Your US National Budget Plan.

[Lerodan Chinamerica]

http://www.kowaldesign.com/budget/

The United States national budget is a touchy issue. Everyone's got their own ideas on how to balance the budget - or increase spending, if that's the intention - but few can agree on exactly what should be done to do it.

Let's imagine you're elected President of the United States in 2016, with majorities in both houses of Congress, and you've given yourself four years to produce an ideal budget plan. For the purpose of the thread, let's assume that revenues and receipts have not changed between FY 2013 and FY 2017. Using the link above, adjust spending however you see fit and post the results + explanations below.

As you can see below, I've gutted most areas of spending and cut taxes significantly. I'll outline the major changes.

Social Security
I have phased out Social Security in favour of personal savings accounts similar to the Chilean model, with a limited safety net being built into Medicaid (more on that below). This has made the payroll tax - which make up 34% of Federal Revenues - redundant, so in order to eliminate this tax I'll need to cut spending by a further $800 billion to keep revenues constant.

Department of Defense
I've cut the Department of Defense in half by withdrawing from dozens of bases worldwide, cutting ground forces by a third, cutting the Pentagon workforce back significantly and by ending the War in Afghanistan, amongst other measures.

Department of Health and Human Serivces
I have merged all federal health programs into Medicaid, which I've transferred to the states.

Other cuts
-The Department of Agriculture has been eliminated.
-The Small Business Administration has been eliminated.
-The Department of Education has been eliminated, with all federal educational regulations removed.
-The Department of Energy has been eliminated.
-The Department of Homeland Security has been eliminated and the TSA privatised.
-The Department of Labor has been eliminated, with unemployment insurance being phased out in favour of PSAs.
-The Department of Transportation has been cut to the bone.
-Other cuts have been made to the Departments of the Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs.
-The NASA budget has been increased from $17 billion to $21 billion.

Tax Cuts
-The income tax has been phased out for the bottom 80% of Americans, decreasing revenue by $112 billion. [1] Once the National Debt is paid off entirely (in approximately 21 years from FY 2022 if receipts and revenues remained constant), the income tax would be completely eliminated and the Sixteenth Amendment repealed, presuming that a like-minded President would be in office at the time.
-Corporate income taxes have been eliminated, decreasing revenue by $333.6 billion.
-The payroll tax has been eliminated, decreasing revenue by approximately $1.03 trillion.

Tax Raises
I have legalised marijuana and placed a hefty excise tax on it, which is expected to increase receipts by $120 billion.

Spending changes:

$ trillion
FY 2013 Receipts: $3033.6
FY 2013 Outlays: $3777.8
Deficit: $744.2 billion

Projected FY 2022 Receipts: $1674.0
Projected FY 2022 Outlays: $855.0
Surplus: $819.0 billion

Of course, I've oversimplified in several areas, especially assuming that receipts and outlays will remain constant and that the National Debt can be easily paid back, especially when taking into account intra-governmental holdings, foreign debt and other liabilities. But nevertheless, this budget has cut back the size of government massively and would soon have the country on the pathway to a truly minarchist society.

[Divair]

Security settings blocked the application. Too bad.

[Lerodan Chinamerica]

Security settings blocked the application. Too bad.

That was a problem for me, too. I had to mess around with Java and a few other permissions to get it working.

Nevertheless, care to give some budget suggestions?

[Divair]

Security settings blocked the application. Too bad.

That was a problem for me, too. I had to mess around with Java and a few other permissions to get it working.

Nevertheless, care to give some budget suggestions?

If I weren't a lazy fuck that's incredibly sick, I'd go do sift through the budget to make sure I do it properly rather than post some general statements like "Cut defense spending, raise NASA's budget".

[Nationes Pii Redivivi]

My budget plan would be to secretly arrest all millionaires and billionaires in this nation, and hold them out for ransom. If they try to flee, we would strong arm the nations habouring them into submission.

[The Joseon Dynasty]

Shave half a percent off interest rates, shore up the pound, keep VAT steady for now, and round up all the dwarfs.

[Lerodan Chinamerica]

That was a problem for me, too. I had to mess around with Java and a few other permissions to get it working.

Nevertheless, care to give some budget suggestions?

If I weren't a lazy fuck that's incredibly sick, I'd go do sift through the budget to make sure I do it properly rather than post some general statements like "Cut defense spending, raise NASA's budget".

My original budget raised NASA spending from $17 to $100 billion, but then I realised that NASA has had a tendency to monopolise the space exploration industry at the expense of private firms, while wasting billions and delivering slow progress as a result. Since Obama made cuts to NASA's budget, I've seen a lot more private individuals and enterprises develop initiatives to explore space. Along with Virgin Galactic and all that, a few people are even going to Mars, apparently.

[The Left-Libertarian Hippies]

Shave half a percent off interest rates, shore up the pound, keep VAT steady for now, and round up all the dwarfs.

