Now, you too can try and fix the deficit- with both simple and complex modes. I've been playing with this a little bit and it's both good and bad- good because it gives you an idea of just how maddeningly complex this system really can be... some basic things I would do:
GOVERNMENT ITSELF
Cut Congressional and Presidential Salaries and Benefits in half.
Make Double-Dipping On Pensions Illegal- for absolutely everyone. (You get a pension when you retire. If you come back to work, you are unretired, therefore, no pension- how does this not make sense to people?)
End The War On Drugs
Strip Down The Department of Education. (If K-12 Education in this country is built on the principle of local control, why do we spend gobs of money on it at the Federal level? This is for states to deal with. Plus, I'd restore consumer protections to the student loan industry and penalize colleges for default rates. Time to fight for students, not loan companies and teachers unions.)
Abolish the Department of Homeland Security. (From what I can tell, this is a bureaucratic snakepit. Money could be better spent actually defending our borders- plus, I think we need to knock heads and give serious consideration to consoldating our intelligence capabilities.)
Statehood for D.C.
Statehood (or broad autonomy) for Native Americans, Alaskans, Hawaiians, etc.
Tax Reform: End All Loopholes and give serious consideration to a national sales tax. (More shit you buy, more tax you pay. Seems pretty progressive to me, but in all fairness, I need to learn more about FairTax before I totally jump on board.)
End Corporate Welfare (what do they need it for?)
Combine Interior and Agriculture. (They're both about land.)
Abolish Department of Commerce (Commerce happens every day in this country anyway. We don't need a whole department devoted to it.)
Strip Down Department of Labor (I'd like to reform Taft-Hartley and break down this big, godawful bureaucratic unions that benefit union bosses more than workers. But workers deserve some love, so OSHA and worker protection agencies can stay.)
Give The VA back to Defense (I don't want to cut benefits, but DOD should handle this, as the vets are their soldiers. We don't need a whole 'nother department.)
Speaking of Defense: End All Waste and End The Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as quickly as possible- they're bleeding us dry.
If they're not on a defined contribution pension system already, move all Federal employees to one. Ask for all Fed employees to contribute to their health insurance, but don't mess with salary increases.
ENTITLEMENT REFORM:
Raise Social Security retirement age to 70. (Or better still, tie it to life expectancy)
Means test Social Security- if you're wealthy, you don't need it.
Allow people to invest up to 40% of their social security funds into nice, stable things like bonds.
Medical Tort Reform
Allow People To Buy Insurance Across State Lines
Encourage Health Care Cooperatives
Put Money Into Preventative Health Care
Mandate Midwifery Standards and push safe, home birth wherever possible.
P.S. These are just rough notes- any would-be deficit hawks out there, I'd invite you to take a crack at balancing the budget. It's damn near impossible to do- and I have no idea if any of my ideas are viable much less sensible. But no matter how you look at it: cutting spending and the size of government is nowhere near as easy as people think.
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