Anonymous wrote:It makes a lot more sense to target Medicare, Medicaid, social security, and military spending than random one-off programs. That’s where at least 75% of the spending goes to. Just reduce each by 20% and we can get closer to a balanced budget.
In today's Washington Post, Matt Bai summarized David Stockman's -- yes, Reagan's budget director -- plan for getting rid of the deficit.
Stockman begins with a dramatic dismantling. He proposes eliminating 16 federal agencies, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. (Yes, eliminating, as in not existing anymore.) He would cut 50 percent of the funding for nine other agencies, including the FAA and NASA, and about a third of the budget from all the others. He also proposes eliminating farm subsidies and virtually all pro-business tax breaks. Leave aside for the moment that all of this would require congressional action. Stockman’s impressively detailed analysis shows that if you could wave a magic wand and do all the things he lays out, eliminating 535,000 federal jobs and shuttering dozens of buildings in the process, you would save approximately … wait for it … $400 billion. That’s 20 percent of Musk’s stated goal , and less than half of what he considers an acceptable fallback.
No worries, though, because Stockman then moves on to a radical rethinking of American foreign policy, in line with Trump’s “America First” mantra. Stockman would surrender what he calls the American empire, bringing home all the troops from Europe and Asia, in favor of a “Fortress America” approach that focuses on protecting the homeland. After junking all the aircraft carriers and overseas bases, Stockman projects an additional $500 billion in savings. That’s still not even halfway to Musk’s goal.
The rest, of course, has to come from social programs — mainly Social Security and Medicare, which are the biggest drivers of long-term spending, and which Trump has already vowed he won’t touch. Stockman would means-test these programs, which is something any serious plan to reduce long-term debt would have to do. To get to the $2 trillion target, Stockman takes means testing to an extreme: Social Security cuts would start for individuals at incomes above $75,000, with benefits phasing out entirely once you earn six figures.
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