Where Should Government Cut The Fat?

Here are some ideas you have submitted so far: 

Teresa

Tell us where to cut the fat. Don’t spend my money to send the Imam Feisal Abdul Raul to the middle east to raise money to build the Cordoba Mosque at Ground Zero. They build mosques on the site of victory over their enemies.

Joyce

Tell us where to cut the fat. We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heroes . And it’s not “impossible.” The image of the Senate and the House and all of its members is rightfully very low right now, and change IS possible if we try hard enough.

Congressional Reform Act of 2010

1. Term Limits: Only 12 years, in one of the following ways:

A. Two 6-year Senate terms
B. Six 2-year House terms
C. One 6-year Senate term and three 2-year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension:
A congressman collects a salary while in office, but receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:
All funds currently in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of the CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make these contracts with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators. Serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

Gerald

Tell us where to cut the fat. Congressman Wilson, Thank you for representing the cause of sound fiscal policy in our congress. I agree generally with your plan. A 20% spending cut sounds like a lot, but if you do it gradually it might not hurt too badly. I agree with you that it is imperative that we balance the budget. Spending should be cut in small percentages all across the board, resulting in a large savings overall. It is a moral imperative that government should not spend more than it can collect reasonably. Once you balance the budget, you might introduce a mechanism to maintain a small surplus. We must wean America from the outrageous idea that we can borrow our way into more and more spending. Contrary to what people like Paul Krugman tell us, the U.S. budget is not a revolving credit card account. Thanks for your efforts.

John

Tell us where to cut the fat. 1 Stop paying lazy people not to work! Limit unemployment benefits to 12 weeks; if you haven’t found a job in 12 weeks, you’re not trying! They might not get an inside job making big bucks, heck they might even have to sweat some. The jobs the illegals have now could be theirs. And if we take the illegal’s jobs, they will have to go somewhere else; a double benefit for America.

2 Turn off the air conditioner and open the window in Nancy Pelosi’s office, trying to combat that much HOT AIR, is wasting money and a losing battle! Thank you, and keep up the good work!

Jackie

Where to cut the fat. EVERYWHERE… WE ARE GOING DOWN THE TUBES FOR
ALL THE SPENDING ON CRAP EVERYWHERE EXCEPT DEFENSE..
WE ARE LOOKING MORE WEAK BY THE DAY WITH ALL THE DEFENDING
THE TERRORISTS ARE GETTING..
WE ALL SHOULD BE EMBARASSED BY THIS COUNTRY ‘S SPENDING
OVER THE YEARS AND NO ONE TO ACCOUNT IT TO..
AND GUESS WHO THAT SHOULD BE.. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE..
NO ACCOUNTING FOR THE STIMULUS AND BAIL OUTS???
IT IS LOONEY TOONE LAND.. BUT, WORSE THAN THAT
IT IS TAKING THIS COUNTRY DOWN THE TUBES..
SO THAT IS MY TAKE…FOR WHAT EVER IT IS WORTH..
BUT I KNOW I SPEAK FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE..

Gary

Tell us where to cut the fat. Anyone receiving Federal public assistance of any kind they did not specifically earn through payroll deduction (e.g. Social Security) such as food Stamps, housing, unemployment, etc. must submit to a drug test to receive that assistance. If found positive for illegal drugs, they must enroll in a drug counseling and/or rehabilitation program. If found positive must submit to monthly retesting until clean or set a limit (3 months, 6 months) after which they are removed from public assistance until they can prove they are clean. They must also PROVE their citizenship or legal status.

Everyone on public assistance is REQUIRED, if physically and mentally capable, to provide some sort of public benefit in exchange for that assistance. Picking up trash, volunteering in public services (police, fire, forestry, parks and recreation, …), cleaning graffiti … something other than sitting on their duff.

EVERY Federal worker or elected official must pass a drug test and a security clearance appropirate to their position. This is already present in the Federal work force, but this shold also apply to elected officials. If you are elected to Congress, you must pass a security background check to the level of information which you will be exposed in briefings or committees. If an elected official can’t pass the background check, they can serve the people who elected them, but may not receive information or be on a committee where classified information is made known. This would significantly limit the damage done by and resultant cost of corrupt officials.

I have more, just let me know if you are interested.

Wendi

Tell us where to cut the fat.  Sell State and Federal land back to the taxpayers.

Stop the spending where there are unions involved… they need to sustain themselves or fail.

