Below is a of suggested list of budget cuts as reported in the January 19, 2011 edition of the Wall Street Journal. The Board has made no study of any of the items for approval. The Board feels that the Federal Budget must eventually be balanced. The list is submitted by the Board as an interesting study and would welcome responses from readers.
Item
10 year
Annual
Eliminate ethanol subsidies
$170
$ 17
Scrap Dept. of Commerce & HUD
$550
$ 55
End farm subsidies
$290
$ 29
Cut NASA by 50%
$ 90
$ 9
Repeal Davis-Bacon labor rules
$ 60
$ 6
End urban mass transit grants
$ 38
$ 3.8
Privatizing air traffic control
$ 38
$ 3.8
Privatize Amtrak and end rail subsidies
$ 31
$ 3.1
Reform federal worker retirement
$ 18
$ 1.8
Retire Americorps
$ 10
# 1
Shutter Small Business Administration
$ 14
$ 1.4
Defense spending over 5 years
$145
$ 29
Repeal Health Insurance and exchanges
$898
$ 89.8
Total CATO annual savings
$ 251.1
Total approved by Congress to avoid shutdown
$ 38
Privatize Social Security (by 2020)
$ 370
Eliminate Department of Energy
$ 27
SUMMARY
Total Savings Listed
$ 734
Total cuts needed to avoid raising the debt ceiling
