The Heritage Foundation: Leadership for America

Our Vision

Building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish.

America is at a tipping point. Federal spending now exceeds tax revenues by $1.6 trillion a year. That means 40 percent of what Washington spends is borrowed. Washington must make drastic budget cuts now to preserve our freedom and prosperity.

The liberals claim they can’t cut enough in the federal budget to make a significant difference. We’re betting you can do better!

Below are 5 projects or programs in the federal budget—among the many that The Heritage Foundation has targeted for elimination. What would you cut? Your answers will be matched with those of Heritage Foundation experts . . . and Heritage will use your responses to help make the case for cuts to lawmakers.

Start cutting now!

Department of Education
1. Department of Education

Annual budget: $121 billion
Summary: Since the department’s creation in 1979, trillions of tax dollars have yielded declining test scores as American education has fallen behind many other countries. One expert recently testified: “It now costs three times as much to provide essentially the same education as we provided in 1970.” The more we spend, the less we get.

The Heritage Foundation has identified at least $15 billion to cut from the Department of Education in fiscal year 2012, as well as advocating dramatic reforms such as more school choice to bring costs down and learning up.

* If this is not your answer, you can keep as is or change it.

ObamaCare
2. ObamaCare

2012 budget: $5 billion
Summary: In the next decade, Obamacare adds $1 trillion in new health care spending, which will balloon the federal deficit by $500 billion and produce a crushing tax burden. But even after one year, Obamacare is already cited responsible for increases in insurance premiums, dropped coverage, and job loss.

(President Obama’s proposal)

Until the program is repealed, Heritage recommends Congress start by cutting $5 billion from Obamacare this year.

* If this is not your answer, you can keep as is or change it.

2009 Federal Stimulus Program
3. 2009 Federal Stimulus Program

Amount budgeted: $827 billion total
Summary: The stimulus not only didn’t reduce unemployment, as the President and Congress promised, but much of the money is being wasted. One project spent $500,000 and didn’t even create two jobs! Much of the money remains unspent—which means it can still be cut!

(President Obama’s proposal)

Heritage estimates $60 billion could be quickly slashed from the stimulus budget.

* If this is not your answer, you can keep as is or change it.

Welfare/Entitlement Waste and Fraud
4. Welfare/Entitlement Waste and Fraud

Annual budget for welfare and entitlements: More than $2 trillion
Summary: Washington bureaucracies are filled with preventable fraud, error, and theft. Example: Each year, 22 million Americans receive checks of up to $4,700 through the Earned Income Tax Credit, and almost one-third of these claims are fraudulent. Ten thousand or more dead people also received “stimulus” checks from Social Security. Medicare inefficiencies and fraud are even worse.

The Heritage Foundation estimates that we can immediately cut $44 billion by reducing Medicare errors and Earned Income Tax Credit errors.

* If this is not your answer, you can keep as is or change it.

Excessive Pay for Civilian Federal Workers
5. Excessive Pay for Civilian Federal Workers

Amount budgeted: $244 billion
Summary: Federal workers average 30 to 40 percent more in salaries and wages than equivalently skilled workers in the private sector and they receive roughly three times the basic benefits, more job security, repayment of student loans, and more days off.

(President Obama’s proposal)

Cut $40 billion. This will produce a firestorm from public employee unions similar to recent protests in Wisconsin, yet the alternative is financial catastrophe.

* If this is not your answer, you can keep as is or change it.

Your TOTAL savings from cuts in just these five areas is:

$ 0 billion

Submit your proposed savings on these five programs to The Heritage Foundation, and we will use it to guide our work to educate members of Congress! Your input will support our case for cuts in other programs.

In addition, we will e-mail you a copy of your answers so you can share them with friends—and invite them to submit their cuts to Washington.

Together, we can speak with a bigger voice!

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