Everything gets a 25% cut. Salaries, programs, Departments, offices, etc. Everything thing ttakes an across the board hit.

I don't really want us to be the police officer for the world anymore. General overall security and a well co-ordinated fight against terrorism, absolutely. Endless excursions into foreign countries that aren't truly an immediate threat, no thanks.

One of my biggies is the arts. Now don't get me wrong - I was an arts major in high school, I love museums, and all like that. But I think that if you take the money away that our governments (federal, state, and local) spend on it, nonprofits will help pick up the slack. And probably do it at a cheaper rate.

At least once a month, you read in News of the Weird about some sculptor who gets paid $10,000 to put a blobby statue in a public park. I think I know quite a few artists who would donate work for free in exchange for a nifty plaque bearing their name (and perhaps a spot to stick business cards).

So, yeah - I'd hack a *TON* out of spending on the arts.

And I'm not as wise on federal politics as I am on local, but if they have nearly as many bullshit appointed positions in the upper tier of the hierarchy as my city does, then I'd start taking a good long look at who the appointees are and what their duties consist of. And if I reckon it's a busy-work job or something that can be done by a regular employee, I'd chop them, too. I'm not a huge fan of appointed positions. Too often it's someone's brother-in-law coming in to collect a paycheck.

It won't matter. Fiscal responsibility won't come to us until we run out of rope and fiscal responsibility is forced upon us.

I think it would help people think about this is they knew, up front, where our federal tax dollars are being spent.

This link contains a chart showing where the money goes. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258 It's from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

But the picture really is far more complex. For example, although the government, through accounting trickery, will use social security funds to say it's "balanced the budget" - social security is funded solely by social security taxes, such funds are to be used solely for the social security system (i.e., the social security funds cannot be used to pay for anything else (like defense)). So, for example, you simply cannot say "Let's cut social security payments and use the money to pay down the national debt."

I also believe that the much of our defense spending could be considered as a form of American "welfare" (sorry, probably, a poor choice of words). For example, if you order the military to close several military bases, the effects ripple (as many civilian businesses around those bases rely heavily on the military as revenue, will then be forced to close and will no longer be paying taxes - reducing the tax income flow). The analogy can be extended, clearly, to the plethora of military contractors that are employed around the country.

a)Arts
b)Grants (all types)
c)Make medicaid a managed health system. If you want more choice, pay your own way.
d)Less, not more money for public schools. If Catholic schools can do it on $8,000 per student, so can public schools.
e)Consolidate departments. I guess this might be happening (in theory), so we'll se how it goes.

I realize that not enough is being cut at this point, but a million dollars here and a million dollars there is still millions of dollars. And that's the same argument people use when they don't want a program cut..."It's ONLY 12 million!"

No more lifetime pensions for public servants, senators, and representatives, and no elitist health care for them either. That's half the problem right there!

Oh, and I second (third) the motion to cut military spending and foreign aid.
Also, If social security is going to stay, the retirement age will have to be raised- and not just by a year or two.

"What would you cut?"

That is the problem right there. Anything you choose is holy to someone, who will defend it to the bitter end.

There is only one approach that could ever work: Zero the federal budget. Eliminate all programs, and then ask "what do we absolutely have to fund?"

Here's a start.

"No more lifetime pensions for public servants, senators, and representatives, and no elitist health care for them either."

I'm with Flynn! When I leave my job, I lose my health care benefits. Why shouldn't they?

One obvious place to start would be the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The average bureaucrat working there has substantially higher income than any of the Indians s/he supposedly "helps." AND, there are actually more people working for BIA than there are Indians under their care! Fire the entire bunch from bottom to top, sell off all the buildings and other assets, and the native Americans in this country would be better off within a week.

Do we want to have government by crisis?

Apparently, we do. We elected it.

Everything everyone above said, including random_guy. Plus I'd end Social Security (both the payments and the taxes), and I say this even though in real life, I'll start collecting it this year. The reason I've never joined AARP, even though I've been eligible for many years, is their tireless lobbying to keep SS sacrosanct.

