Strange, these numbers don't seem to add up...

So the country's debt is spiraling out of control and sacrifices need to be made. The Republicans have taken the offensive on this one, courageously sticking it to the soulless parasites that caused this mess in the first place - the finance execs whose irresponsible manipulation of the system resulted total economic collapse and whose recent bailing out by the tax payers has preserved their right to live extravagant lifestyles at the expense of everyone else the teachers and public workers' unions. That's right, those bastards have been living the good life on our coin for far too long. Luckily, we're ready to fight back. Governor Scott Walker took the spotlight with his heroic attempts to strip public workers of their collective bargaining rights (firefighters and police officers exempted) so that income increases could not be negotiated beyond that which is noted in the Consumer Price Index. Now Ohio and Indiana are doing the same. So that's it, right? Problem solved?

Some men just want to watch the world burn (Source: www.rawstory.com)

As it turns out, not so much. This seemingly honest attempt to attack the already underprivileged backbone of our society may actually be a bit... misguided. As alternatives, liberal politicians and blogocrats have been throwing around some pretty farfetched ideas such as cutting defense spending, clamping down on corporate tax evasion, and letting tax cuts to families making over $250,000 / year expire. But as crazy and nonsensical as those sound, they may be right. Don't take my word for it, though, let's take a look at the numbers.

Using Gov. Walker's proposal as a benchmark, Republicans expect to create $300 million in savings over the next 2 years ($150 million per year) in WI. Assuming these results represent the average for what other states could expect, and that these projections are reliable, this would mean $7.5 billion in savings if all 50 states took the same union-busting measures. How do some of the other proposals compare? (note: defense spending is notably omitted because some things don't even need commentary)

• Corporate tax evasion: One of the biggest methods that U.S. based multinational corporations use to avoid income tax is called the "Double Irish" or "Dutch Sandwich" (both of which sound like sex positions you'd encounter in a threesome). Our friends at Bloomberg calculate that this accounts for $60 billion in lost revenue every year.
• Bush Tax Cuts: First of all, these cuts applied to more than just the super-wealthy. Nearly everybody received cuts. What the Democrats had hoped to do last year was maintain cuts for low- and middle-income families, while allowing cuts for those making over $250,000/year to expire. As we all know, the compromise that was struck did not achieve this. But what if they had succeeded? The Pew Charitable Trusts estimated that making the cuts permanent to all would have costed $3.3 trillion over 10 years, while limiting extension only to those below the $250,000 bracket would have costed $2.2 trillion. In other words, tax cuts for the wealthy account for an estimated $1.1 trillion over 10 years. That's an average of $110 billion every year. To be fair, though, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that for 2011 specifically, tax cuts for the wealthy would account for around $40 billion.

I'm sure there are plenty of holes in these equations, but the result is still pretty straightforward. We could save $7.5 billion / year by abandoning our teachers and unionized public servants OR we could save $60 billion by closing corporate tax loopholes and $40-$110 billion by restoring taxes on the wealthy to Clinton-era levels. Then again, we don't want our best and brightest to have to miss any payments on their private yachts.