Why all the angst about cutting the Federal budget by 120 billion (B) dollars for each of the next ten years? Will cutting $120B from a budget of $3,500 B do any good? And why the great hue and cry from the President about the devastation this will cause? Even if you apply this $120B dollar cut simply to the discretionary budget of $1,500B this would only be an 8% budget cut – families everywhere have to handle this type of situation every year – why can’t the US Government?
So let’s get serious and talk about how to really fix the budget. By fix I mean create a balanced budget and pay down the debt.
· First, let’s talk about the discretionary budget – cut it by 50% without impacting services or national security. The largest part of the discretionary budget is defense at almost $800B. Cut it by 50% to $400B. I know, there will be screams about destroying our national defense! Really? At $400B the US military would still be spending nearly 25% of the world’s military budget. The next two largest spenders, China and Russia spend just over $200B together. So does anyone believe the United States would be vulnerable when it would still be spending twice what China and Russia combined spend? Especially when the 10 next biggest spenders are allies of the US – think Great Britain, France, Germany, etc. Next look at the Cabinet agencies; let’s get rid of or combine offices that are no longer needed or whose functions should be handled by the States. My list for elimination or combining would be: Department of Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, Education, and Veteran Affairs. The monstrous Department of Homeland Security should be broken up and scattered to the wind. Also, many of the agencies within the Executive Branch could be downsized or eliminated. The result: a savings of $700B per year.
· Next there is the matter of entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.). The problem with these, especially Medicare/Medicaid is they are all grossly underfunded and over promised. The fact is it is impossible to fund every medical procedure and medicine that everyone wants. If we want to control costs, we must control spending. Congress created these programs without thought about how to pay for them. Well it’s time to make these programs indexed to income and also limited in what they pay for – we may not like it but healthcare is an economic issue – not every medical procedure, medicine, or therapy can be afforded. These programs must operate within their current income stream. Savings achievable: $600B per year.
· Total Budgetary Savings = $1,300B per year which would be more than enough to balance the budget. Excess revenue should be used to payback the Social Security funds borrowed by the Government over the years.
· The final piece is the current US public debt of 16 trillion dollars ($16,000B). This debt is the responsibility of those of us who created it and should not be the burden of those who had no voice in its creation, that is, the generations too young to vote or unborn. Therefore, I would propose a 3% payroll tax on everyone 20 years old and older as well as a 3% tax on Social Security benefits to be used exclusively to pay down the debt. If the debt were to rise again, the tax would again be extended to everyone aged 20 and over.
· To ensure fiscal responsibility by Government there needs to be a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. This idea was proposed beginning in the 1960s but was scoffed at by Congress as unnecessary and too limiting on Government! Think what it would have meant to this country and the People if that amendment had been passed in 1975?
Are changes like this possible from Congress and the President? Probably not. Are changes like this possible after the 2nd American Revolution? Absolutely.