Alternately, Democrats are Republicans who pretend they care about the wars, torture, and gay rights.

Every department that goes by initials. Then those that don't. Federal government should be very, very small and have little to no impact on individual's lives.

Alternately, Democrats are Republicans who pretend they care about the wars, torture, and gay rights.

Hah! Yes. The Democrats pay lip service to the gay community like the Republicans do the Christian right.

Plus I'd end Social Security (both the payments and the taxes), and I say this even though in real life, I'll start collecting it this year.

First, I want my money back.

For over a quarter of a century, so far, I've had my earnings confiscated to fund welfare payments for the perpetually child-bearing, social safety nets for the chronically unemployed, paying off the mortgages of people who lied on their applications, bailing out companies bankrupted by unreasonable union demands and incompetent management, cushy retirements for government bureaucrats, payments to agri-businesses not to grow crops, crony capitalism in defense contracts, bridges to nowhere, offensive art, multilingual government forms, bribing grandma and grandpa with free pills, and an endless list of money-sucking black holes.

I want my money back.

If a guy who can't keep a job more than a few weeks can have my money, why can't I? If a woman with six kids by five different drug dealers can have my money, why can't I? If a defense contract charging $1,200 for an airplane toilet seat can have my money, why can't I?

I want my money back.

Amen, Conan!

And thinking about it, I'm also all about eliminating a chunk of our foreign aid to nations that hate us. I dislike hearing about starving villagers, but on the other hand, if we're in need of cash here at home, it's not "evil" or "selfish" for us to keep it here. If I can't pay my bills, I'm certainly not giving cash to charity.

Here are my cuts:

1. Eliminate the Department of Education
2. Eliminate HUD
3. Eliminate Dept of Energy
4. Go to a 23% sales tax, eliminate or significantly reduce the IRS
5. Make the postal department more efficient. eliminate collective bargaining for federal employees.
6. Shrink the EPA.
7. Eliminate and consolidate those federal departments who do redundant work. Homeland Security?
8. Give the states a block grant and let them decide who qualifies for Medicaid.
9. Limit welfare recipients to 3 to 4 years maximum. The individual would not be eligible for welfare for 4 years. Mandatory drug testing required. Positive drugs tests eliminate you from the program.
10. Bring our troops home from the war zones and put them on the Mexican border.
11. Reduce the number of American troops in Europe and Asia.
12. Reduce the number of illegals obtaining free services paid by U.S. taxpayers.
13. Reduce the corporate tax to bring more companies back to the U.S. to create more jobs.
14. Reduce the government red tape businesses have to put up with.
15. REPEAL OBAMACARE! Then deal with the health care issue in a common sense manner.

I forgot these:

16. eliminate funds for NPR
17. eliminate funds for the EOA
18. eliminate farm subsidies

[i]I want my money back.[/i]

Well yeah, so do I. But the sad fact is, the only way a pyramid scheme's victims can get their money back is by continuing the pyramid scheme. At some point someone's going to be left holding the bag, and the longer it goes on, the worse the damage will be.

Pretty much everything has to be cut. Problem is, while everyone is worried about the deficit, everyone wants someone else's priorities to be cut.

1. I'd eliminate the Department of Homeland Security. They don't do anything necessary that the CIA and the FBI did before.

2. I'd significantly cut the Department of Education.

3. I'd eliminate the Department of Energy. If they cut my salary the way the DOE cut dependence on foreign oil, I'd be a billionaire today.

4. I'd scale back the TSA to pre-9/11 levels.

5. I'd freeze all government hiring and freeze salaries until the budget is balanced.

6. I'd propose a constitutional amendment to dock legislative and presidential pay by 10% in all fiscal years where we run a deficit. Help them get their incentives in order.

7. I'd push back social security benefits one year, and phase in benefits based on age: 50% benefits at 68, 75% at 69, and 100% at 70. People have the option of semi retiring or planning to have to save some money for the first couple years, while preserving a floor for seniors.

8. I'd index social security growth per person to the cost of living.

9. I'd propose a constitutional amendment for term limits... these people may think twice if they know they'll have to live as a citizen under their laws.