We have no pound, no VAT and as far as I know, no dwarves.

[Divair]

If I weren't a lazy fuck that's incredibly sick, I'd go do sift through the budget to make sure I do it properly rather than post some general statements like "Cut defense spending, raise NASA's budget".

My original budget raised NASA spending from $17 to $100 billion, but then I realised that NASA has had a tendency to monopolise the space exploration industry at the expense of private firms, while wasting billions and delivering slow progress as a result. Since Obama made cuts to NASA's budget, I've seen a lot more private individuals and enterprises develop initiatives to explore space. Along with Virgin Galactic and all that, a few people are even going to Mars, apparently.

Virgin Galactic is just providing very short low orbit trips to the rich. Not particularly important.

[Divair]

Shave half a percent off interest rates, shore up the pound, keep VAT steady for now, and round up all the dwarfs.

We have no pound, no VAT and as far as I know, no dwarves.

That's what they want you to think.

[The Left-Libertarian Hippies]

I think there's a better budget simulator at the New York Times. The Concord Coalition I think has one, too. And Splitwise has a thing where you can rewrite the tax code.

[The Left-Libertarian Hippies]

We have no pound, no VAT and as far as I know, no dwarves.

That's what they want you to think.

DAMN YOU OBAMA.

[Divair]

I think there's a better budget simulator at the New York Times. The Concord Coalition I think has one, too. And Splitwise has a thing where you can rewrite the tax code.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... aphic.html
http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/
http://www.federalbudgetchallenge.org/pages/overview

There are plenty.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

I'll have four fried chickens and a coke.

[Frisivisia]

I would divert all funds to Planned Parenthood, raise taxes on everyone to 100%, and make Obamacare a mandatory religion with services at 4:20 PM every day.

Yes, this is a budget, you have some sort of problem?

[The Joseon Dynasty]

Shave half a percent off interest rates, shore up the pound, keep VAT steady for now, and round up all the dwarfs.

We have no pound, no VAT and as far as I know, no dwarves.

Boy, you guys are missing out.

[Thafoo]

I think there's a better budget simulator at the New York Times. The Concord Coalition I think has one, too. And Splitwise has a thing where you can rewrite the tax code.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... aphic.html
http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/
http://www.federalbudgetchallenge.org/pages/overview

There are plenty.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... s=d3xj55rc

[The Left-Libertarian Hippies]

http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/

Tried this one and got the debt down to 58 percent of GDP by 2020.

[Thafoo]

http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/

Tried this one and got the debt down to 58 percent of GDP by 2020.

I got it down to 56% of GDP by 2020.

[Agritum]

Why no one has mentioned Budget Hero yet?

[Skeckoa]

I would divert all funds to Planned Parenthood, raise taxes on everyone to 100%, and make Obamacare a mandatory religion with services at 4:20 PM every day. Yes, this is a budget, you have some sort of problem?

Yes, there is a problem. This means that we won't be able to fund the building of the Death Star.

Also, yeah: My try.

[Divair]

Behold, a plan from the mind of an ill, half-asleep man. I'll edit it as I remember stuff.

- Cut DoD by 25% (mostly through decreasing the standing army and cancelling projects like the F-35)
- Triple NASA's budget from $17.7 billion to $53.1 billion
- Let the Bush tax cuts expire, raise top tax bracket to 45%, close loopholes
- Scrap Medicare & Medicaid in favour of a national healthcare system run by the states but regulated by the feds, similar to Canada
- Scrap fossil fuel subsidies
- Create the National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank
- Expand upon Obama's high-tech hubs plan
- Sign the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
- Regulate the NSA. Afterwards, audit the agency and reduce its funding based on how much they actually need to protect national security
- Raise the social security age to 70, introduce limits for payments on those who can afford to pay for retirement without it
- Sign a Schengen-style agreement with Canada, thus eliminating the need for any border guard in the north
- Legalize same sex marriage on a federal level
- Break up the banks
- Reinstate Glass–Steagall
- Legalize soft drugs, decriminalize hard drugs
- Lower the drinking age to 18
- Lower top corporate tax rate to 30%
- Tie minimum wage to inflation
- Eliminate the debt ceiling
- Scrap the penny
- Legalize prostitution
- Dismantle the TSA and privatize airport security
- Eliminate automatic charitable status for religious organizations. Require that they meet the criteria other types of organizations must meet. Tax those that do not fit the criteria
- End the embargo on Cuba

[Regnum Dominae]

http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/

Tried this one and got the debt down to 58 percent of GDP by 2020.

59 percent.

[Divair]

Why no one has mentioned Budget Hero yet?

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/budget-hero

[Divair]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... aphic.html
http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/
http://www.federalbudgetchallenge.org/pages/overview

There are plenty.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... s=d3xj55rc

Not bad.