In 2011 the Federal Government received a total of $2.2 trillion from all taxes, fees,
and other revenue sources, and spent $3.8 trillion. To put the federal budget in perspective,
let's see how long it takes the government to run out of money and how much the government
needs to cut to make it through to the end of the year. Suppose that on January 1 the
government received its annual tax revenue of $2.2 trillion and began spending. $3.8
trillion in spending means that the government is spending at the rate of $434 million an
hour or more than $10 billion a day. With $2.2 trillion to spend, and spending
at the rate of $434 million an hour, the government runs out of money at 11:59 PM on July 31.
To balance the budget, the government needs to cut five months' worth of spending. Let's
look at some things the government might cut to see how much time they might save. Remember,
we need to cut enough from the budget to fund the government from August through December.
Some people argue that the government shouldn't be funding space missions when we have budget
problems here on Earth that require our attention. So let's cut the entirety of NASA. That
would save $20 billion, or enough to fund the government for about two days. Now we're
getting somewhere. Suppose a new aircraft carrier costs $15 billion to build and lasts
40 years. That's about $400 million per year. If it costs another $400 million a year
to operate, then cutting the aircraft carrier from the budget saves about $800 million a
year or enough to fund the government for about 90 minutes. That doesn't buy us much.
How about if we cut the entire U.S. Navy? The 2011 Navy budget was $160 billion. Eliminating
the entire Navy buys the government 15 days. We now have no space program and no Navy,
and we still have four and a half months of spending to cut. So let's get serious. If
we cut the entire Department of Defense, including foreign military aid, foreign economic aid,
and veteran services, we'll save a total of $930 billion, or enough to fund the government
until October 30. Eliminating all federal funding for police, fire protection, and the
courts and prisons saves $57 billion and takes us to November 4. We now have no space program,
no Navy, no Army, no Air Force, no Marines, no nuclear weapons, no defense research, no
veteran services, no federal funding for police and fire protection. Yet we still have to
cut almost two months' worth of spending to balance the budget.
Eliminating all federal funding for education saves us $140 billion. Cutting federal moneys
for transportation saves us another $100 billion. These cuts will allow the government to keep
operating until November 27. With all these cuts there's not much left for the government
to do. So let's shut down Congress and the White House. That saves us $30 billion. And
then we can shut down all the other things the government does, like waste management,
street lighting, pollution abatement, housing development, cultural services, and other
things. That will save us another $170 billion. This buys us an additional 19 days, funding
the government until December 16. The only thing left that we haven't cut
is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, interest on the debt. But we still haven't balanced
the budget. In other words, we can reduce the federal government to nothing more than
a glorified assisted-living facility, and we still wouldn't be able to balance the
budget. All of this suggests that our budget problems have gone beyond the need to talk
about cuts. We need to completely rethink the appropriate role for government in society.
We have made promises to retirees and veterans that we need to honor. However, we must stop
making promises to future generations that mathematically it is impossible for us to
keep.