Here Is Your Chance To Be A Member Of Congress

Yesterday, I suggested that one solution to the deficit problem was to have members of Congress grow spines and deal with the problem. Here is the situation they would be facing. Congress can either raise taxes, cut expenditures, or some combination of both. This is your chance to confront the situation and devise a solution. Remember that last year, for every dollar that the government took in, it spent $1.67. You will have to reduce that deficit by about 40%.

Here is where the money comes from;
$$1.061 trillion-Individual income taxes
$940 billion-Social Security and other payroll taxes
$222 billion-Corporation income taxes
$77 billion-Excise taxes
$23 billion-Customs duties
$20 billion-Estate and gift taxes
$22 billion-Deposits of earnings
$16 billion-The well known "All other"

And here is where the money goes;
First there is money that cannot be avoided.
$164 billion-Interest on the national debt.

And then there is money that would require major legislation to change;
$695 billion-Social Security
$495 billion-Medicare
$290 billion-Medicad
$582 billion-Other mandatory programs.

And here is the money you could affect immediately;
$663.7 billion-Department of Defence
$78.7 billion-Department of Health and Human Services
$72.5 billion-Department of Transportation
$52.5 billion-Department of Veterans Affairs
$51.7 billion-Department of State
$47.5 billion-Department of Housing and Urban Development
$46.7 billion-Department of Education
$42.7 billion-Department of Homeland Security
$26.3 billion-Department of Energy
$26.0 billion-Department of Agricultural
$23.9 billion-Department of Justice
$18.7 billion-NASA
$13.8 billion-Department of Commerce
$13.3 billion-Department of Labor
$13.3 billion-Department of Treasury
$12.0 billion-Department of the Interior
$10.5 billion-EPA
$9.7 billion-Social Security Administration
$7.0 billion-NSF
$5.1 billion-Corps of Engineers
$5.0 billion-National Infrastructure Bank (what ever that is?)
$1.1 billion-Corporation for National and Community Service
$0.7 billion-SBA
$0.6 billion-GSA
$19.8 billion-Other agencies
$105 billion-The famous "all other"

There you have it. All you have to do is find $1.42 trillion to balance the budget, never mind trying to reduce deficit.

And consider one more thing; government spending amounts to about 20% of the GNP and Business spending equals about 10%, while consumer spending equals about 70%. What effects would your cutback/taxing plan have on the overall economy?

If you can work out a solution to this problem, you might want to consider running for Congress.