Obama said he'd cut with a scalpel, not a hatchet. Which programs should be cut?
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3 votes
Federal Contracting
The federal government should eliminate contracting. Contracting companies cost the government about 18 billion dollars more than it would cost to simply hire people. This money is largely funneled to contracting company executives and lobbying efforts.
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1 votes
Revise the "Presidental dollar" ($3) campaign fund.
Obama refused the voluntary "Presidental campaign dollar" funding for his campaign. Indeed, both the major parties have good fund-raising machines, already.
Designate this fund to go only to third party and independent candidates, revising the requirements such that these candidates have easier access to the funds to raise new issues during Presidential elections.
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3 votes
Let tax payers set budget priorities
This was an idea I advanced years ago in grad school. When people complete their income tax forms (after tax reform simplifying the tax code, of course), let those who pay the taxes (not those who owe no taxes) indicate their preference for proportional spending among several budget categories of spending. This would be a few extra tick-marks on a tax form.
Either: 1) allocate those proportions to accounts of the specified budget categories; or 2) use aggregated statistical ranges to set budget category ranges whithin which the President and Congress must stay when detailing the federal budget.
This has several advantages, without taking actual line item decisions away from our top lawmakers. First, people will get what they want, so they must be careful in making their choices. Second, it gives our leaders a clear signal about how tax dollars should be spend.
I won't go so far as to suggest that this move would make paying taxes more popular, but it would certainly give taxpayers more satisifaction when paying those taxes if they know they have direct input to spending priorities.
I will go so far as to suggest that such an approach could be an alternative to all the "special loophole" deductions that encourage people to spend money in ways the government would like. Rather, have the taxpayer indicate how they would like the government to spend tax dollars.
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10 votes
"Use it or lose it" policies
When government gives out money based on the amount used, as opposed to what results the money can produce, it discourages efficiency. I see this waste happening all the time, especially in large public works projects where money gets spent because it can, not because it needs to. The new economic stimulus programs should not just dole out money as quickly as possible to anyone who can "use" it.
