I don't necessarily agree with all the cuts you suggested, but it's going to be this kind of thinking that will have to take place in Congress if we are ever going to eliminate deficit spending and begin to whittle away at the national debt. Great work! Great list. There are going to need to be some very, very tough choices.

I'd love to know how much money could be saved by the eliminations you listed, but I also recognize that coming up with those numbers would be a whole lot of work. But it could be significant.

From the list, I think I'd start with an across-the-board cut of, say 10% of all the agencies in the Legislative and Executive branches. The under the long list of Independent Agencies, some real cutting and slashing seems like it would be possible. What do some of those agencies do anyway?

If we were able to "price" the savings, and if the author of the article that started this whoile thread is right, that might only be enough to begin to whack away at the deficit. Remember, he stated that our entire tax revenues -- about $2.6-2.7 trillion -- is spent on Social Security, Medicare, defense and interest payments on the national debt. We're actually spending around $3.3 trillion. So almost by definition, whatever cuts in spending that would result from our cutting and slashing wouldn't be enough avoid a spending deficit.

But at least we can all begin to understand the depth of the spending cuts that will be necessary to avoid more deficit spending and begin to repay our debt. Personally, I believe that sometime in the Obama first term we're going to begin hearing discussion of means testing for Social Security and Medicare. There doesn't seem to be any other way to balance the budget. It's not possible to cut our interest payments on the national debt and to think we could substantially reduce defense spending while we're still fighting a war in Afghanistan and trying to replace equipment used up in Iraq doesn't seem reasonable.

The subject of "sacrifice" is almost certain to be an important element in Obama's inauguration speech. I think that's just the beginning of easing the public into the necessary spending cuts that will be life-changing but unavoidable. My guess is that the new administration will concentrate on achieving economic recovery in the first couple of years and will get on with the elimination of deficit spending after the economy is stabilized. While I'd like to see everything done at once, I know that's probably not possible.