually raise taxes it can be sometimes a good thing or a bad thing. For the people who can afford paying taxes i think that its not such a bad thing. But for those people who are already in debt its a very delicate situation. So therefore cutting government spending is probably a wiser choice. For raising taxes can be very dangerous in different situations.
if we cut government spending then people might loose their jobs and become poor but we would not be in as much of debt as we are now.An example of this would be if the government decreased spending money on public schools then the country wouldn't have as good of an education so parents would be unhappy and teachers wouldnt get as good of a pay so they would be unhappy too. but if we raise taxes then the government might get money but then eveyones more poor and upset.
ReplyDeletecharlie
America isn't paying attention like the HOA in the first video. We spend way too much on useless things like therapy of Chinese prostitutes (as mentioned in the video). We need to check all of our spending and decide if it is right. Then we need to stop un-needed things by voting on them and making them public. When our debt begins to drop, we can decide if we still need to raise taxes for the debt.
ReplyDeleteIf we cut spending on certain things, it may not end well. We could possibly cut something that some people need. Our taxes would drop, and give people more money to solve those problems. Our govt. spending would drop, and all of our debt would drop.
If we raise taxes, there will be even more riots. People would lash out to get their money. People would leave with business. America would gain debt and job-loss without those. America would lose a slight amount of debt, but it would be chaos.
Well, a negative of cuting spending is if the government cuts spending on something like the military, that makes our military weeker. Also if they cut spending on schools, that makes the children recieve a worse education. If the government were to stop spending on unimportant stuff, then that meens that they can save more money to pay of the debt. So cuting spending is good when the unimportant things are cut, but it can also be bad because it can make our military and schools worse.
ReplyDeleteAnother way of getting out of debt is to tax people more, which also comes with its own positives and negatives. If the taxes were raised, people wouldn't be making as much money. This might cause them to cut back on consumer goods which would affect the economy. On the other hand, if the government has more money, they can spend it on more things, and maybe not so many cuts would have to be made.
All in all I think that the government should do a little bit of both, and maybe make cuts quicker than raising prices. If our government can do this, then this country can rise out of its debt.
Ok, lets first cover the negatives. Cutting govt. spending could be a real problem for americans. If the govt. cut spending money on schools, children wouldn't get a very good education. If the govt. stopped spending on military, our defenses would be weaker and we would be more vulnerable-and we don't want that now do we.
ReplyDeleteNow for the positives of cutting govt. spending. Our govt. spends a lot of money that we really don't need. Like, REALLY don't need. People are dirt poor and in debt, paying for silly luxuries for the rich. This is not how our country was originally designed to be. Cutting spending on all of the useless things we don't need, is a spectacular way to wedge our country out of debt.
Now for taxes. If the govt. taxes people too much it can hurt more than help. If people are poor and can't pay a high tax, this begins to become a problem. You can't ONLY tax people to get out of debt, you need to do more than that.
Taxing people higher is not entirely bad, if the public can pay it that is. If people are able to pay the tax its fine, and if the govt. uses it for good reasons than thats fine too. Its only when people can't use it and people can't pay it does it become bad.
Over all, I think the solution to the problems of debt would be a mixture of both. Rais the taxes a little - but not too much - and cut govt. spending on silly useless things.
This concludes my blog answer.
Pay at the front in cash.
If we cut government spending we could pay off a lot of debt. There are some silly things our government is paying for that just wastes money. We do need some things though like education, social security, and military. We should cut the stupid stuff but not the vital important things.
ReplyDeleteTaxing is another great way to pay off debt. But our tax dollars are going to the pointless things the government spends on. If our tax dollars just went to paying off the debt mostly we could get out of this crisis.
A positive of cutting government spending is that hard working Americans don’t have to pay high taxes. A negative is we have to cut back on things we all like, enjoy, and need. Things like social security. That might be cut from the budget. Also things like schooling. That might be cut, so some people might not get an education because the government will not pay it. If we cut things from the military, like plans, tanks, guns and people, are military might not be so much of a world power anymore. That could be very bad.
ReplyDeleteA positive of raising taxes is our debt would go down and we would not have to cut things from the military or anything like that. On the flip side hard working Americans would have to pay more. So if you cut spending or raise taxes…it’s a loose, loose. Either way you slice it.
I think that a positive of cutting government spending would be that many americans would feel relieved because that would mean that they wouldnt have to pay high priced taxes. They still would have to pay taxes, Benjamin Franklin said that there would always be death and taxes. A negative of cutting Government spending would be that the government would not be able to afford important resources that we need in other countries and it also might make our military weaker.
ReplyDeleteA positive of raising taxes is that the government could pay for important things that our counry needs and a negative is people would not be able to afford food, clothes or be able to pay for their homes, so they would end up homeless.
