Saving America from Bankruptcy

The day is fast approaching when the United States government will be bankrupt. This is not my hyperbole. It is the judgement of the Comptroller of the United States and the Federal Reserve of St. Louis. Social Security and Medicare are going to balloon out of control over the next couple of decades. Budget deficits had been cut and a surplus was seen for the first time in over forty years under Bill Clinton. Still, the national debt was at 4 trillion dollars. Under George Bush and the Republican controlled Congress, the surplus disappeared and deficits again exploded to the point where, under George Bush's Administration, the national debt has more than doubled to about 9 trillion dollars. Under the socialist policies of a potential second Clinton Administration you can be sure that socialized medicine will continue to expand the debt. Trade policies have caused the trade deficit to grow to an unprecedented level. China now has more than a trillion dollars of our money as surplus capital on hand that they can use for a variety of purposes like space exploration, social engineering or war, depending on their national interest. The United States of America is no longer the richest country in the world; China holds that distinction. We are a debtor nation that continues to borrow money at an unsustainable rate.

The only way to stave off economic disaster is a libertarian approach to government. The federal government must be cut and cut drastically or else we will be forced by the necessity of bankruptcy to do it.

Based on the estimated 2006 budget, here's how we save America from disaster.

Cut the Department of Interior. Savings - 9.3 billion dollars
Cut the Department of Agriculture. Savings - 95.7 billion dollars
Cut the Department of Commerce. Savings - 6.5 billion dollars
Cut the Department of Labor. Savings - 51.4 billion dollars
Cut the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Savings - 46.8 billion dollars
Cut the Department of Transportation. Savings - 61.3 billion dollars
Cut the Department of Energy. Savings - 22.8 billion dollars
Cut the Department of Education. Savings - 84 billion dollars

Total savings - 377.8 billion dollars

There are 56 independent agencies and commissions that should be looked at for elimination including NASA, USAID, NEA and NEH, and NRPC. These agenices and commissions represent government luxuries that we can no longer afford.

My cuts leave intact the Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services. My cuts do not affect people who rely on a federal handout to survive.

The Department of Health and Human Services is the most expensive department in the federal government. In 2005, HHS consumed 580 billion dollars. Medicare accounted for 337.9 billion dollars of that. Medicaid and SCHIP accounted for another 198.1 billion dollars. Something has to be done to move people off Medicare and Medicaid and onto something more sustainable. Social Security, which is an independent agency, currently funds itself with a surplus, thanks to the tax increase put in place under Ronald Reagan. But that surplus will quickly disappear as the baby boomers retire and Medicare will grow almost exponentially. Another tax increase could keep Social Security solvent for longer. Getting rid of HHS can more than double the rate at which we dispatch with the national debt. Putting more people on government funded health care is NOT an answer.

We can keep going along like we have been and watch our country go down in financial flames, or we can do something about it and stop electing Republicans and Democrats who won't do anything. Electing Ron Paul President would be an excellent first step towards saving this country from its socialist past.