Warren Buffett's 5-Minute Economic Solution

[Pocketman]

I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that any time there's a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. Yeah, yeah, now you've got the incentives in the right place, right?

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Could probably fix a lot of the nation's problems with such an approach.

 

[NYFelon]

ha. try getting that law passed.

 

[ATOMonkey]

or make it worse. It might just push them to pass more spending, faster, as they only have 2 years to push through a bill that benefits them. Could be farm subsidy or military contract, or something else.

I have no idea how a guy who is obviously very smart at making money can be so stupid when it comes to making laws.

Bottom line, you can't legislate away immorality and corruption.

Why not just pass a balanced budget law? Make it an amendment later. That would fix spending too.

 

[Waveraider]

I don't believe/trust most the stuff buffett says. hell, he endorsed Obama, and in his first quarter as Prez, he spent one trillion dollars on a bogus stimulus. Why not throw him out too?

 

[dross]

You can know a lot about business and investing without really understanding economics.

 

[Pocketman]

While the idea isn't practical, gotta admit there's some attractive about "...all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election."

 

[ViperJock]

I agree with some of the stuff. Especially about congress not being above the laws they pass for us. This is probably just Warren getting even for the shots taken at him after is was brought out that he had failed to pay his income tax....

 

[ATOMonkey]

No wonder his taxes were so low if he forgot to pay them!

 

[jsnowy]

Warren Buffett is a genius. Gotta love him.

 

[firehawk1]

Why not just pass a balanced budget law? Make it an amendment later. That would fix spending too.

Only way a balanced budget law/amendment would truly work is to word it so that any deficit HAS to be rectified by spending cuts alone, across the board cuts. Nothing would be sacred, that means entitlements too and none of the 98% coming from defense and the remaining 2% from other sources. If not, there is nothing to keep "them" from simply raising taxes to cover the deficit.

If not worded that way, it would be nothing more than a waste of time and the paper it was written on.

A lesson in futility... we all know THAT won't happen.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Go ahead and raise taxes. People need a kick in the shorts to get them interested in their job, which first and foremost, is to keep an eye on the government and keep it in check.