USDA is eliminated. FSIS is merged into FDA from USDA. It keeps no extra budget for that.

We are just past half way to balanced, but it has taken eliminating over half of all departments to get there.



Next up ... Department of Transportation. $77 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...sportation


I propose privatizing the following and having excise taxes cover the cost of their operations, and moving them to DST:
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- Maritime Administration (MARAD)
- Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
- Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC)


I would eliminate everything else.


Thoughts? Anything else worth keeping?

(10-20-2013 02:28 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  USDA is eliminated. FSIS is merged into FDA from USDA. It keeps no extra budget for that.

We are just past half way to balanced, but it has taken eliminating over half of all departments to get there.



Next up ... Department of Transportation. $77 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...sportation


I propose privatizing the following and having excise taxes cover the cost of their operations, and moving them to DST:
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- Maritime Administration (MARAD)
- Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
- Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC)


I would eliminate everything else.


Thoughts? Anything else worth keeping?

Why the hell are you making this so long? Why not just say eliminate all government except the military? THat is your goal anyway.

(10-20-2013 02:35 PM)RobertN Wrote:  Why the hell are you making this so long? Why not just say eliminate all government except the military? THat is your goal anyway.

That is not the goal and you know it. You need better bait before you go troll fishing around here.

If you don't like it -- I offer you the same challenge I gave to Mach -- start your own thread where you balance the budget. Go on ... have a go. Fair warning ... you could tax everything everybody makes over $250,000 every single year and you won't close the gap. So good luck with your "tax the rich" dogma on this.

(10-20-2013 02:28 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  USDA is eliminated. FSIS is merged into FDA from USDA. It keeps no extra budget for that.

We are just past half way to balanced, but it has taken eliminating over half of all departments to get there.



Next up ... Department of Transportation. $77 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...sportation


I propose privatizing the following and having excise taxes cover the cost of their operations, and moving them to DST:
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- Maritime Administration (MARAD)
- Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
- Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC)


I would eliminate everything else.


Thoughts? Anything else worth keeping?

Actually, I'd do the opposite of you GTS. Move all the Federal Administrations together under one "transportation" banner. (Although I'd consider dumping the Transit one, since that should be a local issue only)

But I'd keep the Martime Administration separate (And I would dump the SLSDC..they belong in Maritime)

Keep PHMSA

I'd probably keep the OIG offices.

(10-20-2013 02:37 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 02:35 PM)RobertN Wrote:  Why the hell are you making this so long? Why not just say eliminate all government except the military? THat is your goal anyway.

That is not the goal and you know it. You need better bait before you go troll fishing around here.

If you don't like it -- I offer you the same challenge I gave to Mach -- start your own thread where you balance the budget. Go on ... have a go. Fair warning ... you could tax everything everybody makes over $250,000 every single year and you won't close the gap. So good luck with your "tax the rich" dogma on this.

Stop lying. It is the goal and you damn well know it.

(10-20-2013 02:28 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  USDA is eliminated. FSIS is merged into FDA from USDA. It keeps no extra budget for that.

We are just past half way to balanced, but it has taken eliminating over half of all departments to get there.



Next up ... Department of Transportation. $77 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...sportation


I propose privatizing the following and having excise taxes cover the cost of their operations, and moving them to DST:
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- Maritime Administration (MARAD)
- Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
- Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC)


I would eliminate everything else.


Thoughts? Anything else worth keeping?

While I don't necessarily like privatizing some of these, I have seen their performance and I don't see much value that they add using gov't employees.

Cut them.

What the country needs is a much more efficient way of resolving civil cases and tort issues. Then getting rid of bureaucrats and agencies is less of a concern.

(10-20-2013 03:31 PM)RobertN Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 02:37 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(10-20-2013 02:35 PM)RobertN Wrote:  Why the hell are you making this so long? Why not just say eliminate all government except the military? THat is your goal anyway.

That is not the goal and you know it. You need better bait before you go troll fishing around here.

If you don't like it -- I offer you the same challenge I gave to Mach -- start your own thread where you balance the budget. Go on ... have a go. Fair warning ... you could tax everything everybody makes over $250,000 every single year and you won't close the gap. So good luck with your "tax the rich" dogma on this.

Stop lying. It is the goal and you damn well know it.

Govt should be limited, not eliminated. Also, he was right about taxing the rich. Just taxing them more will in no way close the gap. I figured most folks knew this by now.

(10-20-2013 02:28 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  USDA is eliminated. FSIS is merged into FDA from USDA. It keeps no extra budget for that.

We are just past half way to balanced, but it has taken eliminating over half of all departments to get there.



Next up ... Department of Transportation. $77 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...sportation


I propose privatizing the following and having excise taxes cover the cost of their operations, and moving them to DST:
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- Maritime Administration (MARAD)
- Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
- Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC)


I would eliminate everything else.


Thoughts? Anything else worth keeping?

I would keep the FAA. I know everyone says they should be privatized like Canada, but that lack the sheer volume of air transport the US has. Beside, only at a federal level will something be able to be accomplished by the air gridlock created by small aircraft. I'd eliminate the the FRA and fold the cross and Safety functions into the FHWA. As mentioned fold SLSDC in MARAD and privatize PHMSA. I would move the NTSB back into this department as well.

