Should we increase taxes or cut services?

It's not so much a need to cut services, as it is a need to cut spending in general. Were I in charge of a government body the first thing I would do is cut the fat. When I worked at Universal Studios the company hired an independent cost efficiency person to go through the park and every department to see where people could be cut. Now it sure put the fear of god into people, but the fact is, ANY large organization has a lot of useless people and the government is famous for not firing those people. Since working government jobs I have seen some of the most useless pieces of garbage that just can't be fired for reasons varying from paperwork, to fear of lawsuits, to union rules. Don't get me wrong, we will have to cut or reduce some services to really cut spending, but that should not be the FIRST thing we do. Cut the useless expenditures first, then move on to the more difficult choices. The main reason nobody does this is because they like big numbers and fast results. Cutting a program can save millions or billions within a month. Cutting waste systematically may take months and doesn't have a clear dollar amount saved.

I think anyone saying you can do one without the other is living in denial. We can trim a lot of money out of waste and spending but we have been cutting taxes for decades while increasing fees on others and the fact is America has a shrinking working class because of the baby boomer generation. Last time I looked (a few months back) we were 48th in the world, of indutrial countrys, in what we pay in taxes. If we changed how we discussed policy changes we might start fixing things that are broken instead of just adjusting how much money they get.

Hi Pose123. Life would be so simple and we could all go home happy if there was a simple answer to your question. But then, I am not sure anyone would listen. There are so many things that need to be handled on so many levels. A different tax structure might be more fair to all citizens - for example a flat tax. Of course there are arguments for and against that. Presently, the low to middle income citizens pay a higher rate of tax than the wealthy. That hardly seems fair that those who can least afford it pay more taxes, relatively speaking. There are the pundits who say when the wealthy pay less tax they create jobs. What happened these last eight years? Nevermind. I know. Are our services being administered as efficiently and effectively as possible? I don't think so. This begs the question, "Do we need to cut services or do we need to streamline them?" Just one example of waste that I see in the school system in my town is how children with physical challenges are transported to school. A full-size school bus is used to transport only one or two children to and from school for the entire school year. A van would serve the same purpose and save gas. Practically every school has at least one bus transporting children with physical challenges. There are more than 100 schools in the county. Another way of cutting the fat is to reduce salaries at the top. A lot of organizations are top heavy just because people have gotten promoted over the years beyond the level of their competency as a reward for their years of service. This practice helped drive prices up and push many companies out of the competition for market share - especially when competing with international markets. I burns my you know what to think of raising taxes when I know that our Congress has voted themselves a pay increase every year in spite of the economy. They have had no regard for the people they serve, yet they tell us they need to raise taxes, keep tax cuts for the wealthy and cut entitlements that help the poor. And by the way they pass legislation that helps the special interest groups. I wish I did have the answer.

A few more dollars from a paycheck that's already being cut...Yea, that'd hurt. We need to repeal the free trade act & start taxing imports again. That would give money back to the government & when importing everything from overseas became less profitable than making them at home companies would start moving back. Then more Americans would start having jobs & paychecks again. Once we entered into the world market & everything started having the ( MADE IN CHINA ) or ( MADE IN MEXICO ) label on it the U.S. was sinking. How can we keep sending out money to other countries when we don't produce anything for them to buy to bring the money back?

I think that we should not increase taxes because we should not put so much burden on middle class families. We need to teach people to be more responsible and to stop having children if they cannot afford them. The funding that we have available should be concentrated on health issues and on family planning.

The world is going through a trying time because governments intrude into areas where they have no business going, like into business, banking, the stock market, the auto industry, and the insurance industry. Government has also made it too easy for people to become irresponsible and for them to become dependent on the government. If you're getting government assistance or a never ending unemployment check, where's the motivation to find a job or go back to work? I'm for cutting taxes and government assistance. We might be surprised how resourceful people could be if they had to be, but I'm not holding my breath. Our government has done such a superb job conditioning welfare recipients to be dependent on assistance that I don't hold out much hope that they'll ever change.

