Although President Trump and his friend Elon Musk have made a good start in regard to reducing the size of the federal workforce, they have a long way to go as far as reducing the national budget is concerned. This is due to the fact that they require the assistance of the Republican and Democrat parties, who are a combination of clueless and irresponsible.
The 2024 deficit for the national government was $1.832.86 trillion. The deficit for the first 5 months of fiscal year 2025 (October-February) was a record $1.147 trillion. The projected deficit for the year is over $3.4 trillion.
The only response from the Republicans and Democrats was to pass another “temporary spending bill to fund the government for another 6 months.” Their bill will cut national government spending by $7 billion dollars, which would be a cut of 0.103% from the previous year, unless the increase in interest on the national debt is included. When interest on the national debt is included ($952 billion in 2024, over $1 trillion in 2025), their bill is a spending increase.
Since that is not acceptable, the following is a Libertarian alternative. The achievable goal is for a balanced national budget or yearly surplus in ONE YEAR. The maximum time for this is to occur is 6 years or less. A drastic reduction of economic interventionism occurs as the national budget is sharply reduced.
1. Spending Cuts
and Budget Reduction
“Moreover, a drastic cut in the government budget–both in taxes and expenditures–will of itself speed adjustment by changing the social choice toward more saving and investment relative to consumption. For government spending, whatever the label attached to it, is solely consumption. Any cut in the budget, therefore, raises the investment-consumption ratio in the economy and allows more rapid validation of originally wasteful and loss-yielding projects.” – Murray Rothbard, “America’s Great Depression”, p.167
The Congressional Budget Office stated the budget expense was $6.2 trillion for 2023, $6.8 trillion in 2024.
PROCEDURE FOR CUTTING THE NATIONAL BUDGET
1. Eliminate the yearly expense for housing, education and loans at the national level.
Totals for 2023 according to the Congressional Budget Office:
• Housing and Urban Development (HUD) total is $252.84 billion.
• Department of Education total is $174.97 Billion.
• There are 118 programs provide credit assistance. The total amount for 2024 is projected at $2.2 trillion.
• New direct loans total $171 billion. New loan guarantees total $2.0 trillion
$2.2 trillion+$252.84 billion+$174.97 billion=$2.837.81 TRILLION CUT
• Eliminate yearly $50 billion+ wasted on buying the union vote with Unnecessary Road Projects.
• Eliminate $23 Billion in “Climate adaptation and resilience” for Departments of Commerce, Interior, Homeland Security, Agriculture, EPA, Pentagon and Army Corps of Engineers “to address the increasing severity of extreme weather events fueled by climate change.”
• Eliminate $325 billion in paid family and medical leave of 12 weeks for eligible workers.
$2.628 billion plus $398 billion = $3.026 trillion
• Eliminate Foreign Aid, except for Israel – $60.4 billion – $3.83 billion = $57.17 billion
• All taxpayer-funded payments to illegal (or ‘undocumented’) immigrants are eliminated, reducing expenses by the current estimate of $180 Billion per year.
$2.628 Billion + $398 Billion +$57.17 Billion +$180 Billion= $3.263.17 Trillion.
2. Yearly Military
Spending Reduction
Returning to a constitutionally limited and non-interventionist foreign policy will lead to a massive reduction in the bloated $800 billion plus military budget.
The foreign policy of the U.S. has been less than exemplary for quite a long time. We will start with the fact that the United States has bombed at least 32 countries without a preceding declaration of war since the end of World War II and go on from there.
Once this issue is addressed, the U.S. responsibility to restore constitutional foreign policy could then be addressed. The end of an interventionist foreign policy will be one result. It will also create a foundation where the end of economic interventionism will follow logically.
As long as a sincere effort is made to address this and related issues, the likelihood of a foundation for World Peace being created increases exponentially.
The outline for this is shown in the previous articles “Creation of a Foundation for Middle East Peace” (August 2024 issue of Free New York) and “U.S. Foreign Policy and World Peace” (October 2024 issue of Free New York), and the procedure is described below in #6. “Military Budget Reduction/Compensation to be paid.”
PLAN ON A STEADY AND CONTINUING YEARLY
MILITARY BUDGET
REDUCTION.
The first year target is $100 Billion.
Eliminate the “Space Force”.
Its first budget in fiscal year 2021 was $15.3 billion, and it grew to $18 billion in 2022. It jumped to $26.3 billion in 2023 due to internal funds transfers from the Space Development Agency and the Air Force, plus a congressional add-on. Mar 13, 2023.
Their proposed budget is $30 billion for 2024.
Privatize NASA. Their 2023 budget was $25.4 billion, a 5.6% increase over the previous year.
Their budget is $32.41 billion if the amount distributed among ‘sub-components’ is included.
They also have many assets to sell.
$3.263.17 Trillion+$30 Billion+$32.41 Billion=$3.325.58 Trillion Cut to this point.
Budget Reduction continues.
3. Eliminating, Unconstitutional, Redundant and/or Stupid National Government Agencies
The total amount to be eliminated is unknown, but it is substantial. The national government currently contains 440 agencies and 2 million employees. The following is an improvement on the procedure being utilized by President Trump and his friend Elon Musk.
