Saw this on another forum.
Best answer:
If I have *carte* blanche, I would:
Eliminate the Department of Agriculture ($24BB savings)
Eliminate the Department of Commerce ($9BB)
Eliminate the Department of Labor ($13BB)
Eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development ($50BB)
Eliminate the Department of Education ($77BB)
Eliminate the Department of Energy, except for whatever functions they have that regulate the use of uranium ($28BB)
Eliminate the Department of Veterans Affairs, and move their few necessary functions back to Defense ($2BB)
Eliminate the Department of Homeland Security, and move their few necessary function back where they came from ($2BB)
Reduce other Department budgets by 10%. ($90BB)
Eliminate the earned income tax credit ($40BB)
Means test Social Security and Medicare (WAG: $200BB)
Eliminate both programs for anyone born after 1980 (none immediately, but hundreds of trillions eventually)
Shutter military bases in Europe and Japan and any ally with the money to defend itself, withdraw from the U.N., and restrict future military involvement to wars declared by the U.S. Congress. (None immediately, $100's BB per year in the short term)
Eliminate the corporate and capital gains taxes (small cost in the very short term, trillions of added revenue in the long run)
I'm not going to try to estimate savings/increased revenue from these, but they would be enormous:
Remove all federal barriers to energy production (except nuclear, but then only for security purposes)
Close the Mexican border for real, and confiscate all assets of anyone found here illegally after that. Fine any employer found employing an illegal alien an amount equal to 100 times the cumulative wages paid to that employee. Conduct ALL federal business in English only.
Limit Senators to two terms, Representatives to four. Pay Senators and Representatives the national average wage. Provide office budgets for Senators and Representatives sufficient to communicate effectively with their constituents via mail and e-mail. Limit the number of days Congress could be in session to 100 per year unless called into session by the POTUS on a matter of national security.
Require a vote of 75% of both Houses of Congress to raise any tax, or to increase any expenditure beyond the growth of GDP for the prior year. Tax or spending reductions could occur with a simple majority.
Build an enormous "prison" (think Escape from New York) where we would deposit, forever, every person convicted of any crime in which another person was killed, raped or seriously injured or threatened with any of these, and the perpetrator knew this would occur, or should have foreseen that it was possible. What goes on inside that prison concerns me not even the slightest little bit. All other prisons would be torn down, and nonviolent criminals would be fined and required to make restitution to their victims. Repeat offenders would go to the prison. All laws dealing with crimes with no victim would be repealed.
I'm sure there's more, but that would shave $500BB or so off the year one budget, $800BB or so within a few years, and within a decade (probably much sooner) we'd have a surplus under virtually any scenario. At that point, I'd start reducing the personal income tax and payroll taxes as we began paying off debt principal, with an eye towards paying off the principal within 30 years. At the end of 30 years, the payroll tax would be gone, and the income tax would probably be about 15%. At that point I'd replace it with a national sales tax.
I, and I think nearly all conservatives, agree that we do not want to be a country where millions of people die in the streets. I would not, for example, eliminate Social Security and Medicare for people already receiving it (unless they clearly don't need it), and I would retain some kind of safety net for the truly poor.
Best answer:
If I have *carte* blanche, I would:
Eliminate the Department of Agriculture ($24BB savings)
Eliminate the Department of Commerce ($9BB)
Eliminate the Department of Labor ($13BB)
Eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development ($50BB)
Eliminate the Department of Education ($77BB)
Eliminate the Department of Energy, except for whatever functions they have that regulate the use of uranium ($28BB)
Eliminate the Department of Veterans Affairs, and move their few necessary functions back to Defense ($2BB)
Eliminate the Department of Homeland Security, and move their few necessary function back where they came from ($2BB)
Reduce other Department budgets by 10%. ($90BB)
Eliminate the earned income tax credit ($40BB)
Means test Social Security and Medicare (WAG: $200BB)
Eliminate both programs for anyone born after 1980 (none immediately, but hundreds of trillions eventually)
Shutter military bases in Europe and Japan and any ally with the money to defend itself, withdraw from the U.N., and restrict future military involvement to wars declared by the U.S. Congress. (None immediately, $100's BB per year in the short term)
Eliminate the corporate and capital gains taxes (small cost in the very short term, trillions of added revenue in the long run)
I'm not going to try to estimate savings/increased revenue from these, but they would be enormous:
Remove all federal barriers to energy production (except nuclear, but then only for security purposes)
Close the Mexican border for real, and confiscate all assets of anyone found here illegally after that. Fine any employer found employing an illegal alien an amount equal to 100 times the cumulative wages paid to that employee. Conduct ALL federal business in English only.
Limit Senators to two terms, Representatives to four. Pay Senators and Representatives the national average wage. Provide office budgets for Senators and Representatives sufficient to communicate effectively with their constituents via mail and e-mail. Limit the number of days Congress could be in session to 100 per year unless called into session by the POTUS on a matter of national security.
Require a vote of 75% of both Houses of Congress to raise any tax, or to increase any expenditure beyond the growth of GDP for the prior year. Tax or spending reductions could occur with a simple majority.
Build an enormous "prison" (think Escape from New York) where we would deposit, forever, every person convicted of any crime in which another person was killed, raped or seriously injured or threatened with any of these, and the perpetrator knew this would occur, or should have foreseen that it was possible. What goes on inside that prison concerns me not even the slightest little bit. All other prisons would be torn down, and nonviolent criminals would be fined and required to make restitution to their victims. Repeat offenders would go to the prison. All laws dealing with crimes with no victim would be repealed.
I'm sure there's more, but that would shave $500BB or so off the year one budget, $800BB or so within a few years, and within a decade (probably much sooner) we'd have a surplus under virtually any scenario. At that point, I'd start reducing the personal income tax and payroll taxes as we began paying off debt principal, with an eye towards paying off the principal within 30 years. At the end of 30 years, the payroll tax would be gone, and the income tax would probably be about 15%. At that point I'd replace it with a national sales tax.
I, and I think nearly all conservatives, agree that we do not want to be a country where millions of people die in the streets. I would not, for example, eliminate Social Security and Medicare for people already receiving it (unless they clearly don't need it), and I would retain some kind of safety net for the truly poor.