It’s no secret that the U.S. federal deficit is over $14 trillion dollars and increasing every second (www.usdebtclock.org). Numerous politicians, both Republican and Democrats, discuss curbing the deficit on a federal scale in Congress, yet it is all for naught; there is very little action taking place. Yet, there are many ways to tackle the deficit.
Defense represents a major part of the national deficit. In 2010, the U.S. government spent $895.9 billion dollars on defense, even though 2010 was a year when troops were largely pulled out of Iraq (www.usgovernmentspending.com). Unless defense is cut, there will be no progress in tackling the national deficit. In his State of the Union speech on January 25, 2011, President Barack Obama called for a “five year freeze in non-defense domestic discretionary spending” (www.americanprogress.org). However, the defense budget is a sacred cow which must be carved; if the defense budget was razed, over ten years $9 trillion dollars would be shed from the U.S. national deficit.
Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are also major areas of the budget which need to be eliminated at least in some extent. According to Freshman Michael Russell, “The age that it’s at right now is way too low; I think it should probably be at 70, because people live longer and it is important for American people to work longer and if they have a disability and they get money for the government, then they should at least do community service.”
Raising the minimum age for Social Security is necessary for meaningful deficit measures. Also, Medicaid and Medicare need to be gradually eliminated since they cover much of the area which President Obama’s new healthcare bill and Social Security already cover, making them redundant and outdated measures.
Education spending, which is equal to 5.7% of the U.S. GDP, is among the highest of any developed nation (www.nationmaster.com). Freshman James Patrick Miller commented that the federal government must “completely eliminate the No Child Left Behind Act”. NCLB presented many excessive spending measures which must be razed for the sake of domestic hegemony for posterity.
Arts funding is another extraneous section of the American budget. Art is a vital area of American culture, but right now it should not be sustained. The National Endowment of Arts, one of the main carriers of arts spending, has a 2011 budget of $161.3 million (www.nea.gov). In ten years, over a billion dollars could be saved from eliminating the NEA. After the economy recovers, certain branches of the NEA can be revived. However, over the time this article was written, the federal deficit was increased by over 84 million dollars. Instant action is necessary.