All national government agencies will be reviewed, all that are unconstitutional and/or counterproductive will be eliminated or phased out at the national level. This means that most national government agencies will be eliminated over time.
Not only is the yearly budget expense eliminated, but also all the unnecessary costs they place on honest Americans.
Procedure
This will be done with minimal disruption to the labor market in the following manner. In the year that an agency is eliminated, all the current employees will receive their full salary, whether or not they get a different job.
So in the first year the agency is eliminated except for the cost of salaries, in the second year the cost is reduced to zero.
Additionally, all assets (land, buildings, etc.) is sold to the private sector.
Examples:
Eliminate NHTSA and any rules they have implemented. Actual safety is dependent on the individual.
The real purpose of the NHTSA, like many government agencies, is to mandate optional, expensive and unnecessary items. (The mandatory “Safety Measure” Air bags are an example.
“From 1996 to 2000, 191 people, including 116 children, died in cases in which an air bag was or was suspected to be the cause. In many cases, the deaths came in low-speed crashes, in which the force of the deploying air bags proved fatal.” NewYork Times, Aug. 30, 2001
The NHTSA solution? Mandatory placement of children in the back seat.)
Automakers always comply, since they not only pass on the cost, the price becomes INFINITY once it is mandated. An incredible markup is permitted. A market with a price level of infinity is not a competitive market. NHTSA does this all the time.
Eliminate the NHTSA and massive savings for consumers will occur, safety enhanced, and a tremendous competitive market will ensue.
Eliminate the NLRB, and any rules they have implemented. Massive savings for businesses occurs, employees benefit greatly, massive reduction in economic interventionism occurs.
“Regulation is a Tax”.-Anonymous
Redundant: Homeland Security- return responsibilities to pre 9/11 agencies.
Eliminate the CIA. Ron Paul put their budget at roughly $75 billion in 2012.
A description of the ‘Incompetence and outrageousness of the CIA’ is available in the book “Legacy of Ashes”, by New York Times Pulitzer prize winner Tim Winer. Also, in many other places.
Eliminating or reducing the highly politicized FBI. Amount unknown.
Sale of FBI and CIA Assets, buildings, land, etc. Amount unknown.
WELL OVER $3.5 TRILLION HAS BEN CUT TO THIS POINT.
4. REPAYMENTS DUE
Defeating ‘Divide and Conquer’
A requirement to pay all debts is included. Political debt forgiveness will end immediately. ’Government’ provided student loans, in particular, must all be repaid. The U.S. government has been destroying education for decades. “Forgiving student loan debt” is the government’s way of pardoning itself and continuing the same process.
For many victims of the U.S. Educational system (a.k.a. ‘students’), discovering why debts must be repaid will be the first thing they have learned from the government educational system. They will have a chance to learn how badly they have been cheated, and why it is important to stop this from continuing.
(On a related note, government ‘debt forgiveness’ counts as taxable income, so they get us coming and going.)
Student loan debt repayments to resume. $1.78 trillion due as of the first quarter of 2023.
(This occurs in a country where college football teams composed of unpaid players routinely selling out 80,000 seat stadiums.)
Combine these two items and it is obvious that the U.S. National Government should be removed from all College Loans.
End the “Pension Benefit Corporation.” Union pension funds alone were over $700 billion short by 2021. Trump was prosecuting union officials. Biden stopped it.
$2.5 trillion plus is due.
Phase out of Fed: Yearly 1% sale of assets, $90 billion per year
5. A Small Move Toward a Gold Standard
and Sound Currency
Each year the national government will take 1% of tax revenue and purchase gold. The gold must be held for at least 3 years, so this will not be a mere book-keeping transaction. State and local governments should also do this.
Additionally, 1/10 of 1 percent will be used to buy silver. The country will therefore be making a small move toward a gold and silver standard.
This is tied in with the progression for eliminating the income tax.
6. “Military Budget
Reduction/Compensation
to be Paid.”
Compensation will be deducted from the military budget and paid to foreign governments for four foreign policy crimes:
• Bombing a foreign country without a preceding Declaration of War
• Attempting or succeeding in overthrowing the government of a foreign country without a preceding declaration of war
• Placing economic sanctions on a foreign country without a preceding declaration of war
• Any country that had toxins dropped on their country as part of an undeclared war would be entitled to compensation for this infraction.
This includes dropped pesticides, herbicides, etc. as was done as part of the “War on Drugs.”
It also includes dropping things like napalm on a country during undeclared wars. (As was done in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, for example.)
One billion dollars to each country per infraction would be deducted from the military budget.
Budgetary reduction will therefore occur through a modern adaptation of the Eric-fine for homicide.
The U.S will pay the Eric-fine once only per violation, and wipe the slate clean.
So if a country was bombed 10 times by the U.S. without a preceding declaration of war, they would receive $1 Billion dollars once.
There is much more involved in a Libertarian plan to cut the budget, but this is enough of an outline for now.
See also “The Era of Deficits Don’t Matter is Over”- Ryan McMaken, 5/30/2023