| | Some ideas for budget cuts. I don't agree with all of them, and also I don't think that much spending should be cut all in one year (I have not problem with large spending cuts, but close to two trillion all at once is probably pushing things). Also some of them (tax amnesty) are one offs while the real budget problem is the long term, but still I thought it was worth posting. It gives figures for certain large cuts or program eliminations, so one could get a smaller package by picking and choosing from the list.
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Take A Chainsaw To The Budget Posted by John Stossel | July 28, 2011
On my show tonight at 10pm, I lay out a way to completely get rid of the deficit.
I don't claim to be a budget expert. But others, such as Chris Edwards at Cato and Stuart Butler at Heritage, are. They found lots of serious cuts. My staff found a few more, and put together a list that would completely balance the budget:
Defense cut by 2/3: $475 billion ( Federal Budget, pg. 58)
Medicare/Medicaid*: $441 billion ( Cato Institute)
Social Security Means Testing: $170 billion (Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate Dept. of Education (includes Pell Grants): $106.9 billion ( Cato Institute)
Social Security*: $85.7 billion ( Cato Institute)
Eliminate Dept. of Transportation: $84.8 billion ( Cato Institute)
Tax Amnesty: $80 billion ( Rep. Jared Polis D-Co.)
Eliminate Dept. of Labor*: $78.6 billion ( Department of Labor and White House)
Eliminate HUD: $60.8 billion ( Cato Institute)
Eliminate Dept. of Agriculture*: $33 billion ( Cato Institute)
Cut civilian employee compensation: $30 billion ( Cato Institute)
Stop maintaining vacant federal property: $25 billion ( Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate Foreign Aid: $21.2 billion ( Cato Institute)
Eliminate Dept. of Energy*: $20.8 billion ( Cato Institute)
Eliminate NASA: $19.6 billion ( Cato Institute)
Federal Drug War: $15 billion ( White House)
Earmark moratorium: $16 billion ( Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate Fannie/Freddie Subsidies: $14 billion ( Federal Housing Finance Agency (p. 10))
Eliminate Dept. of Commerce: $13.9 billion ( Department of Commerce)
Eliminate Dept. of Interior: $12 billion ( White House)
Legalize Pot, Online gambling, Immigrants: $12 billion ( Rep. Jared Polis D-Co.)
Privatize Army Corps of Engineers: $10.6 billion ( Cato Institute)
Cut federal employee travel budget: $10 billion ( Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate National Science Foundation: $7.4 billion ( National Science Foundation)
End EPA’s State and Local grants: $6.5 billion ( Cato Institute)
Repeal Davis-Bacon: $6 billion ( Republican Study Committee)
Privatize TSA: $5.7 billion ( Federal Budget)
Cut Dept. of Justice’s State and Local grants: $5 billion ( Heritage Foundation)
Privatize Post Office: $4 billion ( White House)
Eliminate Small Business Administration: $1.8 billion ( Small Business Administration)
Lease coastal plain of ANWR: $1.5 billion ( Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate Federal Flood Insurance: $1.3 billion ( CBO, pg. 3)
Abolish SEC: $1.3 billion ( SEC)
Eliminate Corporation for National Community Service: $1 billion ( Cato Institute)
Suspend acquisition of federal office space: $1 billion ( Heritage Foundation)
End subsidies for public broadcasting: $500 million ( Cato Institute)
Eliminate the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp: $480 million ( Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate the FCC: $439 million ( FCC)
Eliminate the Endowments for Arts/Humanities: $332 million ( NEA/NEH)
Total Cut: $1,882,619,000,000
Current deficit: $1,645,000,000,000
Surplus Achieved: $237,619,000,000
(Research by Maxim Lott and Charles Couger.)
They don't need to drive us deeper in debt. They choose to. Tune in tonight at 10pm to see how they could choose differently.
*Notes
Department of Energy is eliminated except for Nuclear arms maintenance
Department of Agriculture is eliminated, except for food programs for the needy
Department of Labor is eliminated, except for 26-week unemployment benefits
Defense budget would still be $243 billion, more than twice what the next highest country (China) spends
Medicare and Medicaid savings breakdown:
Block grant Medicaid and freeze spending (226)
Repeal 2010 healthcare law (87)
Increase Medicare premiums (39.8)
Cut non-Medicare premiums (37.7)
Cut Medicare payment error rate by 50% (28.6)
Increase Medicare deductibles (12.6)
Tort Reform (10)
Social Security savings breakdown:
Price index initial benefits** 41.1
Raise the normal retirement age** 31.4
Cut Social Security disability program by 10% 13.2
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