It is not that a few more dollars out of my pocket would be the end of the world (close, though). It is that increasing taxes is not going to fix anything. More taxes means more money out of people's hands and more money out of the economy. More taxes means more money for the government to spend and waste. This government we currently have does not use money wisely, so it is like giving your last dollars to a drunken fool and telling them to use it wisely. All the money the government spends, including that borrowed is going somewhere. Somebody is getting the money, but it is not the people paying the taxes. There is no doubt, however, to do what is really required (cut spending, reduce debt) is going to be very difficult. I am not totally convinced that any (or maybe many) of our politicians will have the guts to inflict short term pain for long term good. It is obviously a term killer!

definitely cutting services. However I would not cut on seniors, more working aged people. I believe that if you REALLY want to work, you can. I have created a lot of work for myself by ingenuity. I have repeatedly worked multiple jobs to support my family. The services now truly, in my opinion reward lazy behavior.

For me, it's not about paying more out of my paycheck (not entirely), but more of where the money goes. For instance: should I have to pay more to make sure government-funded (TAXPAYER-funded) jobs are kept or, even worse, that union jobs are kept and the employees' salaries increased? When unions shake the government down, the government shakes the taxpayer down, and the taxpayer is the one that loses in every single scenario. Government people seem to have one goal in this day and age - to keep their jobs. The rest of us would like to do that too, except we can't decide to pay government less. But with the stroke of a pen, they can decide to charge us more. For what? That's the question I have. What do they need MORE of our money for? If they would actually stop playing politics and stop kiling one another to get elected, then they could focus on things like cleaning up the billions upon billions of dollars in waste and fraud. Then we might see some improvement. With more money available for government to spend on important things, fewer dollars have to be contributed by taxpayers. And maybe one day government will realize that they're not responsibile for "creating" jobs. They're best when they move out of the way. I can only speak for my country here, but I don't see higher taxes as the way to go. I mean, why would anyone trust someone that has habitually blown the money time and again? "Oh, sorry about the other 10,000 times, but let us take more of your money and things will get better!" lol

They should start cutting out alot of the spending, and start cutting all the services..It is not the Governments job to take care of everyone.....We need to get industry back in this country so people can get back to work. and then we need to cut taxes because with more people working they will get more in the long run. We could start by getting all the illegal aliens out, and cut out all the entitlements that they are getting. and give back the jobs they are taking back to the Americans that should have them. Get the people off Welfare..that have been living off it for generations. The more that is given to people the lazier they get. and then they just depend on it instead of going out and taking care of them selves. and put the program back to what it was meant to be a temporary help for people that need help.....for a short time ..not a life time.

I think a little of both. In some places services are really not needed or too much is spent on them such as what is given to our governing officials, i.e. secretaries, (do they need 3 or 4?) cars, furniture and more. Here we have low taxes. We pay for our own garbage and recycling this can be done else where as well. As for raising taxes, our government has dug us a hole our great grandkids will be paying for. It will only be paid if the taxes go up. We the people have been screwed.

Taxpayers don't like to see taxes being increased. We pay enough. Sometimes it is just the best solution. Cutting services only hurts the people who depend on them so much for their survival.

We are paying too much taxes on our salaries and we are paying too much taxes on our groceries. The government is now charging taxes for soda and candy. I think that instead of focusing on charging the taxes from the lower and middle class population, the government should focus on increasing taxes for the rich population.

I think that it needs to be a mixture. I was looking at my state's budget and there are some items, like 100,000 for a new sculpture, that at this time needs to be cut from the budget. A small increase to taxes, would be fine by me to insure that things like education are funded. My family recieved all but $200 back from the federal government last year. If they had kept even an $200 it would not have made or broke my families budget. It was nice getting that money back and being able to update appliances, or this past year replace broken furniture.

I believe this is a false dichotomy. I don't think we need to do either. I believe we need to be good stewards of the money we have, unlike the wasteful spending that our government believes and engages in. It's about time that everyone's greed was reigned in, especially that of our government "rulers" who take our hard-earned tax dollars for their own use and power-mongering. Thus, their pockets are deep and ours are empty.