President Obama’s bipartisan panel he created last year to reduce the deficit has published its initial findings. The bipartisan panel has many reasonable recommendations, and some pretty wild ones. But though the bipartisan panel will run into trouble when a very partisan Congress actually looks at the numbers. Did I mention it was bipartisan?
I saw somewhere on the news that behind closed doors a number of people in Congress actually like the suggested changes to the budget. But, neither side has the political capital to spend to make it happen. In other words, Democrats won’t want to do X because it will make them look bad in the next election, and Republicans won’t want to do Y for the same reason. Let’s look at some of those Xs and Ys.
- Cutting White House and Congressional budgets 15%
- Freeze federal salaries for 3 years
- Cut federal workforce 10%
- Charge VA health co-pays
- Dissolve the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools
- Eliminate earmarks
- Reduce military personnel in Europe and Asia
All reasonable adjustments. But voting for any of those would likely result in a lost election next term for that Congressperson. The exception is the White House and Congressional budgets, these people will argue they need more staff with all the changes rather than less. It just isn’t likely. But we can look at some reasonable changes that we might see pass in a partisan Congress.
- Cut funding for dredging beaches
- Merge Commerce Dept and Small Business Administration, cut budget 10%
- Create a committee to focus solely on trimming fat and waste from budget
- Role defense department efficiencies directly into reducing deficit
- Save money on printing, including making default print option double-sided
- Sell off excess government assets, including 14,000 buildings not in use
- Make Smithsonian museums charge entrance fees
- Cut research funding for fossil fuels
- Reduced spending at the DOJ
All in all the commission’s first round of recommendations totals around $200 billion in 2015.
You can check out the full list here and look at the panel’s website here. I suggest you do both. The website even includes all the video footage from the meetings they have. After skipping through a few of them, I can see one big area where they can cut spending (if we paid for it), and that’s the use of bottled water.
Photo: The White House
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice. |
