I could balance the budget in 3 years. Sell off or lease the majority of public lands. Make welfare, food stamps and section 8 available only to those who cannot work for valid reasons, and then, only those who’re unlikely to return to work for at least 2 years. All others will receive job training and work search classes, only. Those will receive commodity foods and food bank donations, only. Reincorporate the Air Force back into the Army and the Coast Guard into the Navy. Place the Army Airborne into the Marine Corps. Combine all special forces into one organization that will be uniformely highly trained. Cut federal employee pay and benefits by 25% and tie increases to the cost-of-living index, with a 5 year moritorium of now increases. Cut every agency budget and employee wise by 20% with further downgrades to follow a bi-partisan study, similar to the base closings. Make the federal agencies justify their not leasing land to mining and energy companies. Abolish the EPA and OSHA. Etc, etc..
If you put your mind to it, you could do it in a year. Abolishing whole departments is the place to start - Energy, Education, Commerce, Labor, Interior. The few programs that are worthwhile (VA, Indian Affairs, Park Service, etc.) we’d keep.
Anytrhing is possible if you have the will.
I agree with most of what you wrote and believe that it won't matter as long as the majority of voters are educated in government schools whose very existence is a socialist institution.
But, I beg to quibble with the selling off of public lands. Recently there have been some huge petroleum finds that are on public lands. One of them is near the borders of Colorado Utah and Wyoming that according to at least one federal department contains more recoverable petroleum than all the other known reserves on the planet. So leasing the land is good, but pumping the oil, fracking the gas and mining the coal for revenue is even better. We have the oil and coal to sustain us for centuries, which is a huge blessing, but at the same time we have a source of revenue to retire the debt if we return to a limited constitutional government. All that doesn't matter, because we lack the will and the desire for freedom. For most, twelve years in socialist training camps education centers makes the hunger for liberty wither till it is at most a faint memory and echos of a history long gone. No more do men pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor for the cause of liberty, it is now pass the bear and have you seen my remote control.
That part I disagree with, but the rest are all good ideas. In reality, I would have all land forces under a land command, and all sea forces under a sea command. IOW, we'd have an Army and a Navy. When they debark to fight on land, they're land forces, and when they embark to fight at sea they're sea forces. There are excellent reasons for both land and sea forces to have their own air assets.
“Sell off or lease the majority of public lands.”
Why?
I have an even easier way to balance the budget. And we could do it in a month. Simply repudiate the national debt.
After you pick your jaw up off the floor, think about it for a moment. Why should we put our kids and grandkids into debt slavery to pay off a bunch of debt that they had nothing to do with? Why do we want to mortgage the future to repay the chicoms and saudis? What sort of masochism would motivate us to want to pay the unpayable to people who hate us?
Naturally, repudiation means no more credit granted. Voila! Instant balanced budget: because we would have NO OTHER CHOICE.
But this is all academic. The reality is the current crop of Americans and their political representatives have no more desire to balance the budget than they do to poke their own eyes out. The can will be kicked down the road until as a practical matter, some form of repudiation is the only choice left.