8 Easy Ways to Cut Government Spending

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Not useful. please revise!!!

Emily. of NJ 10:27AM February 03, 2013

The savings here are a drop in the bucket. Seriously, total them, then look at the deficit.
Defense spending is the biggest drag on spending, and it doesn't add one ounce of productive capital. It is necessary, but it is where the biggest savings opportunities lie. However, the people who make billions on defense contracts are deeply entrenched in the government.
Hell, some of them have been President.

Realist Dude of OH 3:32PM November 29, 2012

#1 way to decrease government spending: stop giving politicians benefits for free! make them pay for their health insurance and end the retirement benefits for lifetime politicians. It is ridiculous that they want to put together an insurance program for Americans in need of insurance as long as they, the politicians, don't have to take that same insurance! In whose eyes is this the right thing to do?

Barbara of MI 12:17PM October 25, 2012

Some of your ideas are good Danielle, but one of them is inaccurate. Cutting saturday mail delivery would not save the government a dime. The Postal Service is and has been for over 30 years self supporting. It does not recieve any tax payer money from the government. The losses that the Postal Service is experiencing are not operational losses. They are generated from a congressional mandate, that no other governemnt agency or private corporation, is required to do. The Postal Service must prefund the next 75 years worth of future retiree health costs in 10 years. This means we are paying retirement costs for people who have yet to be born. In the last 4 years the Postal service has lost, and I use that term lightly, $20 billion. The postal Service has paid $22 billion in prefunding expenses. This would have left the Postal Service a PROFIT of $2 billion, even during the worst time of the recession.

Big Chuck of FL 12:40PM November 13, 2011

Step 1:
Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment
Step 2:
Place a fixed percentage income tax on everyone above the poverty line
Place higher sales taxes on everything besides the necessities
Step 3:
Stop funding Planned Parenthood
Stop funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Pull the plug on the Departments of Energy and Education
Stop funding things such as film festivals, sporting events, non-public buildings
Stop misusing eminent domain for aforementioned non-public buildings
Stop mail delivery on Saturdays
Restrict Presidential spending

<3Fbrz of MO 4:24PM August 22, 2011

Step 1:
Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment
Step 2:
Place a fixed percentage income tax on everyone above the poverty line
Place higher sales taxes on everything besides the necessities
Step 3:
Stop funding Planned Parenthood
Stop funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Pull the plug on the Departments of Energy and Education
Stop funding things such as film festivals, sporting events, non-public buildings
Stop misusing eminent domain for aforementioned non-public buildings
Stop mail delivery on Saturdays
Restrict Presidential spending

<3Fbrz of MO 4:24PM August 22, 2011

I am 20 years from retiring. I have accepted the fact, that even though I pay into social security, I will never see a penny of it. Social Security is what I pay into to insure my security when I become old and retired. Yet the government is OK with squandering the money for their benefit. It’s very obvious that it is squandering, since they are threatening it right now! They need to get their crap together and realize that they should have no say on that matter.
Now here’s my idea. First off I am going to piss a lot of people off, but I really don’t care. I know I am not alone with my feelings!
Leave medicare and social security alone.
Focus on the real problem. That is WELFARE and MEDICAID (at least that is what it is called in Indiana). Women continually lay down and get pregnant with one kid after another. Why? Because the more kids they produce the more FOOD STAMPS, WELFARE, and MEDICAID they get off the government. Who the hell knows how many $$$$ we can save by forcing them to get sterilized or just to limit their time on MEDICAID, WELFARE, FOOD STAMPS. They are too lazy to get a job, so instead they keep increasing our already overgrown population. And yes if you are pissed off then you are one of them!
I have 2 kids! Guess what: I (ME, MYSELF) paid for them. (prenatal, labor, delivery, well-child, sick-child, school books and meals). That’s right I did this without help from the government. I know that 2 kids is all I can afford so I got myself sterilized!!!!!! My neighbor has 9 kids! They pay for them. That’s what they chose. I am happy for them and even more I happy that I don’t have to pay for them. China has the right idea. If you are an American and you can afford to have kids; HAVE A damn ballteam if you like. But, if you have to live off my tax money to have kids get your lazy ass clipped!
I don’t believe that being obese and/or a drug addict should give you the right to be on disability either. These are things that you did to yourself. I didn’t force you to be a glutton nor did I force drugs down your throat.
I believe that there are disabilities that deserve the help from the government. But damn I see so many people not getting help and they truly deserve it and see all these damn WELFARE RATS sponging off the system do to pure laziness.
YEAH I KNOW there are a bunch of pissed off people…….HAVE AT IT!

