Five ideas to end the deficit.

6. Pull out of Afghanistan. We do not have a fit partner there in the Kharzi government

7. Reduce defense spending. The cold war is over, we have no need for more nuclear submarines and stealth bombers and fighters. Close more AF bases.

8. Raise the retirement and medicare eligibility ages.

9. Repeal the Bush tax cuts.

10. Add a 15% tax onto income that is received as a "bonus" in excess of $5,000.

11. Close corporate tax loopholes.

1. End Nixon's War on Drugs. How many billions do we spend on this useless program, again?

Some orgs make an attempt at an estimate--I maintain that actual costs are incalculable. You have to throw in a part of the budget of every law enforcement agency from the federal government down to every small town. You have to include the price of housing drug offenders in jails and prisons. You have to include the ever-escalating cost of U.S. international interdiction efforts, which are, of course, directly undermined by the same U.S. government through policies of ever-escalating cost like installing and supporting the current regime in Afghanistan (which turned that country into the opium capital of the world, just as it was in the '80s), and large subsidies to the Colombian military (which is closely aligned with that nation's drug lords).

Intangibles can expand outward from there almost infinitely.

For that matter, this category could be expanded almost infinitely, as well, because it isn't just the War On Drugs. The U.S.--the "land of the free"--has, in fact, had the highest rate of incarceration in the world for decades. For nearly a decade, the annual prison population has increased at a rate over double the annual increase in the population itself. I don't know if radically scaling this back and ending the WOD would help the deficit, but it's something that should be done.

2. End Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives. Preserving the Wall is essential to preserve individualism.

If I trusted the government to do it right, I could even get behind using that money to, instead, educate the population on the concept of religious liberty. Its ignorance is woeful, and there's nothing anywhere to counteract it.

3. Pull out of Iraq. We spend nearly a hundred million dollars a day on it; is this really what fiscal conservatives want?

Conservatives don't care about such things--they only offer a pose. The Bush administration never intended to leave, and did basically nothing in the way of making an Iraq the U.S. could easily leave. Their sham "rebuilding" efforts did make a lot of people (Bush-connected contractors) quite a pile of money, though, so one of Bush's goals was definitely accomplished.

4. End all government subsidies to business. Giving free money to industry stifles competition.

You'd just have to end the government entirely for that. That's the thing at which nearly everything the government does is aimed. We aren't just talking about direct subsidies and corporate welfare, here--the government is responsible for a stable currency, the court system, building the transportation systems for goods, educating the next-generation workforce... Nearly everything government does is in the U.S. is aimed at subsidizing business.

5. End all tax breaks to married families. Encouraging marriage threatens the individuality of perpetual bachelors.

Ha! Not really. It does hurt them in the wallet, though, and that's very wrong.