Providing the pandering pimps and parasites who comprise our political establishment with an incentive to cut the budget sufficiently to do the job would do it.
To start with, enact a constitutional amendment that would prohibit and severely punish (i) any compensation being paid to, or received by any elected or appointed executive or legislative branch official in any year in which a balanced budget is not in place and being followed (with the exception of years in which the nation is engaged in a war declared by Congress in accordance with the Constitution), and (ii) any campaign contributions being made to, or received by, for, or on behalf of any of the aforesaid officials.
How could they make the desired cuts.
Easily.
First, bring all of our troops home from overseas and keep them here.
Second, eliminate all foreign aid.
Third, stop paying anything to support the UN or, at a minimum, stop paying a disproportionate share of its costs.
Fourth, stop paying any and all subsidies of every nature and kind.
Fifth, eliminate all of the executive branch agencies and departments other than the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, and Commerce, and concentrate and organize within them all truly essential functions of the eliminated bodies. Also eliminate all of the unaccountable and supposedly independent regulatory agencies, again consolidating their few truly essential functions within the remaining executive branch departments.
Finally, instead of making the budget cuts described below, as previously recommended by Republican members of Congress to save $10.5 Trillion over ten years (without touching Social Security or the military), totally eliminate each and every one of the listed agencies and programs.
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.
*
Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
*
International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
*
Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
*
National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.
*
National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.
*
Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.
*
Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.
* Eliminate duplicative
education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon,
eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
*
U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.
* Woodrow Wilson
Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.
*
Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million
annual savings.
*
John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.
*
Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
* Heritage Area
Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.
*
Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings
*
Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.
*
Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.
* Technology Innovation
Program -- $70 million annual savings.
*
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual
savings.
*
Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual
savings.
*
Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.
*
New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.
*
Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical
Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings.
* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
*
Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.
* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76
million annual savings.
*
Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.
*
Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual
savings.
*
Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
*
FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings.
* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual
savings.
*
Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250
million annually.
*
U.S. Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.
*
General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.
*
Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million
annual savings.
*
Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.
*
No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.
*
End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
*
Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.
*
IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers
(such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of
allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten
years.
*
Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total
savings. [WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT?]
* Prohibit taxpayer funded
union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
*
Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15
billion total savings.
*
Eliminate death gratuities for Members of Congress. [WHAT???]
*
Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
* Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United
Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual
savings [WELL, ISN'T THAT SPECIAL]
*
Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.
*
USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
*
Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93
million annual savings.
*
Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2
million annual savings.
*
Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.
*
Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings.
*
HUD Ph.D. Program.
* Deficit
Reduction Check-Off Act.
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