I took the budget cut challenge ... and failed!

From the comments on this post: 

Mal said...

Now is not the time to advocate new ways to spend on "good"ideas. That's easy. Anybody anytime can do that. 
Our leaders with the cheer leading of most of the media have been doing that for too many years. And now we're basically broke. I repeat WE ARE BROKE. We are deep in debt. We are in danger of collapsing because of our debt. 
NOW IS THE TIME TO PRIORITIZE AND COME UP WITH WAYS TO REDUCE SPENDING. The notion that the 3-5% cuts of the sequester are going to "devastate" some government program is absurd.
Why doesn't media start presenting cost cutting ideas people befor we collapse. And that includes you John.

John Whitehead said in reply to Mal...

Matt's suggestion is revenue neutral.

That said, I would propose:

1. big cuts in defense spending, including no activist foreign wars (e.g., Iraq)
2. a carbon tax
3. income taxes back to pre-Bush levels
4. raising the age limits on social security
5. indexing social security and other such payments to something other than the CPI, which better reflects the impact of inflation

Mal said in reply to John Whitehead...

Their is hope here. 3 of 5 good ideas to cut spending but still 2 of 5 to basically enable or maintain spending. And revenue neutral just doesn't cut it. It's so difficult to face the reality that we have and are living beyond our means. Rome found out this the hard way. One can argue the merits of various tax increases but unless spending is reduced first it only enables the status quo which is the inevitable demise of our way of life. PRIORITIZE NOW! We're near the tipping point.
Regards and thanks for the response
Lynn

Leave your own suggestions for ways to cut the budget deficit, but I hope you realize that any revenue increase is a wrong answer. And no partial credit!