[Leroy]

""We simply could not ignore the extremely difficult economic realities across Europe, so it had to be a leaner budget," he said. "For the first time ever, there is a real cut compared to the last multiannual financial framework.""

Too bad Odumbass doesn't recognize that real cuts are needed here in the USA to get this country back on the right path.

[RealJustme]

When will liberals stop polishing the turn and just flush it? They will never be able to polish his stench away.

[elklindo69]

Sequestration is less than a month away. I wonder if the republitards in the house will cave in when they realize that defense spending projects in their districts will get cut...

[RealJustme]

Sequestration is less than a month away. I wonder if the republitards in the house will cave in when they realize that defense spending projects in their districts will get cut...

Why do liberals always go after those who give the most our military? Obama would only has to control Federal spending, there is nothing mandating that spending has to come from the military, it could be from education, handouts, Federal employees, his wife's staff, her travel, their vacations...why the military?

[Grog]

Fair enough. Are you going to give up your "entitlements" to pay the military, Justme?

God bless you! Every day you and Leroy set an example all of us strive to meet, but always fail to reach. Your sacrifice is out of this world and impossible to match.

Wow!

[RealJustme]

Fair enough. Are you going to give up your "entitlements" to pay the military, Justme?

God bless you! Every day you and Leroy set an example all of us strive to meet, but always fail to reach. Your sacrifice is out of this world and impossible to match.

Yes, since the only "entitlement" I receive is the service of public workers, I would like to divert money from those public workers (especially the tax collectors) to soldiers who are the most abused and under paid Americans in this great Nation. it's really a shame that soldiers are paid so little that their families qualify for food stamps, then you have teachers making double that of soldiers only working 5-6 hours a day in safe, tempature controlled conditions, with 4 months a year off DEMANDING more money and the public supports paying teachers more but not soldiers???? You never hear soldiers complain but other public worker whine about their work and demand more money. When you point this out to a liberal they quickly reply soldiers volunteered so they shouldn't complain, like teachers and other public workers were drafted???

So yes Grog, please divert the entitlements I receive from teachers and other public workers and give it to soldiers.

[Leroy]

God bless you! Every day you and Leroy set an example all of us strive to meet, but always fail to reach. Your sacrifice is out of this world and impossible to match.

Would love to know what public assistance programs you think that I'm benefiting from that I can't afford or that I don't already contribute to?

I already pay more Federal Tax to the IRS and then to the State than I have to pay, because I already don't claim all my personal and business deductions - done that for decades.

I already help others, people that deserve help, so that they don't have to collect welfare, ADC, WIC, etc...

I already give time to groups that work with kids, to give them the non-liberal ideas that work is important and a good thing.

So, come on, tell the board what I'm benefiting from that I can't afford, that would be part of the cuts in programs that myself and others want to make?

[elklindo69]

In the constitution, it says that the government is to provide for a NATIONAL DEFENSE.

So why does the United States operate so many military bases in foreign countries? It makes no sense, especially in Europe. They are cold war relics. We have people who are unemployed and starving, so is it more important to provide foreigners with a free defense, instead of spending money for our own people?

They can cut significantly deeper into the defense budget, while providing a more than adequate defense for the nation...

[RealJustme]

In the constitution, it says that the government is to provide for a NATIONAL DEFENSE.

So why does the United States operate so many military bases in foreign countries? It makes no sense

So you would rather fight them on American soil than on theirs? Those are forward deployed forces to keep them from reaching the United States. I do argree though that we should close most of our European bases, we've been protecting them to long.

[DarknLadyJedi]

We need to cut, drastically. And we need to start as soon as possible.

The first step is to actually approve a budget and stick to it. And even there we can cut some.

Looking at Obama's proposed 2013 budget:

Expected revenue: $2,902B
Expected outlays: $3,803B
Expected deficit: $901B

Appropriated programs: Defense/Non-Defense: $851B/$410B=$1,261B
Mandatory programs:
Social Security: $820B
Medicare: $523B
Medicaid: $283B
TARP: $12B
Other: $654B
Total mandatory programs: $2,293B
Emergency fund: $2B
Net interest on debt: $248
Memorandum: budget for appropriated programs: Defense/Non-Defense: $788B/$359B=$1,147

So, where can we cut costs?

Homeland Security
TSA currently costs $5,106M, we know private security does it considerably cheaper and with less conflict with citizens.
Coast Guard, we do not need a fleet of command cutters, we have the US Navy. That's a savings of $700M each.
Immigration and Customs costs $5,333M. We can cut some of this by taking out a lot of enforcement in the interior and giving those powers to local law enforcement.
Customs and border protection costs $10,353M. I'm sure we can cut at least a billion off of this and return it to 2010 levels.
Health affairs, $166M. Don't we have a whole department for this? Why does Homeland Security need it's own program?
Management and Operations cost $1,135M. Cutting down regional offices and consolidating some operations could drop this easily. There is no reason why agencies should have stand alone offices when we have empty space in Federal Buildings.

