Balanced budget? Ask a 5th-grader

Put 12 economists in a room and ask them for their solution to reducing the debt and balancing the budget. What you would get would be 13 different opinions on how to improve the economy. So with that being the case, let’s ask some fifth-graders for their ideas on how to lower the debt and balance the budget.

First we would tell them that the all government spending for 2012 will be $3.9 trillion, while revenues will be about $2.5 trillion, resulting in a deficit of about $1.4 trillion for the fiscal year.

Given these facts, plus information that Republicans and Democrats will extend the income and FICA tax cuts; I am pretty sure that fifth-graders would quickly be able to offer a solution to the increasing debt and budget deficits.

Here is what the fifth-graders would tell us: let the income and FICA tax cuts expire at the end of the year and reduce spending. Adjust revenues and spending so that both are about 20 percent of GDP.

Unfortunately, we don’t have fifth-graders passing a budget. We have highly paid elected officials, who just cannot grasp the concept that cutting revenues while increasing spending is a surefire recipe for fiscal disaster.

If we could only figure out a way to keep members of Congress on recess for an entire year and let fifth-graders produce a budget. They would certainly do a better job than the 535 members of Congress who now seem completely mystified by the concept of matching spending to revenues.

With fifth-graders on summer vacation, this would be an ideal time to send them to D.C. and let them straighten out the fiscal mess caused by our elected officials.

Victor Darst

West Dundee