{"id":1702,"date":"2026-06-21T12:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=1702"},"modified":"2026-06-21T12:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:42:23","slug":"how-do-we-balance-the-federal-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=1702","title":{"rendered":"How Do We Balance the Federal Budget?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

One of the main reasons for voting for Trump in 2024 was the promise, through DOGE, of balancing the federal budget.\u00a0\u00a0For whatever reason, many of the cuts were not implemented, and we are still currently running a $1.9-trillion deficit with trillion-dollar deficits projected into the future.\u00a0\u00a0This is not sustainable.\u00a0\u00a0Our federal debt is at 130 percent of GDP, and interest payments exceed $1 trillion per year.\u00a0\u00a0We must balance the federal budget.\u00a0\u00a0Here is my proposal on how we can get there.<\/p>

Read more What the Iran MOU Is Really All About<\/a><\/p>\n

First, eliminate the fraud in the system, which is estimated at between $200 billion and $500 billion per year.\u00a0\u00a0We have started uprooting this, but let\u2019s continue and accelerate the efforts.\u00a0\u00a0I estimate savings at $300 billion per year if we eliminated all the fraudulent spending.<\/p>\n

Second, end the subsidies and government control regimes implemented to \u201ccombat climate change.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The Big Beautiful Bill addressed some but not all of these, and it left several of these payments in place through 2027.\u00a0\u00a0We must eliminate all the efforts to control gases that are necessary for life on earth to exist, like carbon dioxide, including the ethanol subsidy.\u00a0\u00a0Total spending on these programs total about $300 billion per year.<\/p>\n

Third, moving to individual health accounts would reduce much of the middle-man expenses and regulatory expenses imbedded in the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0\u00a0Eliminating these unnecessary bureaucratic expense and bloated health care costs would save about $300 billion per year.<\/p>\n

Then we need to tackle the big expense: the cost of the bloated bureaucracy.\u00a0\u00a0Compensation for federal government employees is more than twice the average compensation package for someone working in the private sector.\u00a0\u00a0We need to bring these costs more in line.\u00a0\u00a0A one-third reduction in staffing plus a one-third reduction in average total compensation would save about $600 billion per year, as specified below.<\/p>\n

We currently spend $261 billion on federal salaries and an additional $160 billion on benefits.\u00a0\u00a0It is in this benefit package that we are most out of line, as the overhead rate for government employees average 62 percent of salaries versus 35 percent in the private sector.\u00a0\u00a0The largest cuts would be to those benefits, specifically retirement funding.\u00a0\u00a0Make full retirement age 67 across all sectors, with an early retirement at 62 with an 8-percent reduction in benefits for every year before retirement age, so 40 percent at age 62.\u00a0\u00a0Retirement benefits should be 70 percent of the average of the top 35 years of employment adjusted for inflation using Social Security\u2019s wage inflator.\u00a0\u00a0If less than 35 years worked, a zero amount compensation would be added to all years to get to 35.\u00a0\u00a0Also reduce the number of paid days off, which can total as much as 50 a year, to a maximum of 21 PTO days, 8 federal holidays, and one floating holiday.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That plus a 10-percent across-the-board pay reduction should get us to the 33 percent.<\/p>\n

Most of the compensation is not paid to W-2 employees, but rather to the $751 billion we spend on contractors and consultants.\u00a0\u00a0The compensation amounts need to just be reduced by one third each in rate and number of people employed.<\/p>

Read more How Bulletproof Are Joe Biden\u2019s Pardons?<\/a><\/p>\n

On top of these reductions, we need to eliminate duplicate of opposing government programs, like the 18 separate agencies that work for youth employment.\u00a0\u00a0Proposals go back to Martin Gross\u2019s Government Waste 2000 and many reductions outlined in Project 2025, which was really primarily a blueprint for downsizing government.\u00a0\u00a0While many of these points are included above, an additional $200\u2013300 billion in savings can be squeezed out by these efforts.<\/p>\n

Many pork-laden projects were included in the latest infrastructure bill.\u00a0\u00a0Infrastructure should be separated from the operating budget project, and fully funded through road use and fuel excise taxes, as well as new excise taxes on electric vehicles and batteries to cover road use.\u00a0\u00a0These funds should not be available to be used for anything outside infrastructure.\u00a0\u00a0Savings and revenue generation should provide another $50\u2013100 billion of deficit reduction.<\/p>\n

Finally, we need to address the elephant in the room: funding Social Security and Medicare.\u00a0\u00a0Benefit cuts are off the table so the only solution is tax increases.\u00a0\u00a0I propose increasing the Medicare tax from 1.45 percent to 2 percent and the Social Security tax from 6.2 percent to 6.5 percent.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, I propose tripling the FICA maximum, currently at $184,750, with a new 7.5-percent crediting rate to preserve the defined benefit nature of the payouts.\u00a0\u00a0Implementing these increases would generate about $300 billion per year and keep these programs solvent through the end of the century.<\/p>\n

As we downsize the government, we should also be able to sell off many government assets and real estate holdings.\u00a0\u00a0In downtown Chicago, for instance, the feds have gone from operating four buildings when I was a child to thirteen today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We ultimately want to target total federal debt at between 30\u201340 percent of GDP, which would allow for massive future tax relief as we retire debt.<\/p>

Read more Bring Back the Patriarchy<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"<p><em>Image:<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Image: pasja1000 via Pixabay, Pixabay License.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the main reasons for voting for Trump in 2024 was the promise, through DOGE, of balancing the federal budget.\u00a0\u00a0For whatever reason, many of the cuts were not implemented, and we are still currently running a $1.9-trillion deficit with trillion-dollar deficits projected into the future.\u00a0\u00a0This is not sustainable.\u00a0\u00a0Our federal debt is at 130 percent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-national-debt"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Do We Balance the Federal Budget? - Interstate Logistics Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=1702\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Do We Balance the Federal Budget? 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