Sunday, April 20, 2014

2011 New York Times Budget Puzzle Recommendations


   This document contains a list of my policies as per the issues which most directly affect the federal budget. This set of policies is fiscally sound, at least according to the New York Times Budget Puzzle.

   Ideally, the further-than-necessary cuts to military, U.N.-related spending, intelligence-gathering, and education which I am proposing will cause the prospect of repealing laws which will have temporarily reduced Social Security benefits and mortgage deductions for those Americans with high income levels to become more realistic and immediate.
   Additionally, my hope is that there would be some funds left over from this which would help the abolition of the Federal Reserve System and the I.R.S. pay for the end of the federal income tax.

General Military:
   End interventionist foreign policy without sacrificing our national sovereignty. End our unconstitutional membership in the United Nations. Employ a non-aggressive nuclear deterrence strategy, but continue to negotiate bilateral nuclear arsenal reduction with Russia. Reduce the Federal Bureau of Investigators’s and the Central Intelligence Agency’s influence on the Executive Branch, and return them to being strictly intelligence-gathering agencies.

Middle East Military:
   Withdraw all troops and infrastructure immediately, or at least reduce the total number of troops in both countries combined to 30,000 by the year 2013, leaving behind no military bases, permanent nor temporary. Dramatically reduce the level of U.S. troops in - and military spending on - Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Djibouti.

Worldwide Military:
   Begin to reduce the quantity of our 900 overseas military bases, and end our policy of stationing at least one troop in 4 out of every 5 countries. Dramatically reduce the level of U.S. troops in - and military spending on - the Bahamas, Cuba, Honduras, Great Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Serbia / Montenegro / Kosovo, South Korea, and Japan.

Military Budget:
   Reduce our military to the size it was before Operation Iraqi Freedom began, especially the Navy and Air Force fleets. Reduce space-based military spending and cancel or delay some weapons programs. Keep non-combat military spending and overhead pay level.

Foreign Aid:
   Cut at least a billion dollars annually from our foreign aid budget, and restructure the foreign aid budget so as to not so preponderantly favor Israel, which has only 0.1% of the non-U.S. world population, yet receives 22% of our total foreign aid and 44% of total military foreign aid.

Domestic Spending:
   Reduce the federal work force by 10%, cut 250,000 government contractors, eliminate agricultural subsidies, and ban all earmarks, pork, and district pet projects. Do not cut assistance to states or regional subsidies; the pay of civilian federal workers; or funding for fossil fuel, the Smithsonian Institute, or the National Park Service.

Health:
   Do not raise the eligibility age of Medicare, but cap the growth of Medicare beginning in 2013. Do not enact medical malpractice reform or tighten the eligibility requirement for disability claims. Temporarily reduce the tax break for employer-provided health insurance. Allow states and regional district courts to amend and nullify the individual health insurance mandate.

Social Security:
   Do not raise the retirement age for Social Security. Temporarily reduce the Social Security benefits for workers above the 60th percentile of the lifetime earnings distribution.

General Budget:
   End Pay-As-You-Go and rally Congress and the states to ratify a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Impose a national sales tax, work towards eventually abolishing the federal income tax, and repeal the 16th Amendment, abolishing the Federal Reserve System and the Internal Revenue Service.

Taxes:
   Keep corporate and individual tax loopholes open, extend the Bush tax cuts on a permanent basis, and do not impose investment or bank taxes. Impose a millionaire’s tax, but do not impose a payroll tax for incomes above $106,000. Return the estate / death tax to zero and do not impose a carbon tax. Temporarily reduce the mortgage deduction for high-income households. Do not begin to use an alternate measure for inflation.


For more entries on budgets, finance, debt, and the bailouts, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/debt-and-federal-budget.html

For more entries on taxation, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/tax-cuts.html



Written on February 11th, 2011
Edited in April 2014

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