First, thanks to everyone who participated and recommended the diary
Dem Econ Agenda I: Balance the Budget. I was really pleased that so many people were interested in and participated in the discussion. There were some great ideas which I will outline below.
94% of 219 respondents said balancing the budget should be a Democratic economic priority. That's a clear mandate, meaning the Dem candidates should probably consider talking about balancing the budget.
Second, I asked what spending should be cut. Now, I probably caught some people a bit flat-footed on this because I posted the diary without any warning. So if you have a spending cut idea, please answer below. However, here are some of the really good ideas various people presented.
The most fascinating thing about the discussion was that Democrats - the party of "big spenders" -
spent most of the time talking about shrinking and/or reorganizing the government. I think this tact is
great for two reasons. First, it is completely counter-intuitive to the way the Republicans portray the Democratic Party. Secondly, it allows the Dems to argue about Republican's making government bigger.
I went through the comments and took notes the best I could. If you suggested one of these points below and don't get credit, please let me know. On a more humerous note, there are some great screen names on Kos that played havoc with my spellcheck.
nyc Observer presented the most succinct observation in this area:
It seems to me that a significant amount of money could be saved consolidating some overlapping agencies.
Why do the forest service, USGS, dept. of interior, EPA, forest department, park service all need to be separate agencies/services. Why can't these be rolled into one agency to eliminate duplicative functions and overhead?
Civil Defense argued for folding the VA into another government health agency.
Chicago Dem suggested eliminating DHS and instead using the funds to increase CIA/FBI cooperation.
A number of people - smokeymoney, cunctator, wytcld, redfish and gjohnsit all mentioned a cut in defense. This jibed with my suggestion in the diary about getting US forces out of Iraq. Politically, I think any mention of cutting defense outside of leaving Iraq is political suicide. While I personally agree with it in principle, maybe this year it's not a good idea.
Finally, Fishgrease suggested an across the board 20% cut in total federal employees. While this would be really unpopular with government employees, I think any candidate should entertain this idea. Again, it plays directly against the way Republicans have portrayed Democrats.
Several people made great suggestions about the budget process.
Inland suggested we actually have a budget. The Bush administration has used supplemental budgets for the war ever since the war began. This has allowed the Bush administration to essentially get a blank check from Congress for spending. This has got to end.
A return to PayGo was mentioned by madscientist and reahti. This is another great idea. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it worked like this. If Congress wanted to increase spending in one area, they had to find cuts in other areas. It's a simple and brilliant idea.
Ending Earmarks came from mad scientist, deathsinger and ChicagoDem. Another solid idea.
Runbrown suggested revising the federal procurement system. He deals with this system professionally, and stated it's not working very well.
BD Payne suggested auditing the military. I expanded the idea to audit the entire government. I think this is also a winner.
New Deal Dem argued passionately for a balanced budget amendment. While I personally have questions about this, he made some very convincing argument. Let's include that as well.
DallasDoc, deathsinger, bigchin, and heymikey, all argued for various cutbacks in corporate subsidies. There are literally millions of subsidies that could be cut; we just have to figure out who is subsidized and by how much.
This doesn't fit in with reforming government directly, but it makes a great deal of sense. Several people mentioned we should publicly fund elections to get corporate money out of the process altogether. I think this makes a great deal of sense as a long term goal
Finally, there were several people who mentioned we should legalize drugs (especially marijuana) and tax it. While I agree with this in spirit, I just don't think this is the time.
Looking at all of these proposals, I think they all come under one basic heading: Reforming Government. While that might not be the best "frame", I think it's a really good start.
Friday we'll talk about tax policy. So put on your idea caps and get working.
Bonddad provides economic analysis to Democratic candidates and causes with NRRSA