Try balancing the budget...

http://www.nathannewman.org/nbs/shortbudget06.html

I nearly halved it to $219.85 billion.

It happens that I remember seeing one of those charts a few days ago about how big military expenditures were, and how it was so interconnected with other spending in both good and bad ways.  Also, Social Security is enormous.

Is anyone more familiar with Nate Newman's work and can comment on how correct his economic theory, etc. are, by the way?

•  Too good

  I managed to take the deficit to a surplus by 988.81 billion creating a 587.8 billion surplus by eliminating all tax breaks and ending the Iraq and Afghan wars and still increased eduction, health, low income, etc. by the maximum allowed.  Damn, I could pay off the national debt in a decade.  I must have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

  by dugjxn on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 07:54:36 PM PDT

  •  Must have been a great night

    if you forgot where you slept ;-)

    by Bill White on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 09:08:55 PM PDT

•  Got surplus first try

  Eliminated Iraq, tax cuts, and increased veterns benefits, education, science, and environment.

  by glazeone on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 08:03:06 PM PDT

•  My plan

  
  Budget Surplus $137 billion
  $267.66 billion .... Military Spending
  $33.56 billion ..... Iraq War and Afghanistan Operations
  $150.13 billion .... Veterans & Retired Military Pensions and Services
  $47.39 billion ..... International Affairs
  $35.95 billion ..... General Science, Space, and Technology
  $2.55 billion ...... Non-Defense Energy Spending
  $37.4 billion ...... Natural Resources and Environment
  $0 billion ......... Agriculture
  $56.54 billion ..... Transportation
  $19.1 billion ...... Community and Regional Development (No Change)
  $128.14 billion .... Education
  $47.81 billion ..... Training, Labor and Unemployment Programs (No Change)
  $506.64 billion .... Non-Medicare Health Spending
  $414.9 billion ..... Medicare
  $57.55 billion ..... Civilian Retirement (Social Security excluded)
  $206.77 billion .... Aid to Low-Income Families (No Change)
  $25.62 billion ..... General Family Support (No Change)
  $7.5 billion ....... Commerce and Housing Loan Programs
  $599.3 billion ..... Social Security
  $56.03 billion ..... Administration of Justice
  $14.2 billion ...... General Government Administration
  $211.08 billion .... Net Interest (No Change)
  $-44.37 billion .... Undistributed Offsetting Receipts and Allowance (No Change)

  Tax Expenditures ($332.18 billion: cut $742.64 billion)

  $0 billion ......... 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts
  Cut $294.59 bil. from base of $294.6 bil.(-100%)
  $0 billion ......... Corporate Tax Breaks
  Cut $60.35 bil. from base of $60.360 bil.(-100%)
  $0 billion ......... Personal Business and Investment Benefits
  Cut $86.7 bil. from base of $86.710 bil.(-100%)
  $168.47 billion .... Pension and Retirement Tax Benefits (No Change)
  $0 billion ......... Health Insurance Tax Benefits
  Cut $140.98 bil. from base of $140.990 bil.(-100%)
  $163.71 billion .... Housing Tax Benefits (No Change)
  $0 billion ......... Other Individual Deductions and Expenditures
  Cut $159.98 bil. from base of $159.993 bil.(-100%)

  • Cut the procurement fat from the Defense Department
    
  • Reduced the War on Terror to securing the homeland from terrorists
    
  • Increased international affairs
    
  • Doubled education
    
  • Eliminated agricultural subsidies completely
    
  • Created $900 billion universal healthcare fund (Medicare and non-Medicare healthcare)
    
  • Covered additional Social Security Trust Fund deposits
    
  • Eliminated all tax cuts and exemptions but 401(K) and IRAs and mortgage interest deduction.

  by TarheelDem on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 08:18:18 PM PDT

•  Surplus 275 billion

  flushed the tax cuts, the 2 wars and half the agriculture and business gimmies.  So I'm unelectable....

  by HiD on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 08:19:01 PM PDT

•  Soft landing...

  You have cut the deficit by $414.18 billion.
  Your new deficit is $-13.17 billion. (aka surplus)

  by ogre on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 08:24:03 PM PDT

•  What does this mean?

  "Social Security is enormous."

  I don't understand.

  by 0hio on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 08:31:58 PM PDT

•  mmmm....I should have done before the wine

  You have increased the deficit by $196.08 billion.
  Your new deficit is $597.08 billion.

  by SanJoseLady on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 08:32:36 PM PDT

•  Wow.

  If you just stop starving the beast....

  I guess it proves the Republican philosophy that everything is impossible so long as you believe it's true.

  by Gooserock on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 08:38:55 PM PDT

•  At the risk of redundancy, I'll ask the

  damn question again, What do you mean about "Social Security is enormous"?

  Now that I've visited the link and checked out the foolishness, let me ask another question.

  Why attempt to balance a budget when he doesn't give you the revenue info?

  He breaks down the spending but doesn't bother with the income stream? WTF?

  Are we stupid?

  by 0hio on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 08:51:56 PM PDT

•  My plan

  Cut the deficit by about 600 billion dollars or more and produced a 200 some billion dollar surplus. I raised aid to low-income families, veterans' benefits, and held even on social security and medicare. I cut the shit out of the military, eliminated operations in Iraq and Afgan. and cut agriculture and transportation. Oh yeah, I got rid of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.

  by mrgavel on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 09:14:35 PM PDT

•  That was easy

  Eliminate the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.  Eliminate corporate tax breaks and then cut the rest of the tax expenditures and Agriculture budget by 10% (you could easily means test at least that much).  I left everything else the same, including the defense and war budgets (curious that those are counted separately)... and the result---

  You have cut the deficit by $429.53 billion.
  Your new deficit is $-28.52 billion.

  by Beowulf on Fri Oct 07, 2005 at 10:10:48 PM PDT