╰☆╮ -ⓔⓥⓐⓝ ⓙⓞⓗⓝⓢⓞⓝ- ╰☆╮
Alex Herden
ReplyDeleteCutting government spending would be very easy there are so many things the Government spends money on that is a complete waste like finding out how much methane gas is in a cow fart. The only bad thing is sometimes they veiw animal bridges more necessary than social secuirity or other things so they might cut something people need is the negative. The positives are we will get out of debt quicker.
There is only one thing Good about raising taxes. It will get us out of debt quicker. But it will give us less money and the economy might do even worse and it will be even harder to get by day to day.
If you were to cut government spendings we will have more money and that will allow us to do more to help the American people but it may also be bad because it could hurt our government and then we will have to deal with a weak government.
ReplyDeleteIf the government decided to raise the taxes the American people would become very unhappy with the government so they might decide that to stop buying so much and then it would become the same amount of money we are taxed because when the taxes are low people buy a lot and if they were to raise them people would just not buy as much. The good thing is that the government could buy important things that we need.
Cutting government spending may mean that we wouldn't help people with things like medicine. Or maybe military.Also we could pay off a lot of debt we owe. The government needs to stop spending money on dumb things and keep spending on military and schools, etc.
ReplyDeleteTaxing will help us pay of our debt, but the government then needs to stop using the money on worthless things. They need to help with the important things.
rachael lewis said..
ReplyDeleteThere are many sides to government spending. The positives are that people will put more faith into the banks and government which is one thing people lacked during the Great Depression. One very excellent point in raising taxes i that the government could spend money and try to repair all of the problems debt has caused us. Then again American citizens have shown over the years they do not like being taxed more and more money but if the government can spend the money wisely then there could be a good side to taxing people more and more money.Taxing will be a problem solver for our huge money issue but the key thing to solve this problem is for the government to stop trying to spend money on pointless things that americas can live without.
One important problem with cutting government spending is that the American schools would drop traumatically with less money for books and teachers there would defiantly be a huge problem for schools that would end up losing even more money. Here in America we can't afford to lose money for important things such as our schools. It is l for americas to get a good education to have a good career. If we are going to tax more, we need to get our brains together and find a way to spend our tax money WISELY.
Rachael Lewis :)
There are positives in cutting government spending such as getting rid of unnecessary programs that may be outdated or no longer benefit our country for various reasons. Some spending can be cut by people making the laws such as expensive trips, retreats, and salary increases. The negative in cutting government spending is that it may not affect the whole nation but it may affect many individuals that sometimes depend on those programs such as "Head Start" a program that helps less fortunate kids with early education, public school programs such s music and P.E., and help with college tuition. It can take away chances for kids to get a good educational just because they may not be able to afford it.
ReplyDeleteThe only positive to raising taxes is if it is done fairly and for a certain length of time. Not continue to raise taxes every year but letting Americans see what extra taxes are paying off and seeing a plan.
The negative to raising taxes is that many people may not be able to pay it and people will start losing their homes or businesses. They will start living off of credit and people won't have money to pay taxes then that will hurt the economy even more.
Some of the ways our government spends the nations money is flat out dumb! America is up to its eyeballs in debt and the government wants to spend money on kangaroo farms and ATV trails. These are obviously positive reasons for cutting government spending. There are negatives as well, for instance we need to spend money on our military to ensure that our country is safe. Cutting government spending might decrease our chance of always being safe.Therefor this is a negative for cutting government spending. Raising taxes also has positives and negative. This can put a dent in getting our country on the right track again, which is positive, but the taxes are high as it is and this might put some less fortunate people in sticky situations and that does not help the economy one bit.
ReplyDeletethat is what Anna Reeves McCutcheon said!
ReplyDeleteWill Griffin said,
ReplyDeleteCutting Govt. Spending:
Positive: when we cut govt. spending it means less taxes. Less taxes means more people can buy more things, feeding the govt. money.
Negative: But when we cut govt. spending, people may not buy as much and the U.S. can't pay debt to china, Japan, etc...
Raising Taxes:
Positive: When taxes are raised people pay the govt. more money which helps pay our debt in China and Japan.
Negative: When we raise taxes more peoples homes will be taken away because they can't afford to live there and will turn many people against the govt.
Will Griffin
A positive change of cutting goverment spending is less taxes, smaller goverment, wasteful spending on useful projects. A negitive change in cutting goverment spending is lack of support for smaller goverment agencies and support, they support medical, child care, and education. A positive change in raising taxes is for better roads, better school systems, and better transportaion. A negitive change in raising taxes is less personal purchase, housing will go in debt, people will get a hold on their money more.