kalli T of IN 3:47PM July 28, 2011

Stop all of these wasteful programs. They should be either made private or eliminated:
How much wealth is wasted on equipment, software, and training each time Microsoft makes a new version of Office or Windows? Ban these upgrades, and require a stable platform.
The Obama hell care plan (abolish all insurance except catastrophic)
All government issued IDs and numbers (unconstitutionally violates religion)
Debt interest (make the Democrat party pay for their overspending)
National Parks
Government ownership of land not essential to the operation of government
Health Care Research (should be private)
Foreign Aid
Education (should not be federal, except Pell grants)
Student loans (Use grants instead)
NASA (should be private)
IRS (change tax methods and stop funding this)
EPA (no funding for Gore's fake global warming)
Head Start (should not be federal)
Public housing (ban rental housing instead)
Amtrak (make government own track as a road, companies own trains)
Smithsonian (privatize)
Anything having to do with the arts (no taxes for nonessentials)
Anything having to do with sports (no taxes for nonessentials)
Anything having to do with entertainment (no taxes for nonessentials)
Copyrights and patents (abolish as obsolete, stop spending on enforcement)
All arenas for performing or sporting events (should be private)
Department of labor
Department of energy
Department of education (should not be federal)
Department of interior
All farm subsidies and price supports
Abolish all border, immigration, and customs laws
Stop keeping track of who is who
Surgeon general
Homeland security (unconstitutionally violates religion)
Treasury department ATF
Require multiple sources for college textbooks, destroying the monopoly prices
Abolish all gun bans except for convicted felons
Secret service (politicians would be more responsive if not protected)
All spending on nonessentials
Salaries for president, VP, congressmen, and judges (restrict to no larger than lowest paid teacher, policeman, or fireman in entire country)

Larry Robinson of IN 1:02PM July 28, 2011

Look at the patrol cars in your city or surrounding suburbs. Are two officers manning every car? It only takes one. Cutback the number of policeman per car and there will be no increase in crime or danger to patrolman. Fireman have a more dangerous job than policeman. Life insurance for fireman is more expensive. How many fireman are needed sitting around the station? Cut them back. They sleep there and eat meals paid for by taxpayers. Stop that. Taxpayers don't get free meals.

Thor of CO 5:31AM June 24, 2011

It's simple:
* Approve the FairTax.org taxation plan and eliminate the IRS. Bet that's gonna save a bundle, and that's certain! Admittedly, there are costs involved (cards similar to current EBT cards to show a person has the right to not pay the tax, etc.) but the current abusive behavior of the IRS and the sheer costs of the agency are in dire need of correction.
* Correct the TSA's procedures to be more like those in other countries, where only those who fit profiles are checked. This would permit much speedier security checks and lower costs (and raise the use of airlines again; way too many folks are avoiding air travel because of the way the TSA treats folks!).
These are but two suggestions that would amount to a fair bit of money being saved. To those who are being brutal at the article's author, they did say "Though they cumulatively add up to barely a dent in the federal budget as a whole, they are a reminder that arguably pointless spending is widespread in the vast government bureaucracy." They did mention that their suggestions probably wouldn't save all that much, but their eight points are a start!

Raymond Danner of AL 11:59AM May 30, 2011