Here’s a neat little game that lets you see if you can run the government better than our elected officials, which is surprisingly easy, and trying not to break the bank with Social Security and Medical Costs, which is surprisingly difficult! Here’s your chance to see how the budget would hold up if you were in charge!
All you do is play cards that represent changes to the budget, like cutting military spending, or revoking the Bush tax cuts andd then seeing how your budget holds up in the future. It’s fun, and you just might learn something!
Note: What I learned is that we’re in some pretty serious financial trouble! No matter how you cut it! D’oh!
Kris
June 9, 2008 at 7:35 PM
I did prety well with this. By shrinking government by 2%, raising the age for SS and medicare, letting most Bush taxes lapse, “cap and trade” emissions, increasing SS taxes to $187k, and (I know God forbid) reducing miltary spending, I was able to better fund college and sciences, mass transit, clean up nuclear waste and offer government health care to everyone. When did my bubble burst, past 2070. Debt went from 37.7% to 8.6% of GDP in 2018. Not too shabby.
John
June 11, 2008 at 9:47 AM
My budget went very much the same way. I cut back on the Bush Tax cuts (for the rich) which are a massive hit to the revenue side of the equation, cut military spending, and raised some of our educational spending while cutting just about every other optional program in the budget. In other words, I treated it like I treated my budget back when I was getting out of debt post-college. If you owe money, you shouldn’t borrow more.. Granted, that looks inevitable with the Health Care and Social Security skyscrapers unstoppable in this particular simulation. Granted, that looks to be accurate and a problem we should be paying attention to. Great work though Kris!