ReplyDelete-Mickey MAC
Cutting government spending has both positive and negative effects. Cutting government spending helps America save money and pay off debts that it has to other countries. We can also get rid of unnecessary government programs and save money in the process. This also has negative effects. Whenever you cut spending, those places get angry. They don’t like it that the Government chose them over all the other programs.
ReplyDeleteEven though most people hate taxes, there are still positive effects. The Government would then have more money to use how they wanted. That could help pay off all of our debts. The negatives of raising taxes is that it would anger the people. They feel that they earned their money and that they should get to keep it. The best solution would be to do both. The government would spend less money wiser and have more money. That might help chip away at our debt.
I think that cutting uor goverment spending is the best idea out of the two ideas. Raising taxes could work or it could drive our country deeper nto the recession.
ReplyDeleteGovt Spending Positive- People wont have to paay as high taxes and things like foreclosure and eviction rates wont be as high because people wouldnt have to spend more money on their taxes and less money on things like insurance and houses. Negative- We would have to cut back on some vital parts of our nation like the Army, kangaroo farms and healthcare. things like Nascar drivers and kangaroo farms are pointless but things like our Army and money used to build stuff could reall jack up our economy even more.
Raing taxes positive- Our goverment would be able to accomplish a lot of things if they just raised taxes a little bit. They would be able to help the homelessness back into homes and we could have a stronger police force or fire fighting team. we could do so much witha little extra money its not even funny.
Raising taxes negative- People are already paying enough on taxes we dont need to raise the a dollar more. However our goverment thinks thatthe only way to climb out of our recession is to raise taxes.
Thats my opionion on how to use or money to pay off the deficit, but either way someting will have to change in our goverment
-JTMORRISIO
If we cut goverment spending, our government will not be able pay for funded programs that we need, but if we do, there will be less taxes and more money for the people. If we lower taxes, how will we help thoughs will lesser than us. If we raise taxes families will loose more money and may even be in debt.
ReplyDeleteWhen cutting government spending, debt decreases and the government borrows less money. These are the positives of cutting government spending.
ReplyDeleteBut also cutting government spending can make parts of the government weak such as schools and military. If the government cut spending on public schools, teachers would get low wages and get laid off. If the government cut spending on the military, for example, America would be more vulnerable to attack. these are the negatives of the govt. cutting spenging.
If the government decide to raise taxes, debt would increase. In addition, the government would have extra money to spend to spend on things like roads and schools. If they decided to raise taxes they wouldn't have to use deficit spending or borrow money; they would get the money directly from the American public. These are the positives of raising taxes.
However, raising taxes would enrage most Americans, especially if the economy was already bad. The bust cycle would occur (people don't have as much money --> people buy less goods --> companies don't make as much money --> companies lay off workers --> income decreases --> the cycle starts over and over again). This is the negatives part of raising taxes.
The second video just showed all the bad things our government has spent. That video was created by a RIGHT WING THINK TANK of course they are going to try to present Obama doing "bad" things for our country .There is many more great things our government has done.They have made education a national priority by putting hard work and money behind new ideas like charter schools, but speaking directly to school children in telling them they have to do their part. The very first bill that Obama signed after taking office was the "Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act" over the course of her career , she lost over 200,000 because she was paid less than her male co-workers for the very same work. Yes, the government spent some money for a kangaroo farm and sponsoring a car driver, but President Bush announced on national television that he was going to ask the Congress to grant him an additional $87 billion dollars for the fiscal year, beginning October 1, 2004, to continue the fight on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since before then, to the end of September, 2007, cost over $315 billion and the debt is in the trillions now. And what do we have to show for all this wasted blood and treasure? In 2009, Americans paid a lower share of there income in taxes than at any other time since 1952.Thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 98% of working families got a tax cut this year.
ReplyDeleteIf we cut goverment spenging ( in the wrong areas) then our country could greatly suffer. For example, what if we didn't put enouph money in the military? Then we would'nt be as powerful,our soldiers wouldn't feel appriciated, and the whole country could be in danger. If we cut goverment spending( in the right places)than we could save money and get out of debt quicker.
ReplyDeleteIf we were to raise taxes there would be a LOT of unhappy people.People would start to hate the goverment immensly. The only positive effect i can think of is that maybe the goverment would use the money to get out of debt faster.
The positives of cutting government spending are that it would prevent being in even deeper debt. It's bad enough that we have trillions of dollars of debt.
ReplyDeleteIf the government rose taxes, there would be a lot of disappointed people. Some people believe that the taxes are too high right now! Many would rebel against the government and find some way to not pay the taxes. Although there would be some unhappy people, it could benefit the country in a good way. We would be able to pay our debts faster than we would now and the government just might realize that they are soending way too much.
~Natalia Pitter