Congress could balance the federal budget in one year if it adopted all the spending cuts recommended by Citizens Against Government Waste in their annual “Prime Cuts” report.
Combined, the report recommends 618 spending cuts, totaling $644.1 billion in their first year and $2.6 trillion over five years. If implemented, that would mean the federal budget would have a $110 billion surplus, its first surplus since the Clinton administration.
But a big portion of those savings, almost half, rely on one-time injection of revenue by devoting repaid TARP funds to deficit reduction. That would equate to roughly $308 billion saved, according to the group.
Congress might adopt some of the report’s recommendations, but their odds of being adopted in full are nearly zero. The report rejects the idea that there are any “sacred cows” in the federal budget that shouldn’t be cut, so there’s something for everybody to hate.
Some of the more interesting cuts recommended include raising Social Security’s retirement age (would save $100 million in one year, but savings grow rapidly after that), repealing the Davis-Bacon Act ($512 million), killing Amtrak subsidies ($1.4 billion), replacing the $1 bill with a $1 coin ($146 million), ending Americorps ($346 million) and eliminating the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts ($335 million). It even recommends privatizing the United States Postal Service.
The biggest spending cut they recommend is elimination for the rural utilities service, a program with roots dating back to a 1935 program that took electricity to rural areas. Now, the program provides loans and grants to take telephone and broadband service to rural areas. The program includes the Water and Waste Disposal System Loans and Grants Programs, whose projects rarely finish on time and have created a small fraction of the jobs promised. Ending the program would save $9.6 billion in one year, and $48.1 billion over five years.
On top of that, the report suggests cutting several other farm subsidies, like sugar subsidies ($1.2 billion saved in one year), dairy subsidies ($1.1 billion) and peanut subsidies ($55 million).
“By following the blueprint provided by CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2016, wasteful government spending can be eliminated, the U.S. can achieve the first balanced budget since FY 1998, and the nation can begin to lower the fiscally calamitous national debt,” said Citizens Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz on Tuesday in a press release.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
