People, it's exactly 0 dollars and 0 cents. If I was king, getting rid of NASA would be one of the first things I would do. Instead, President O has found room somewhere in his newly announced 3.8 trillion dollar austerity budget to
bump NASA's funding up to 19 billion dollars. Now I know 19 billion doesn't amount to a hill of beans when considered in the light of a projected 1.6 trillion dollar deficit, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.
My second choice for a zero budget is the Transportation Security Administration. There's another 7 billion or so we could stop smacking ourselves over the head with every year.
Who's got next?
U.S. Agricultural Department, end all market distorting agricultural subsidies...
ReplyDeleteNot that it will ever happen...
This is why your blog is the only econ blog I read anymore... All of this is too hopeless and depressing...
At least you guys put the fun in econ...
--Ed
IRS budget 12 billion this year.
ReplyDeletetobacco subsidies 18 billion per year
ReplyDeleteBIA budget >2 BILLION this year
ReplyDeleteI agree, but lets not let public funding for education go untouched. End public student loans and funding for k-12 and higher ed.
ReplyDeleteFDA
ReplyDeleteLets cut the salaries/perks of Congress. They are just dead weight...
ReplyDeleteFunny thing, cutting NASA's budget was one of BHO's planks when he ran. You could go to his website and see how he was going to "postpone" a large chunk of NASA's budget for a decade or so, with plans to resume the moon/mars programs at or after the end of his first term. And somehow we were going to be able to magically get our scientists back at that time too.
ReplyDeleteOh well.
I'm highly in favor of ending all agricultural subsidies. I'd reassign the Department of Agriculture to operate solely as an enforcer of truth-in-labeling laws to combat fraud and asymmetric information.
ReplyDeletenorman: or, we could just let brand names do the combating of fraud and asymmetric information, in conjunction with the interwebs.
ReplyDelete(same logic as to why the FDA can be canned)
How has the Defense Dept escaped mention? I can't quite advocate $zero for them, but surely they could defend our shores from all countries likely to invade us for ... say a tenth of what they're spending now.
ReplyDelete/Need to start by reassigning all troops now deployed overseas to Kansas.
Bonus, extra credit $zero: for foreign aid. Newsmax says that would save $52 Billion.
ReplyDeleteFor cabinet level only, here are the keepers:
ReplyDeleteDepartment of State
Department of the Treasury
Department of Defense (renamed to Department of War)
Here's the dead weight:
Department of Justice
Department of the Interior
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Labor
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Department of Energy
Department of Education
These last two should be disbanded and their functions given to Department of War:
Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Homeland Security
Even though 3 departments are kept, it doesn't mean that their funding should be anywhere close to where it is now. State should be able to limp along on a billion a year, at most, Treasury should be self-funded (sell lottery tickets or something), and Dept. of War will only be funded to the extent necessary to maintain readiness and fund wars duly authorized by a declaration of war.
White House staff should be limited to only those required for the upkeep of the property, and one helper for the Pres. The First Lady, Vice-Pres, and all others should be able to do their own laundry and scheduling.
Congress should pay for their own parking, and pay rent to the guv on their office space at the going rate for commercial space in DC.
Everyone, except for the Pres on an official trip, should pay to fly commercial, or take Amtrak if they don't like the first option.
Ignoring for now the monster under the bed of entitlements, how's that plan for a start?