A SOLUTION TO THE BUDGET/DEBT PROBLEM

The budget/debt debate rages on in partisan terms with no solution in site.  The quote that follows is from the comments about an article on this subject that recently showed up on a blog site.  The anonymity of author of this quote lends a certain authenticity to it:

DC has a spending problem, and neither BHO's, the Gang of 6, nor Ryan's proposal really address lowering the debt - only the deficit. Nearly all the focus in DC is raising taxes including BHO's 'bipartisan' economic (tax) task force, and the 'Gang of 6' does no better. It confirms that government believes the money that anyone earns is the government's by default. Remember what happens when politicians say that a tax cut of any amount will "cost" the government? All agencies at the fed, state and local levels should cut programs by 5% each year for the next 5 years except for those efforts that directly support combat ops, counter-illegal immigration ops, or DHS ops. However, each agency should still be held to a budget cut of 5% made up of cuts to programs that do not directly support combat ops, counter-illegal immigration ops, or DHS ops. All open federal, state and local positions not filled should be eliminated immediately. VA care (except for service connected maladies) as well as SocSec and Medicare / Medicaid should be means tested. Re: SocSec & Medicare / Medicaid; raise the retirement age to 68 for those who reach 50 by 09/30/2011; and raise it to 70 for those who reach 45 by 09/30/2011. Cut fed and state congressional operational funding by 10% per year for 5 years. Freeze fed, state and local congressional / admin / support staff pay for the next 10 years. Stop fed funding of think tanks and FFRDCs they compete for programs. Cut corp taxes; cut cap gain taxes; do not fund Obamacare, and stop the additional taxes. Stop all subsidies; products should stand on their own merits. No business entity is too big to fail; no more bailouts; they repay what they’ve received. There are no sure things in the market; if companies/brokers want to make high risk investments, they must notify their shareholders / clients for due diligence; if not, they suffer criminal prosecution. Bonuses to be taxed as regular income. There is no point where one has earned enough, contrary to what BHO says. Further, 80% of the tax cuts in 2001 & 2003 were aimed at families, small bus owners earning less than $250K/yr. Re: gov furloughs/shutdowns. How many private sector jobs does it take to fund one fed job (even considering they pay taxes), and fed pay leads private industry by 1/3 to 1/2? Equivalency of pay is not a reality. They are paid with your tax dollars; their retirement portion is paid from their pay (your tax dollars); the gov's matching funds are paid with your tax dollars; their SocSec is paid with your tax dollars; their Medicare is paid with your tax dollars. That goes for state, county and municipal employees as well (e.g., teachers in the public schools/colleges). What does gov provide as a product beyond those in sec & def? What effort does gov do to produce 1 drop of oil revenue? What does gov do to produce 1 loaf of bread? Oh, they manage. Yes, much like MMS, USAID, DOEd, DOEn, DOC, NEA, NLRB, HHS, HUD, EPA, OPM, FDA (yes, I know they are d****d if they do release/recall and d****d if they don't) et al. DEFUND THEM ALL!

This solution in many ways seems to cut to the chase.  No excuses, no pussyfooting around.  Let's make companies compete for their success (no subsidies), no bailouts, let the free market make the call on who's successful and who fails.  As regards government, get it the hell out of the way simply be eliminating all the departments that don't have a narrowly and well defined reason for being that relates essentially to our internal security and national defense.  Shrink what's left of government bureaucracies by requiring them cutting their budgets by 5% a year until they are the right size.  Means test medicare and social security, cut capital gains taxes, etc.  Bottom line:  shrink the size of government substantially and create a tax environment that encourages private enterprise.  There is nothing to argue with in this proposal from a conservative's point of view.  Until consensus is reached that the government is both too big and too intrusive, this plan simply won't fly.  Unless conservatives stand their ground and convince the independents that this is the way to go, nothing substantial is going to happen.