Wow, I felt tingles all the way to my wallet.
The only way to achieve the end goal (smaller government, balanced budget, lower taxes for those of us who still pay them) is to restructure the Federal government. This offers endless opportunities to save BILLIONS every year. We could, quite literally, have a balanced budget in a year or two at most.
For example:
1. Do what small business has done: cut ALL salaries (including the Prez, legilators, Supreme Court, etc.) by 20-30% and freeze ALL discretionary spending, effective immediately.
2. Restructure/consolidate/streamline the cabinets to reflect the Constitution and current needs and eliminate duplication.
3. Stop all federal hiring immediately and reduce the number of federal employees by 20% over a three-year period. (On average, 7% leave federal government every year, so this could be accomplished by natural attrition.)
4. Adopt zero-based budgeting. Once the restructured cabinet has been defined, nothing is sacrosanct. Every department, division, program, employee and expense must be examined before $1 is allocated to sustain the effort into the future.
5. Consolidate, eliminate and designate a single “responsible” agency. The current structure uses duplicative programs in multiple departments to hide costs: Welfare consists of 85 programs scattered among 6 cabinet agencies to the tune of $700 billion a year, and that same costly, confusing, wasteful approach is repeated in every major federal program.
6. Read “National Suicide” (Martin Gross) for a detailed prescription for restructuring and streamlining government, cutting pork and fat, and balancing the budget.
7. Set automatic funding expirations (per Gross) rather than automatic funding renewals, so ineffectual programs disappear.
Free-Range Oyster, sign me up, I’m an idiot who likes a challenge. It’s not rocket science, it’s Spreadsheet Basics 101. I’m sharpening my red pencils in eager anticipation.
Texas Pete, don’t pop a vein, but check out how much our beloved gov spent in “Recovery” funds to upgrade and redesign all those .gov sites.
Any candidates for office reading this? Listen up. Take notes. The article/comments here reflect what needs to happen and what this voter expects you to start tackling on day 1.
