Nonsense; just cut funding for every government agency that is not authorized to Congress via Art 1, Sec 8 or otherwise directly mandated by the Constitution.
It would eliminate pretty much everything but the Post Office, the Army, the Navy (of which the Marines are a part), the Department of Transportation, the Secret Service (they’re supposed to be about pursuing counterfeiting), the Mint/Treasury, and [perhaps] the IRS (Amd. 16 is part of the Constitution).
If there are objections, tell them to amend the Constitution.
A case in point. When it was announced the Meals on Wheels would be cut, which we now know was fake news, there were a number of people on this website who posted comments that money should not be cut for this program, which only proves my point that the budget can't be cut significantly.
Besides, Trump wants to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure, which China will need to finance, so we will continue deficits in the hundreds of billions a year.
What was proven in the 90s, is that economic growth is the answer. While on paper we had surpluses, in reality, we did not. The reason is because Social Security cost is not included in the budget. Since Social Security is a pay as you go system, the income is included in the budget, but the payments are not. So, the actual budget deficit is hundreds of billions of dollars more than publicized.
Besides, withdrawing that much money out of the economy would cause a deep depression. It would be a disaster and no president would allow that to happen in that way.
I'm with you, but realism is my thing.