Rather than tit for tat as you guys propose how about we require the appropriation bills to cite the Constitutional authority for funding a particular endeavor? There is no doubt that true Defense appropriations can meet muster but it starts to get interesting when you consider education, welfare/entitlements, etc.
My belief is that the primary task of the Supreme Court should be to look at those explicit declarations and say either, "Yes, the government can fund this" or "No, this is a bogus claim. The Constituion has no provision for the federal government to involve itself in the field of Education. Denied."
Right now, we spend nearly 2 dollars for every dollar coming in. That suggests we need cuts of at least 40%, including cuts in Social Security and Medicare.
The truth is right now, Americans wouldn’t put up with it. We’ve figured out we like to eat from the pig trough, and we don’t care what it takes. If a conservative is serious, he needs to look at significant cuts in SS & Medicare and welfare and school ‘loans’ and all the other untouchable, dearly loved vote-buying dollars.
If we totally eliminated the Defense Department twice over, we wouldn’t have a balanced budget.