My modest proposal:
1)Cut 2% across all departments of gov. If that means lay-offs, well, welcome to the real world.
2) Eliminate the Dept of Education completely. Nothing can be shown to be a bigger failure than this monstrosity. Get rid of it.
3) Require all fed. employees (including elected officials) to pay Social Security taxes and begin an evaluation of fed pensions to bring them back in line w/ private sector pensions.
Continuing to borrow money from the Chinese is absolutely unacceptable.
Great stuff, but I’d go further. Eliminate the Dept. of Education, as you suggested (it was nothing but a payback to the NEA by that idiot, Carter). Eliminate the EPA (need I even say why?). Eliminate HHS....it’s useless. Eliminate the IRS by enacting the Fair Tax (or an acceptable, consumption-based alternative). Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. De-fund PBS. Offer private alternatives to Social Security (Bush kinda sorta tried this, but didn’t have the stomach for the backlash; he was on the right track). Combine Medicaid and Medicare into a single, much more streamlined organization. Dramatically cut the FCC and the (useless) SEC. Enact term limits...and fast. Pursue a “Balanced Budget Amendment” to the Constitution that prohibits any but balanced budgets; no deficits EXCEPT to allow, if necessary, deficits specifically targeted toward military expenditures during times of war.
These will make for a decent start....but only a start.