Corporation for National and Community Service
$1,078M for this? Let's cut 85% of this, and turn it over to people having to provide civic service in exchange for receiving money. I'm sure college students and others getting Fed money can donate 8 hours a month to civic service in exchange.

Social Security Administration
I think we can all agree this needs a serious overhaul. Something that can not be addressed in an annual budget. We have way too many people living off Social Security that shouldn't be.

Civic Engineering
We could cut $.5 to $1B from this by cutting operational costs and new construction down.

Overseas Contingency Operations
A bloated $96,727M cost. We could easily cut this in half, if not down to $1-5B total.

Dept of State and other international programs
$59,513M, of which $41,397M is for direct foreign aid that does not benefit the US. We are borrowing money from other countries to give to other countries. This needs to stop.

Dept of Housing and Urban Development
This is a $46,283M monstrosity filled with corruption and waste. Not much that could be done budget wise but it is a department that needs serious overhaul. Sadly, it is also a Department that has a lot of good potential and good programs in it. But we could probably still drop $5-10B off it's budget by streamlining it and getting rid of waste.

Dept of Agriculture
We can cut $7,495M from this by getting rid of the discretionary section of the Food and Nutrition Service. We already have $102,731M going to this.

Dept of Defense
Cut the $88,482M of OCO down to no more than $15M. We already have operational and training expenses built in in other areas of the DoD budget. Cut procurement by 10% for a savings of another $9,882M. Revamp procurement to require direct sign off on all purchase programs, does nothing for current budgeting but will have a massive long term effect.



Just those few things result in a savings of roughly $201B from the budget. And that is without going into any serious overhauls or adjustments.

[Leroy]

Cut people from all social security programs that didn't contribute

Cut people from public assistance programs after 6 months, can't get it again for 5 years

Cut people form Unemployment after 6 months, max

Remove illegals - pay for it by charging $100,000 per illegal, cumulative, for each illegal found working for any business.

Stop providing special sanctuary and benefit programs for "refuge's" from other countries - stop giving them any money, stop allowing them to be on public assistance.

Stop paying government workers more than their civilian counterparts.

Stop paying Politicians at the Fed level more than the median wage from their state

Stop paying Politicians that miss votes without a valid medical reason

Stop allowing riders/add-ons to any spending legislation, and spending must be able to fund itself.

Automatically cut ALL programs by an equal percentage if the income to debt ratio isn't positive, to make it positive.

No pay for ALL federal workers (non-Military) unless we have a balanced budget, including the politicians.

No paying for vacations or security for vacations for any politician - they pay their own way.

Limit politician benefits (for their multiple offices) to the median value of property and benefits in their home state.

Do that and we can have a balanced budget as well as be debt free in a few years, oh, and the Jobs will be plentiful again as people start filling the jobs taken by illegals that have been removed.

[RealJustme]

The largest abuse of money is often forgotten...public schools who are unaccountable and waste billions through mismagement and fraud in every State in America. Plus schools should go years round, no summer or spring breaks, they should also get back to the basic of reading, writing, math and english. Bad teachers and bad education leaders should be fired if they don't perform. When you mention reforming education you have the educators yell "THINK OF THE POOR CHILDREN" with more money we can do more. It's time for us to start thinking of the poor children no the rich teacher's unions.

Another one is the IRS, WOW talk about fraud and abuse. Do away with the IRS and go a flat tax, a 300 billion saved and a trillion in more in taxes who aren't paying theirs or are filing false tax returns to get money.

[elklindo69]

I agree that schooling should be throughout the year. My wife completed high school in three years before she came to the US for college. High School in the states can be done in three years.

But unfortunately students are lazy and teachers are paid based upon seniority. And therefore from what I have seen, the standardized test scores are absolutely awful compared to those of other countries. Especially the math and science scores, they are atrocious...

[RealJustme]

But unfortunately students are lazy and teachers are paid based upon seniority. And therefore from what I have seen, the standardized test scores are absolutely awful compared to those of other countries. Especially the math and science scores, they are atrocious...

Teacher are paid to "show up" and not rock the boat. They've turned into childcare for working parents, not teachers. If a teacher tries to hard they're threatened with termination by the teacher's unions. I agree studens for the most part are lazy, but that's because they're not challenged in public school to perform, students are "digits" that allow for collection of public funds for every digit that shows up for class.