If you were empowered to cut the "size of government"...?

Question

What would you cut?

Answer 1

I'd simply restrict government to it's Constitutional functions as described in the Constitution, Article One Section Eight.  All else would be left to the States or People, as per the 10th Amendment.  In other words, cut out everything they have no Constitutional authority to do.

Now, that would be a cut!

Answer 2

Everything.  I would do so because I favor voluntary institutions for solving problems.  Without a doubt, many people would fear that some services would not be adequately funded or would be poorly run without government enforced taxation (national defense and perhaps welfare for the poor come to mind).  I won't deny that many problems are complex.  Often, no easy solutions exist.  However, I expect that I could argue for every unique situation that relying upon voluntary institutions would be superior to government.

Answer 3

The Federal Department of Education.

The federal government is NOT allowed to govern education.  That is supposed to be left up to the states and local districts.  The constitution does not even provide public education.  

Answer 4

I have friends who work in consulting in government, and they have assured me that you could cut pretty much any government budget in half, and they would still be able to provide the same level of service.

It is all a matter of incentives. Compare government budgets to private industry:

- In private industry, the incentive is to spend as little of your budget as possible to save on costs, and therefore make your bonus.

- With government agencies, on the other hand, the incentive is to spend all of your budget so that you make sure to get a budget increase the next year.

I have heard horror stories about large rooms with flat screen high def TV's on each wall - money spent simply to burn unused budget dollars.

A lack of profit motivation breeds waste.

To specifically answer your question, I think that in terms of magnitude, Social Security and Medicare need to be addressed if there is to be a realistic attempt at balancing the budget. They currently account for ~40% of the budget and that number is expected to grow dramatically as the baby boomer retire en masse.

Answer 5

I would get rid of the IRS. I would introduce for legislation a 'PROGRESSIVE' sales tax (as high or as low as is necessary) on all retail purchases. Certain items would be exempt from taxation.

Answer 6

DoD spending. Even Generals have tried to cut back on the amount of equipment we have sitting falling apart on storage lots, but politicians would not let them reduce the amount of items ordered.

Foreign intervention. If we can't take care of our own, there is no reason we should be taking care of everyone else.

Drug wars. Why are we protecting people from themselves? They will always find a way to get high, if they want to. Making it a little bit more inconvenient does nothing but makes it taboo.

Answer 7

Everything except basic defense spending and law enforcement (e.g. border patrol).

Let the people keep 95% of their income, and the marketplace will provide for their needs. We don't need government health plans and social security. We need people to have more of their own money to decide what they want, and who they want to buy it from.

Imagine you're a worker making $50,000/year. Currently you pay about 28% of your money to various taxes. That's $14,000/year. Now imagine you had an additional 11,500/year to spend on your own retirement and health care and whatever else you want. Problems solved. ;)

Answer 8

Well, first I would grab the low hanging fruit, goodbye all of the "Departments of" - Education, Energy, Homeland Security, you name it.  Once I culled all of that deadwood, I would move on to the mother of all entitlement programs, Social Security.  Disband that Ponzi scheme, cut checks to the people who have paid in to give them the property rights they deserve in their contributions and wish them well while they do the job of providing for their own retirement.  Continue on with other massive entitlement programs.  Now let's start privatizing things:  You post office workers?  Turn those frowns upside down, because if you want to keep working for the post office you are gonna have to make it stand up against private sector competition.  Air traffic control?  If a socialist haven like Canada can privatize theirs, it's a no brainer on that prima facie evidence alone.

You get the point, I could go on all day.  I would be like a kid in the ultimate candy store.