Privatize any of the number of public ’services’ we currently have. It will not mean job losses… the people that are currently employees of the State can seek positions with the private companies

jo

Tell us where to cut the fat. Put congress on our social security. No laws enacted that do not include congress. Put congress on our health care. No pay raises created by congress for congress——-set up a group that cannot be “bought” and determine congress salary. For goodness sake stop the baby encouragement——–no American citizens from illegals. Congress created this immigration mess by having this law!!!!!!!!!! Term limits —– six years and then go home!!!!!!!!!! Otherwise we are going to vote all incumbents out of office and send them home. Stop Muslim immigration. They do no want to enjoy America—— they want to make America a Muslim country. They make trouble wherever try go and they defintely do not want to integrate. They kill their children when they do marry a non Muslim. Before it is too late—— deal with the muslims. Congress causes our problems and they are getting worse. We don’t have very many Joe Wilson’s. I am angry as you can see. Are you sorry you asked for i nfo? Stop congress perks. they are not above the laws that they make for the rest of us!!!!!! Thanks, jo

 Jane

Tell us where to cut the fat. Keep Obama from using Air Force One to go on vacations and campaining and The First Lady using the plane for her own use…do they pay for this when it is personal and when he goes to help his buddies win an election?
Plus the Secret Service and all the cars they use which have to be flown over on airplanes!!!

Cut the personnel – they spend more on employees and have more employees than any other – that is were some of the fat goes.

Cut across the board 10%..what is the percentage that do not even pay taxes and yet get food stamps, etc. The poor are taken care of but the middle class is left out of the equation

Continue to campaign on the economy – jobs, jobs, jobs – stimulus money-
deficit – Obama health care.

Henry

Tell us where to cut the fat. Eliminate the Income Tax replace it with a National Sales Tax or Value added tax whatever name you want to call it. Keep the I.R.S. as an internal audit of the taxes,where it goes how it is spent A basic P&L for each program.When a check is cut it must have an audit trail

Joan

Tell us where to cut the fat. Eliminate the Department of Education and establish a small agency to oversee minimum National education requirements.

bob

Tell us where to cut the fat. WHY DON’T WE AUDIT ALL DISABLITY CLAIMS FROM THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADM. i DEAL WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC ON A DAILY BASIS AND i SEE A LOT OF PEOPLE ON DISABLITY THAT SEEM TO ME COULD WORK @ SOMETHING. BEING OVERWEIGHT IS NO EXCUSE FOR DISABILITY.
MAYBE WE COULD CUT BACK ON SOME OF THE GOVT. PERKS THAT COME WITH OFFICE HOLDERS. DO THEY REALLY NEED ALL THAT THEY GET.
I THINK THAT IF ELECTED OFFICIALS (THE RIGHT ONES) SAT DOWN, WITH NOTHING BEING LISTED AS UNTOUCHABLE, THEY COULD COME UP WITH FAR BETTER IDEAS THAN I. BUT, IT SEEMS THAT EVERYONE HAS AN AGENDA OR A SPECIAL INTEREST THAT NEEDS TO BE STROKED. THIS HAS TO STOP. THE UNIONS ARE KILLING THIS COUNTRY.
THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO HAVE AN INPUT. ITS APPRECIATED.

Don

Tell us where to cut the fat. Eliminate non functional agencies such as:
1. EPA
2. Department of energy.
3. Department of education.
4. Department of agriculture.
Perhaps much smaller and more restricted agencies should be created, but these things are have not accomplished original objectives and probably cannot do so with the present organization.

Roy

Tell us where to cut the fat. 
Put a hold on all government hiring..

Congress should take a 10% pay cut..It would show the public that congress is willing to do its part in reducing costs..

Cut the budget of all federal agencies except Defense by at least 10%..

Eliminate all earmarks for at least 5 years

Eliminate cogressional travel outside the Us to military aircraft..No family travel allowed or paid for

Reduce the size of Government auto fleet by 20%

Cut franking priveledge in half..

Reduce congressional staffs by 25% across the board..

Change Congressional work day to 9 am to 5 pm.( all the night time hours must add costs..Electric..Overtime other..)

Ruth

Tell us where to cut the fat. Cut funding from the czar run programs.
Cut the White House operational and travel budget to the Average Bush years.
Cut the EPA budget and Sunset all new Obama programs and departments.
Defund the Healthcare bilol!
Remove funding from Acorn and its survivor organizations and ISEU.

