Cut funding for agencies other than defense by 1%...savings $932 BILLION over 10 years
Cut defense spending by 50% for no less than 10 years, saves $4 TRILLION. (then cut other agencies, get the 1-2Bn).
Reduce growth in defense spending by 1% annually...savings $862 BILLION over 10 years
Unfortunately it doesn't. The defense department's proportion of deficit spending, even if it remains flat, still has a negative impact on the deficit due to interest on the debt. Strengthening the dollar and paying down the debt would obviously help, but at present, if defense doesn't make cuts (not to growth, but actual cuts) then it's hard to imagine reducing the deficit substantially.
Raise earliest age for Social Security Eligibility...savings $144 BILLION over 10 years
Who do you raise it on? People who aren't born yet? Most proposals, like those proposed by Romney/Ryan, suggested anyone under 45. That means me. As an African-American, my life expectancy isn't as long as yours. In 2003, the average life expectancy for Black males was 68 years old. Raising the retirement age, even a little, puts Social Security (a mandatory tax towards a supposed gov't pension fund) out of reach for many African-Americans and Latinos, not to mention Whites with less than stellar health (obesity, congenital diseases, etc).
Many other people retire early because they simply no longer can work, due to physical conditions as a direct result of the aging process, especially due to arthritis, or diabetes. Many people cannot work until they're 65, and when they finally do reach that age they might have 3-5 years of life left.
We should be trying to reduce the retirement age, as well as the Medicare age (if not expand it to everyone) so that people can enjoy their golden years - not look to rip them off by taxing them unfairly and then reducing benefits.
That's $2 TRILLION in savings from just those 3 moves.
We really need to slash defense spending. Stop raiding Social Security and Medicare, and strengthen our dollar.
Our entitlement system is fine if we accept simple facts. If we embrace a universal health care system (a real one), and socialize a portion of our health industry, we could save hundreds of billions of dollars in both the public and private sector. This is undeniable. The health care system in the United States is completely broken, and is far more expensive than anywhere else in the Western World. But we choose to use this system because it allows corporations make profits off the sick while dumping them off to die when they are no longer profitable.
There's a total of $4.6 TRILLION in savings from the CBO recommendations. These moves are only using a scalpel, not a chainsaw...they are not eliminating any programs at all....just small reductions or reduced growth. But, instead we have to ask the people for more money first? Absurd!
These don't even count the wasteful programs that should be elimated year after year from Coburn's Waste Report year after year ---
Examples of wasteful spending highlighted in “Wastebook 2012” include:
• Tax loopholes for the National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) – professional sports leagues that generate billions of dollars annually in profits ($91 million in taxes)
• Moroccan pottery classes (part of a $27 million grant from U.S. Agency for International Development)
• Efforts to promote caviar consumption and production ($300,000)
• Robotic squirrel named “RoboSquirrel” (part of a $325,000 grant from the National Science Foundation)
• Promotion of specialty shampoo and other beauty products for cats and dogs ($505,000)
• Corporate welfare for the world’s largest snack food producer, PepsiCo Inc. ($1.3 million)
• Government-funded study on how golfers might benefit from using their imagination, envisioning the hole is bigger than it actually is ($350,000)
• “Prom Week,” a video game that allows taxpayers to relive prom night ($516,000)
• Oklahoma’s layover boondoggle, a scarcely used airport in Oklahoma receiving nearly half-a-million in taxpayer dollars only to transfer funds elsewhere in the state ($450,000)
• The 2012 Alabama Watermelon Queen tour paid for in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “to promote the consumption of Alabama’s watermelon through appearances of the Alabama Watermelon Queen at various events and locations” ($25,000)
I think Robo Squirrel is a good idea. If it can be done, it would advance our understanding of robotics. Just saying...
Does Obama or Congress even read the CBO Reports or Coburn's "Waste Reports"? Or are they too busy saying that the rich don't pay their fair share and that the people need to give the government "a little bit more"?
Imagine the public reaction if Obama and congress adopted all the CBO recommendations and eliminated all the projects in the Coburn Waste Reports.
I just think we need more drastic solutions than those being proposed. It's one of the reasons I always liked John McCain, because he understood the problem was the very nature of corruption in politics. People would always chastise him about the small amounts of money changing hands for pork barrel projects, but it was the principle - that politicians were likely getting kickbacks by way of campaign contributions and that was influencing (if not entirely controlling) the legislative agenda. It also dramatically slowed down the process, and made every bill about making money for someone.
But I don't think minor cuts will solve the problem. We need to not only balance the budget, but to generate a surplus, sufficient enough to start paying down the debt. Either that, or we need to scrap the Fed.