10. I'd propose a constitutional amendment extending the length of congressional terms by 2 years each, and only have federal elections every 4 years. Maybe they'd govern better if they weren't always worried about buying this years or next years votes.

11. I'd propose a constitutional amendment for the line item veto. No matter whether the president is an (R) or a (D), it can't hurt the budget for them to be able to trim pork off.

12. I'd propose a balanced budget amendment to keep this from happening again. We'd all be better off today if it would have passed in 1995.

But i'm sure most, if not all, of this will never happen.

13. I forgot to include cuts to HUD, welfare, and a repeal of Obamacare.

14. We have 47% of the people getting more back than they take in. I would repeal that. I don't want the poor taxed to death, but having a constituency of voters who only benefit from but never pay for government spending is a disaster.

15. I also agree with moving to a sales tax... if everyone sees on a daily basis how much taxes really cost them, they'd not be so gung ho about spending increases.

There are some ideas in theory, but unfortunately most people don't really want to slash anything that will affect them directly. And I get the feeling that every program is so deeply entrenched in other unrelated programs that pulling the plug on anything will have an unintended ripple effect that will ultimately punish everyone except the folks that created this mess in the first place. They'll just focus their attention elsewhere, make their money and we'll be left holding the bag.

So my short answer to the question is, I have no idea what should be cut.

One more cut. Defund Planned Parenthood. They dont need government money. This organization should support themselves.

I'll throw in that one agency I would whack is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. I've expressed before that I think the ATF is totally redundant with the FBI. Well, now it's much worse: we're learning that the Mexican drug cartels have apparently compromised the ATF at the highest levels, judging by the massive and rapidly-expanding gun-running scandal. So eliminating the ATF is not only a money saver, but it might actually be necessary for national security.

I think the federal government should shut down until October 1, 2012.

The congress critters go home, nobody gets paid, etc. Then after that we power up again. It will put a perspective on what is needed.

You want to talk about a small government?

I know -- what am I smoking? ;-)

I'd cut the wars. They're a huge money sucker. And I would NOT go into Libya. Let someone else police the world.

Planned Parenthood should have its funding trippled and be mandated to encourage as many people as possable to have abortions - it be far cheaper in the long run

I'd make cuts and changes to defense:

- Shift all four-star headquarters, excluding NATO, to a US state. There's no reason to have EUCOM and AFRICOM overseas. We spend an inordinate amount of money to park them there, when in this age of communications we don't need to.
- Cut down the number of flag officers (read: admirals and generals) in the Air Force. The Navy has 160 flag officer, the air force 230, and yet they are both the same size in terms of people.
- Hold acquisitions people responsible for cost overruns. The acquisition of new equipment is the number 2 money-suck for DoD, excluding the war on terror. We go to acquire badly needed equipment, and we end up paying out the nose for it. All too often, those responsible simply keep moving through the system. Make these highly-paid officers responsible and hold them to that when they take over as a program manager for something.
- Start reviewing SOCOM expenditures. Congress very quickly sends all sorts of money to Special Operations, but there isn't enough oversight, and too much of it isn't spent correctly.
- Actually fire officers. We hesitate to actually punish senior officers, and sometimes even junior officers. When people blatantly violate the law, and have 18 years of service or more, we simply allow them to retire. That's wrong: it costs the taxpayer in retirement, and it sends the wrong message to people coming up the chain.
- Start promoting alternative thinkers. This is a big one for the types of war we'll have to fight. Our wars in Afghanistan/Iraq have become an exercise in targeting. We do a great job finding and eliminating targets, all at the expense of the taxpayer. But we miss the fundamental point: to leave, we have to make the local population WANT to take charge of their own affairs and not support terrorism. That requires a different way of thinking, with more focus on things like PSYOPS and civil affairs. Our military actively denigrates the units in those fields, and yet they are what keep circumstances from rising above a Level-0 conflict.

To prove the last point, look at the ratio of flag officers that are combat-arms to those who are Civil-Affairs/Engineering, PSYOP, Information Warfare, etc. When all you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail, even if it really is a screw.