Balance the budget yourself

[Aloha_Shooter]

From the WSJ:

Try your hand at balancing the budget and share the results.

I disagree with some of their figures for savings or tax revenue generated because I think CBO is still using static economic models rather than accounting for changes in investor/earner behavior but I still wound up with a $77B surplus by 2020:

Specifically, I chose the following:

• Eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes
• Increase the payroll tax that funds Medicare’s hospital insurance fund, which pays for hospital stays, to 3.9% from 2.9%
• Increase to $170,000 the amount of earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax, and adjust for inflation in future years. The 2011 maximum was $106,800.
• Phase out the mortgage-interest deduction over a decade beginning in 2014
• Increase the share of Social Security and Railroad Retirement benefits subject to taxes
• Prevent deductions for charitable contributions unless the donations exceed 2% of a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income
• Repeal a deduction used by oil companies, filmmakers and manufacturers for producing domestically instead of overseas
• Increase the amount of money coming in to the Social Security system by requiring state and local government employees to join and pay the payroll taxes
• Slow the growth of spending on Social Security and other government benefits by changing the way cost-of-living increases are calculated
• Keep 2013 (defense) spending levels where they were set in the summer 2011 deal to raise the debt ceiling(Included in "Fiscal Cliff")
• Keep 2013 (non-defense) spending levels where they were set in the summer 2011 deal to raise the debt ceiling(Included in "Fiscal Cliff")
• Limit highway funding largely to the revenue generated by the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax
• Reduce by 0.5 percentage points the pay raise for federal government employees, whose pay has been frozen since 2011
• Increase passenger fees for airport security and air-traffic control
• Eliminate some federal financing support for local rail transit programs
• Reduce federal funding for developing new energy technology
• Eliminate 11 grant programs for elementary and secondary education
• Eliminate grants to large and medium-sized airports
• Restrict Pell grants to fewer, needier students
• Eliminate funding for national community service programs, such as AmeriCorps
• Repeal the expansion of health insurance coverage under the new health-care overhaul laws going into effect*
• Give states a set amount of money to fund long-term care under Medicaid, the state and federal health-care program for poor people
• Repeal the requirement that everyone carry health insurance*
• Increase the premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers costs like doctor’s visits, to 35% of spending per person, up from 25%
• Raise the eligibility age for Medicare to 67, up from 65*
• Reduce how much the federal government reimburses states for Medicaid costs*
• Change the structure of Medicare out-of-pocket costs and additional private insurance to reduce overall Medicare costs
• Limit patients’ abilities to sue doctors for medical malpractice
• Reduce federal payments to hospitals with teaching programs
• Cut spending across-the-board in areas where Medicare spending per person is unusually high
• Reduce the government’s share of federal employees’ health care costs by moving to a voucher system
• Change how initial Social Security benefits are calculated to slow payments’ growth
• Gradually raise the age at which workers are eligible for full Social Security retirement benefits, to as high as 70, up from a range of 65 to 67
• Gradually raise the earliest eligibility age for Social Security to 64, up from 62
• Change how Social Security cost-of-living adjustments are calculated to slow payments' growth
• Reverse the order of the two-step process to calculate Social Security benefits, which would encourage some people to work longer
• Reduce initial disability insurance benefits by 15 percent
• Make Social Security benefits tied to a worker’s average earnings over 38 years instead of 35 years, which generally would include more years of lower pay
• Extend the waiting period for disability insurance to 12 months, from five months
• Allow the (other "mandatory" programs) automatic spending cuts from the debt-ceiling deal to go into effect(Included in "Fiscal Cliff")
• Tie interest rates on federal student loans to market conditions, causing rates on student loans to rise with interest rates
• Make it harder to qualify for food stamps and reduce the maximum benefits available

Go ahead, tell me I'm a cruel heartless bastage. Sadly, eliminating whole federal agencies wasn't an option. $430B in additional tax revenues that I didn't think would harm the economy too much, $174B in cuts to discretionary spending, $575B in cuts to benefits/entitlements. THAT's balance Mr. President ...

[Bailey Guns]

Too many of the solutions assume there is no other choice. I take a wholly different approach. Lots of folks on welfare would be getting their sorry asses out the house looking for work.

We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending/entitlement problem. That shit needs to change...and it never will because there are too many net tax receivers and not enough net tax payers.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Oh, I agree ... unfortunately, the choices were what they were and it was still better than an NPR-sponsored website to also "balance the budget" (more like, convince voters that it can't be done so don't bother trying). Like I said, no options to eliminate whole agencies. Still, the website shows it can be done even under their assumptions. I still say go back to the 2000 FY budget, allow reasonable inflation growth and fix the fact that Clinton was burning up the military without figuring on replacement equipment then use that as the overall spending cap. I don't see why they have to spend more than $2.5T per year in 2013.

[asmo]

Cant get rid of the mortgage interest deduction. But even then I got a 15b surplus just by cutting all the entitlements.

[rockhound]

if those are really the choices they are looking at then we are truly screwed

have eliminated the single largest increase in revenue and that would be to dissolve the income tax and go to a national sales tax. thus bringing all the illegals who do not pay income taxes, all the drug dealers who do not pay and all all the tax cheats who do not pay into the fold.

you can eliminate more spending by doing away with obamacare and the TSA

[Irving]

So, on a quasi-related note, today the US fined HSBC for the highest ever fine in history. It is something like 1.1 Billion dollars. Where does the money for fines like this go? Is it accounted for in any of these budget discussion/projections? 1.1 Billion isn't much compared to the total cost of the debt, but it isn't just eleven dollars either. Plus, there are thousands of other fines issued to corporations and individuals every day. Is this just counted as additional "revenue?"

While it would be a terrible over sight if this money was not budgeted, it is also scary to think of fine money being paid too close attention to, where people and businesses start getting fined just because someone in the government wants to pay for something.

[GilpinGuy]

OP - Much of what you wrote would be great....if you didn't have to be elected. Votes cost $ bro!

Edit: That's why the "Realists" (Conservatives) lose. Realists can't promise the goodies that the "Idealists" (Leftists) say that they will will deliver. WE know that they can't deliver what they say, but the masses believe they can, so WE ALL lose.

[strm_trpr]

Many of the people on Social Security Disability Insurance are perfectly capable of working but have chosen their back hurts a tiny bit or they have chronic depression.