How can we balance the budget in a fair and responsible way?

Today is the last day to vote for one of these essays. Wish I had found them sooner....

As ideas emerged from the president's deficit commission, Bernie asked Vermonters to write a short essay to share their own ideas on how to reduce the $13.8 trillion national debt in a fair and sensible way. The prize: Publication in the Congressional Record and lunch with Bernie.

More than 100 Vermonters submitted thoughtful essays. Here are the three finalists. Please read these and vote for your favorite. You can read all the submissions on the senator's Facebook page.

FINALIST - George Davis, Williston, Vt.
FINALIST - Beverly Frost, Middlebury, Vt.
FINALIST - Lawrence 'Rip' Kirby, Rutland, Vt.

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE ESSAY

ESSAY 1 - George Davis, Williston, Vt.

Thank you for holding this contest and for furnishing an excellent first prize! What a great idea to get people thinking about the deficit: the first step to fixing this problem must be to acknowledge the scope and severity the mounting deficit presents. To turn the tide on our own debt we need to reexamine the role of our military, protect the tax code from havens and loopholes, and continue to push for a single-payer healthcare system.

The United States emerged from World War II as the world's sole superpower. Our intervention in Europe precipitated the decline of Nazism and facism and brought freedom to a continent who had been ravaged by two World Wars. Since that time, our military has played a more expansive role overseas. Overextention of the American military is expensive and unsustainable. It does not make us safer and distracts from building domestic policy that will keep us competitive in the global market. It's time to rethink our military role in Iraq and Afghanistan, Europe, and the Pacific with a keen eye for reducing the deficit.

Republicans and Democrats argue over who's got the magic number when it comes to tweaking the tax code. But it doesn't matter when some of the biggest players don't play by the rules. I applaud the Obama administration for going after European banks who aid and abet tax criminals at the start of his presidency, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. A strong system for combating tax crime that couples amnesty with encouragement and reward for whistleblowers will generate revenues for the American people at the expense of the criminals.

We cannot give up the fight for a single-payer healthcare system. The healthcare bill passed into law this year represents a good first step, but we have to keep the momentum. A single-payer healthcare system would give certainty to employers, families, entrepreneurs, teachers, children, spouses, and anyone else who visits a doctor. Employers could focus on business rather than benefits; families could plan for the future knowing that their healthcare needs will be met; entrepreneurs could hire qualified help without diverting capital to an insurance giant. We cannot forget the economic stimulus that a single-payer system affords.

The national debt did not occur overnight, and it will take hard work on the part of our politicians to set responsible policy, our government agents to stamp out excess, and most importantly each of us in realizing that we cannot keep taking more than we earn and to start paying back what we've already spent. Controlling the size and scope of our military, closing tax loopholes, and establishing a single-payer healthcare system will steer us in the right direction so that we may reverse our deficit and eliminate our national debt.

George Davis, Williston, Vt.

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ESSAY 2 - Beverly Frost, Middlebury, Vt.

Not only do we need to end waste, fraud and abuse in government, but most of all eliminate stupidity. Unfortunately, since no one seems to be able to do this I would suggest a change in the income tax extension. Leave the individual rates up to $300,000 as they were under the Bush era. Since the Republicans insist that taxing high income earners will hurt job development, I would take all the extra money that high income tax increases produce during the first year and put it in a fund to build infrastructure such as roads, schools, internet access, energy infrastructure and medical clinics. Certainly this will put more people to work than the trickledown theory that the Republicans think extending the Bush tax cuts will produce. I would apportion this money out fairly to each state and let each Congressman determine how it will be spent in his or her state. I think this would help make the tax increase more acceptable to the Republicans. One hundred percent of the extra money brought in must go to job development. Job development will fuel other areas of the economy. For small family businesses there might need to be some type of extension of the tax rate, but certainly not at the rate of the Bush era cuts. During this year, reevaluate the whole tax structure for fairness and effectiveness and evaluate the effectiveness of job production using the extra tax monies brought in. Anyone who ships jobs out of the USA needs to face a severe penalty. Eight years of irresponsible tax cuts and unnecessary wars have brought this country down. As soon as our economy starts to turn around then we must find good solutions to education and health care. We are rapidly becoming a third world nation with the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer.

Beverly Frost, Middlebury, Vt.

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ESSAY 3 - Lawrence 'Rip' Kirby, Rutland, Vt.

To reduce the deficit and accumulated debt we must understand their root causes and history:

Short-term problem: The near-collapse of the economy was arrested by means of deficit spending, including corporate bailouts, extended unemployment benefits, and stimulus initiatives. While arguably necessary to stave off an even worse catastrophe, these measures have added to the deficit and the debt.

Solution(s): Our emphasis should not be on recovery of sunk costs but on prevention of future disasters. Break up "too large to fail" businesses through anti-trust laws. Regulate imprudent, secretive, or unfathomable financial arrangements like derivatives. Increase regulated safety margins like reserve requirements for banks and loan limits based on borrower credit ratings. Eliminate conflicts of interest like permitting bond rating agencies to have a financial stake in the companies they rate.

Medium term problem: Our wars overseas have been funded by massive deficits with no real strategy for repayment. The unexpected length and intractability of these conflicts exacerbates the problem.

Solution(s): Stop the financial bleeding and provide a financial transfusion. To stop the bleeding we must get out of these conflicts within a short time (two years at most). Continue intelligence-gathering and maintain air power, but get the boots off the ground. To provide a transfusion, enact a temporary and progressive "war surtax" with a sunset provision.

Long term problem: Entitlement spending (Medicare, Social Security, etc.) has exceeded its funding as America's longevity has climbed faster than its typical retirement age without tax increases to keep up. The mass retirement of the baby boomers will aggravate this problem as they become greater consumers of entitlements and a lesser source of taxes.

Solution(s): Recognize that longevity is really an advantage, and make better use of people's lengthening ability to work and to contribute. In short, this means gradually raising the age of entitlement eligibility. We must also end the regressive and irrational Social Secuirty tax exemption for earnings above $108,000.

Long term problem: Our K-12 school system has deteriorated while foreign students have surged ahead in critical subjects like math, science, and language skills. The underlying cause is debated endlessly, but I believe we have replaced the hard work of learning with trendy feel-good initiatives that represent the path of least resistance for both educators and students. We also underfund education, thereby encouraging the employment of second-rate teachers, curricula, and facilities. This exacerbates the deficit by degrading our tax base as emerging generations of Americans are prepared for only menial jobs paying low wages.

Solution(s): Stop experimenting and do what works - get back to basics and pay for excellence. Reward teachers who cultivate competence. Emphasize math, science, and language skills, as well as less-tangible but important skills like inquiry and logic. Recognize sports programs as a way to teach critical social skills, not as a career path. Treat standardized testing as a means to excellence, not as an end in itself. And finally, forget self esteem - it will come on its own when it is earned.

Lawrence 'Rip' Kirby, Rutland, Vt.