Arnold

Tell us where to cut the fat.  Fair Tax, School Vouchers, Secure Borders, and political parties that put the country ahead of their political power. What you suggest sounds good, especially encouraging real health care reform, but it is not enough. We need to correct past and present wrong turns with fundamental changes that return to the Constitution and put government in its place. We need to return to our roots of freedom, opportunity, moral standards, thrift, and personal responsibility and charity. In my view, this should begin with a fundamental change in the way government is funded, the corrupt, manipulated income tax. Closely associated is the requirement for a well educated population. We will not get this until we have school vouchers and envolved parents. The population of the world is growing and we cannot afford open borders and anchor babies for uneducated and fiscally dependent people.

Fire the czars and their boss. Get rid of the Departments of Energy and Education. Phase out all government entitlement programs. Regularly review government pay scales and retirement programs. Emphasize tort reform, free trade, freedom of choice, and reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks. I have worked internationally and experienced wonderful health care that is available there. I had a spinal fusion in Singapore years ago that was much better and less costly than what was available in Houston at that time. International health competition may help correct our problem.

david

Tell us where to cut the fat. Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Too many judges. Justice takes too long. Government pensions are too generous. Grants to Arts projects not productive. Congressional staffers too numerous. Get rid of the czars and their organizations. Stop aid to Hammas. INCREASE MILITARY PAY.

Randy

Tell us where to cut the fat. First, thank you and keep up the good work.

Second, to cut the fat, we need to know where the fat is. It’s easy to talk about reducing unnecessary government spending and waste, but the people need to be educated about it. Until we are specifically and graphically made aware of the enormity and pervasiveness of the problem, we the voters will likely not connect the dots and act appropriately in November.

I suggest you create a spreadsheet that shows, in easy to understand form, where the waste has been made. A great model can be seen at the ESPN NFL sports statistics page where the categories (columns) can be sorted. The categories would include: Congressmen (Congresswoman), State, Amount, Description, Bill. The description would likely be a short abstract, but a more comprehensive and – this is important – LAYMAN’s description of the of the expenditure item would be available via a hyperlink.

A great start to the living spreadsheet(database) would be the healthcare bill, where, for example, it would be exposed that the bill calls for 3000 (?) new IRS agents whose sole job is to [?? whatever it is, police the doctors? hospitals? insurance companies? to make sure they follow the new rules].

The site could also carry things like links to the BS of the other side, such as the one I saw yesterday on YouTube where Nancy Pelosi said in response to a Wolf Blitzer direct question, as she raised her right hand in pledge style, “I can pledge you that no earmark or any of that [intelligible] description you make of it, uh, will be in the bill that passes the house.”

I believe nothing will be so powerful as exposing the truth – not just in a campaign speech, but in an easy to access and easy to understand Internet website.

Robert

Tell us where to cut the fat. Maybe we could shed any branch of government bureauracy that is not answerable in some way to congress or the public. Thank-you and your team.

Roxy

Tell us where to cut the fat.  1. No Earmarks; Cut Czars and government bureaucracies that do not report to the Congress; cut immediately.
2. No support for financial institutions except federal deposit insurance
3. No intrusion of the federal government in any private sector business i.e. health care, auto, etc.; cut payments for Fannie and Freddie Mae, ACORN or Planned Parenthood (it was already determined to be fraudulently taking money from the Government; why give crooks more money?)
4. Cut spending in Washington especially IRS (don’t need 100,000 more agents)
5. Cut retirement pays especially of the Democratic Congressmen/women that caused the mess in the first place (base the cuts on who voted for Stimulus bills, etc.).
6. Make the recipients of the Stimulus funds, etc. restore what was given and stop all payments that have not been spent.
7. Stop all lobby monies going to Congressmen and Senators because it appears that that was the cause of all the paybacks and bogus stimulus; need legislation that will stop the manipulation of Congress and Senate by outside individuals/organizations; Congressmen and Senators are to be accountable to the people not organizations.
8. Cut all appointees by the President that were not approved by the Congress.
9. Do not fund mosques in the U.S. or elsewhere; with all the hype about separation between church and state – why are mosques being built with US funds?
10. Evaluate every governmental agencies to strip them of unnecessary people, pay raises, and buildings. Use especially pre-2008 staffing as a guideline. May need to get more radical but do so immediately.

Erik

Tell us where to cut the fat. Eliminate half of all government agencies and departments, fire half of the employees of the remaining ones, cut salaries in half of the remaining employees.

scott

Tell us where to cut the fat. We must stop sending billions all over the world, especially to countries that hate us!,..
Also people who have been on welfare for generations,…must get trained for employment or work for the city picking up trash for their free tax payer money
Congress can take a pay cut also.