So, pretend everyone at APS just got elected to the House and Senate.
What bill (just outlined ideas is OK, no formal bills with legalese that no one understands) will you present to address the nation's finances?
Me?
Assuming I have an approximate income of 3.5 trillion dollars and a supposed budget of around 4.5 trillion that I appear to be compelled to spend, I need to resolve a 1 trillion dollar shortfall.
To do that, I need to do it in a way that does not impede the economy in today's climate.
-I'm going to keep taxes where they are, including the existing Bush tax cuts.
-I'm going to slash every government program 5% across the board this year, then another 5% next year. This will provide 225 billion dollars of my needed 1 trillion cut in the first year, and another 210 trillion or so the next year. This is "real dollar" cuts, not cuts in the projected increase to their budget that is normally talked about
.
-I'm going to increase the SS retirement age by 1 year this year, and 1 more year 5 years from now.
-I'm going to freeze SS benefits at current rates for 5 years.
-I'm going to freeze the Medicare physician reimbursement fee schedule at its current rate for 5 years.
-I'm going to get the Federal government 100% out of the business of "art." No more fed grants for art.
-Not a penny will go to Obamacare.
The tightening up of SS/Medicare would help inflation bring us out of a state of national indebtedness due to the ballooning of these programs. The benefits would take about 3-5 years to really be seen, but these two programs eclipse even the Dept of Defense budget.
I don't think I can find a way to balance the budget in 1 year, but given 5 years I believe the above cuts would take care of it.
A trillion dollars is a lot of money to find. Stupid congresscritters.