Obama Can't Save the Country's Economy, and I Bet You Can't Either In This Simulation.

A CHALLENGE

If you've got ideas on balancing the budget, maybe cutting the military 15%, or raising taxes, try playing BUDGET HERO. It's from public radio, uses government figures, and allows you to cut and increase where you'd like.

It doesn't take long to play, and has enough detail to keep it interesting without getting bogged down. It doesn't cover every possibility, like eliminating the military, or selling California, but I guarantee you'll learn from it

I was able to keep the country afloat until 2036. At the time the only expenses were Medicare, Social Security, and the interest. And I ran a surplus. Right now the projections are that the country will be done by 2033. (I used liberal approaches, raising taxes everywhere and preserving most benefits.) Tell me how you did.

Of course, had I used a conservative approach everything would have been fine.

www.marketplace.org...

With respect,
Charles1952

Okay, that was cute. It said I reduced the debt by about 10% over that period of time, my kids called to thank me. Then it said I was bad because I was a downsizer and Government shrank. I suppose that did show the lean of the game..but fun to play.

I'd sure wonder where they got the crazy idea that Debt was 58% of GDP at the 2013 start of the game though. Debt broke over 100% of GDP quite ahwile ago?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Well, Wrabbit, if you can't beat the game, there's honestly no reason for me to try.


I may though, just to see.

Wow this is cool!

I got the Bust date extended to 2037. I cut military spending, extended medicare/medicaid age, and cut other things too. I increased National Science Foundation spending and a few math/science things. I DID cut federal education spending (dept. of education is way out of control!)

What surprised me the most is that I reduced government from Big to Small, cut Debt as a % of GDP into the green zone, and am running a budget surplus.. YET, I only got 4 more years from the baseline of 2033!!!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Dear Wrabbit2000,

Congratulations. I suppose a White House staffer will tell the President that he needs to be a downsizer and shrink the government. I further suppose the staffer will be locked up.

What moves did you make that led to your success? Anything that can get through Congress?

Thanks a lot for playing. I'm glad it wasn't a waste of time.

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by paynoattention

Dear paynoattention,

Very nice. I think a big part of the problem is that with an aging population we're on track to spend lots more than people realize. And in running a surplus, which reduces the debt, there is so much debt that our interest payments aren't going to change all that much.

I wish government would get serious about this, we'll probably be alive in 2037. Starving, in the cold, but alive.

With respect,
Charles1952

lol in a world where money=debt, of course it's going to be impossible.

Giving it a try anyway because I'm curious to see how it works.

reply to post by charles1952


My kids called, they want their future back

reply to post by Juggernog

Dear Juggernog,

Thanks for the laugh!


I hope someone will keep trying to improve things until they find a decent set of decisions that will keep us afloat. If they do, I'd like to hear how it's done, liberal policies? Conservative policies? Or will it be a set of decisions that no politician would accept?

Can someone talk Ron Paul into playing this game?

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
I'd sure wonder where they got the crazy idea that Debt was 58% of GDP at the 2013 start of the game though. Debt broke over 100% of GDP quite ahwile ago?

Well at the start of the game I notice that it says this:

We've based the game's calculations on data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO works with congress to track the federal budget and to predict the impact of proposed federal policies.

edit: sorry I just noticed you said 2013... I don't know how they got that number for 2013.

reply to post by charles1952


lol, anytime.. I also raised the deficit by .3 trillion dollars but I did downsize the Govt

And yea, Id like to see Ron Paul take this. Anyone know if he has a FB page?

reply to post by charles1952

I froze national defense spending, eliminated Federal Dept of education outright, Chose a total revamp of Medicaid, raised NASA funding but slowed increase on SS benefits while slashing discretionary spending by 10%. That increased the date to 2036. (Hadn't seen that date the first time).. So I guess I could have done worse. Never touched the tax button at all and tied highway funding to revenue. (States should run their highway funding much more anyway).

Like I said, all in all? I'd have a fan club crashing the front gates in no time flat. I'd imagine them carrying torches and pitchforks and effigies of burning bunnies while chomping rabbit jerky or some horrible such thing. (shivers)

* Oh... I played it a second time because I only took a passing glance at what I'd used to tell anyone.. I did all the same the second time except the 10% slash..that was nice to do. (bunny stew..eww)

This seems like a dumb question but I can't get the game to run....It stays stagnant on the fir with the wording:

"The game starts 10 years from now to show the effects of current policy if it were to continue on, unchanged. Your main challenge: Push back the "Budget Bust" date as far back as possible.
One important note before you play:

We've based the game's calculations on data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO works with congress to track the federal budget and to predict the impact of proposed federal policies.

The CBO assumes that tax cuts enacted under President Bush in 2001 and 2003 will expire in 2012. But, politically speaking, it's unlikely they will altogether expire. If you want to play a game closer to what politicians play, select the "Extend 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts" and "Link AMT to inflation" cards, and go from there."



How did you get it to work?

reply to post by misfitofscience

Dear misfitofscience,

I'm not a computer guy, but I'll tell you what happens when I click on the link. First, I get a blue screen in a cartoonish border that says it is loading, then initializing. That screen fades to a brown folder with buttons for getting briefed or playing. I suggest getting briefed first.

Give it another try and see what happens.

With respect,
Charles1952

Am a downsizer... stretched it out to 2037 and brought it down by 18% but then again I'm not American, so perhaps I cut things in places that others might not and raised them in places others might not.

IMHO, the challenge lacks 2 real options, go to war and steal stuff or enable a new industrial revolution.. as for me those are the only real choices the West has to dig it's way out of this mess.

Just think when Britain was at it's height of power the country that she accused most of copying stuff and avoiding royalties and what not was America, and now America is throwing similar allegations at China..

If we don't find a way of turning this around and entering some kind of new industrial revolution and reclaim the lead in science, engineering and manufacturing we will be left behind.

reply to post by misfitofscience


It doesn't work with Opera so it may not work with other browsers. I used Chrome and it worked fine.

Haha I should be POTUS, I decreased the deficit from 58.6% to 27% It said debt is no match for me

Very cool game

Very cool,charles.

I will play around with it abit and get back with you.

It's sort of like sims,in a way,if you know what that is.

Thanks for sharing this.

I added some small things and took away some big stuff and got it to 2040. By 2024 things started to look pretty good in my game. But I couldn't figure out how to alter what I was doing year by year or alter it again in 2025 as it slowly declined. In 2024 I had a 846 B +/- Surplus with a with 262 B interest on debt. Debt was 18.47% of GDP. As you can see in the picture I didn't even use the cut military spending card. I also increased Nasa by 50% for the lulz.

reply to post by The_Phantom

Dear The_Phantom,

WOW! Very nice work, pack your bags for Washington.

I think I'll look around to try to find a more realistic simulator. As you point out, this one has some real shortcomings and I think ATSers could handle something more sophisticated.

With respect,
Charles1952