The first step is a balanced budget without the political maneuvering as to what is defined as to what is and is not included in the budget. It is simple: money in versus money out. Then there must be a plan to pay off the debt in 20 years. I can do it. Make me king for 5 years and I will have a balanced budget in hand. No more DOE, no foreign aid, no endowment to the arts, no National Laboratories, no TSA, no BATF, no more worthless interstate cameras, and electronic signs. No foreign wars unless the objectives are defined before the troops are committed and performance indicators identified and monitored. Social Security is for retirement only. No paid college programs (survivor benefits) from Social Security. I worked in the federal government for 12 years and I remember my first task to develop a budget for my division. I worked about 60 hours a week for 4 or 5 weeks to come up with a budget. I actually cut cost by 15%. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was to find a way to justify an increase of 15% and maybe we could get 10%. “You are never to underspend your budget or you will not get the same amount next year.” If they gave managers 5% of what they could trim from the budget, the federal budget would cut at least 20% from each organization. We need to demand from our representatives their plan to pay off the national debt in 20 years!

1) Wasting money is one thing that government does because of the incentives it faces (read, not a profit motive). So, cutting waste is only realistic to a certain extent;

2) Even if 100% of the waste was cut, we are nowhere near eliminating the budget deficit. My point is that real programs that large constituencies love (entitlements, military, etc.) need to be on the chopping block.

Well, no, not by itself. But that statement ignores the MANY billions of $$ wasted each year, and cutting THAT waste WOULD make a significant dent in the deficit.

$400 BILLION was wasted last year simply in duplicate federal programs. That’s right, more than one agency duplicating the efforts of another. That amounts to 30% of last years entire deficit. Couple that with this $50 billion, and start ruthlessly attacking and eliminating ALL of the federal waste and we could practically eliminate all the deficit without getting whipsawed into this tax increase vs. spending cuts nonsense the extremists in both parties like to sidetrack us into.

I do want spending cut. I do not want tax increases. But until we eliminate the rampant and enormous waste in our federal government, every other argument is just a red herring thrown out by those who want to continue their own profiteering from federal waste.