No real consensus other than a general sense of "most of this is bollocks"... so I'm going with my plan.

The following are either privatized in full or turned into public-private partnerships, with all funds generated through direct user fees.

- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- Maritime Administration (MARAD)
--- Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC) (merged into MARAD)
- Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)


The rest is eliminated.

This leaves only Interior, Justice, State, Treasury, Defense, (newly created) Science and Technology, and Veterans Affairs.

Now there is some stuff I'd still want to go after in Interior and Justice ... but that is going to get messy.

Let's next go for low hanging fruit in the DoD.

I'm getting my figures on this from the University of TN's National Defense Business Institute.

http://ndbi.utk.edu/Uploads/files/Force%...0Study.pdf




Full pull out from all bases in Germany: $16.572 billion
Full pull out from all bases in Japan: $15.442 billion
Full pull out from all bases in South Korea: $6.833 billion
Full pull out from all bases in Italy: $2.428 billion
Full pull out from all bases in UK: $1.881 billion
Full pull out from all bases in Spain: $0.478 billion
Full pull out from all bases in Bahrain: $0.346 billion
Full pull out from all bases in Turkey: $0.520 billion
= $44.5 billion

These are just the annual operations and personnel costs. This does not factor in liquidation or redistribution of assets.

Any objections?

Said bases cut.

It looks like it will be impossible to balance the budget even carving up the military. If you punt the NSA and CIA both you only pick up 20 and change billion. I don't think it is plausible to find 200+ billion out of the military without effecting future strength or current strength dramatically. Even accepting every proposed spending cut in the DoD by CATO doesn't even get you remotely close.

And so ... we turn to so called "entitlements".

Social Security:
- Return to historical restrictions on disability eligibility: $57.6 billion/yr
- Price indexing of initial benefits to inflation*: $192.38 billion/yr


* A retiree's initial level of benefits is based on their earnings history, and adjusted for the growth in nominal U.S. wages over time. An alternative calculation would be to adjust past earnings by inflation.




Objections?

(10-07-2013 01:00 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Here's the way this game works. We cut something every day and tally up the savings. Our initial goal is to balance the budget. Our stretch goal is to develop a large surplus while reducing the average tax burden.

Current Figures:
Net Annual Income: -$818.18 billion
National Debt: $16.4 trillion
Debt Ceiling: $16.4 trillion



Post-Cut Figures:
Net Annual Income: -$227.215 billion
National Debt: $16.4 trillion ... growing $227.215 billion annually
Annual Savings: $591.585 billion



Things Cut:
- Department of Education ($69.8 billion)
- Department of Labor ($137.3 billion)
- Department of Homeland Security ($31.52 billion after transfers)
- Department of Energy ($15.2 billion after transfers)
- Department of Health and Human Services ($31.84 billion after transfers)
- Department of Commerce ($3.625 billion after existing transfers)
- Department of Housing and Urban Development ($48.5 billion)
- Department of Agriculture ($132.3 billion)
- Department of Transportation ($77 billion)
- Full pull out from all bases in Germany: $16.572 billion
- Full pull out from all bases in Japan: $15.442 billion
- Full pull out from all bases in South Korea: $6.833 billion
- Full pull out from all bases in Italy: $2.428 billion
- Full pull out from all bases in UK: $1.881 billion
- Full pull out from all bases in Spain: $0.478 billion
- Full pull out from all bases in Bahrain: $0.346 billion
- Full pull out from all bases in Turkey: $0.520 billion


Things Transferred:
- The Secret Service is moved under the DoD from DHS. $1.92 billion.
- The Coast Guard is moved under the DoD from DHS. $9.79 billion.
- FEMA is moved under the DoD from DHS. $10.9 billion.
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is transferred to ICE (DHS to DHS). $800 million.
- ICE is moved under the DoD from DHS. $5.87 billion.
- Federal Protective Service is moved from DHS to Secret Service under the DoD. Its $615 million budget is eliminated.
- All non-nuclear DoE labs to new Department of Science and Technology (DST) -- $4.9 billion
- NOAA from Commerce to DST -- $5.6 billion
- NASA to DST -- $17.8 billion
- NIST from Commerce to DST -- $1.1 billion
- CDC from HHS to DST -- $11.3 billion
- Census from Commerce to DST -- $1.3 billion
- USPTO from Commerce to DST -- $2.3 billion
- FCC to DST -- $336 million
- BEA from Commerce to DST -- $97.3 million
- NTIS from Commerce to DST -- $65 million
- ESA from Commerce to DST -- $113 million
- NSF to DST -- $7 billion
- FDA from HHS to DST -- $4.36 billion
- NIH from HHS to DST -- $30.9 billion
- Nucler DoE labs to the Department of Defense -- $10.5 billion
- FSIS from USDA to merged with FDA in DST -- No budget carry over



Things Created:
- Department of Science and Technology



Things Privatized and Financed Through User Fees:
- From DOT: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- From DOT: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- From DOT: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- From DOT: Maritime Administration (MARAD)
--- From DOT: Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC) (merged into MARAD)
- From DOT: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)



Temporary Alteration Tracker:
- DoD - $4.72 billion due to moves above
- Commerce - $10.575 billion due to moves above
- HHS - $46.56 billion due to moves above

How to eliminate almost every federal agency

http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/ho...y-20140813