Video games are OFFICALLY recognized as ART by NEA

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Krylo

Point is you're forgetting that it's not 14 trillion every year. It's 14 trillion over multiple years, and we don't have to cut or increase by 14 trillion to fix it.

Nah, I didn't forget that.

I like your plan. I guess there's just something of a difference that needs to be distinguished between "what can realistically be achieved" and what I'd "idealistically like to see." It's the difference between what Democrats can privately hope for and what they should publicly lobby for and expect.

Furthermore, the mere fact that the tax increases and spending cuts that you've outlined would theoretically balance the budget within twenty years doesn't change the fact that there are other sectors you've left untouched where additional superfluous expenditures could be cut.

Finally, an element of my argument that you may have forgotten or misinterpreted is that I'm advocating substantial increases in spending into fields such as environmental regulation and healthcare, which would mandate further cuts in other programs in order to balance the budget. The 14 trillion dollar is daunting enough as it is, but it's even more daunting when you add to that the desire to spend hundreds of billions more each year to invest into clean energy, greenhouse gas mitigation and climate change adaptation costs.

Seriously my Advanced Environmental Law class calculated the projected costs for the state of Alaska alone to relocate thirty indigenous Inupiat communities threatened by erosion and flooding caused by global warming in the Arctic now, and it came up as $2.6 billion dollars. If you assume as my class did that global warming is going to become progressively worse and more serious, with devastating impacts on coastal communities throughout the world, then I think it becomes easier to appreciate my stance on cutting back on discretionary spending because the government's going to have to spend a fuckton of money just responding to climate change, and we can't seriously toss video game companies grants when that shit's going down.

EDIT: Said Alaskan Inupiat communities are not going to be relocated before they sink into the Chukchi Sea because Congress was like "fuck no, we're not providing federal funding for that." So it's just kind of frustrating when Congress is funding art projects but not funding any systemic approach to Climate Change adaptation and relocation.