{"id":32275,"date":"2025-02-13T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=32275"},"modified":"2025-02-12T20:51:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T01:51:22","slug":"tanstaafl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/13\/tanstaafl\/","title":{"rendered":"TANSTAAFL!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was looking at the latest available numbers for the federal budget (fiscal 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Mandatory<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Social Security<\/td>\n<\/td>\n$1.3 trillion<\/td>\n1,300,000,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Medicare<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a0$839 billion<\/td>\n839,000,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Medicaid<\/td>\n<\/td>\n$616 billion<\/td>\n616,000,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Welfare<\/td>\n<\/td>\n$448 billion<\/td>\n448,000,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other<\/td>\n<\/td>\n$502 billion<\/td>\n502,000,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\nsubtotal<\/strong><\/td>\n3,705,000,000,000<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Discretionary<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Defense<\/td>\n<\/td>\n$805 billion<\/td>\n805,000,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Non-Defense<\/td>\n<\/td>\n$917 billion<\/td>\n917,000,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\nsubtotal<\/strong><\/td>\n1,722,000,000,000<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Interest on the Debt<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n$659 billion<\/strong><\/td>\n659,000,000,000<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nGrand Total<\/strong><\/td>\n6,086,000,000,000<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

And we only brought in about 4.4 trillion in revenue that year so we ran a deficit of about $1.7 trillion dollars. And that is equal to all of the \u201cdiscretionary\u201d spending which by the way includes all of defense spending. Now that is a grim picture.\u00a0 But as the kids say, \u201cIt is what it is.\u201d\u00a0 What we should be shooting for is a budget that doesn\u2019t exceed our revenues minus our debt payment.\u00a0 So, our budget should be around $3.74 trillion dollars.\u00a0 Or roughly speaking we have to trim the budget by 40%.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot.\u00a0 But you know, I\u2019ll bet it\u2019s about in line with the amount of waste we could delete from the budget if honest people were looking at it.\u00a0 Even line items like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are riddled with inefficiency and featherbedding employment practices that a determined auditor could ferret out and eliminate.\u00a0 If Elon Musk could fire 70% of the staff at Twitter without any noticeable diminution in the capability of the business surely the federal bureaucracy can be pared back by 40% without too much trouble.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it automation probably already does most of the work that these people get credit for.<\/p>\n

It may not be possible to reduce all that spending within a year or even four years but what is needed is a detailed plan to do just that. The plan needs to be a continuous improvement process that allows managers to apply metrics that tell them how many people to remove from the system on a monthly basis and how the remaining human resources are allocated and rated to determine who stays and who goes.\u00a0 It will be as murderous and cutthroat as the private sector is.\u00a0 Basically, it will be hell for bureaucrats and many of them will run away screaming just to avoid the stress.\u00a0 But it is exactly what\u2019s needed.\u00a0 We can\u2019t afford to make the federal government a jobs program for the dim-witted and lazy people who can\u2019t make it in the private sector.\u00a0 At the very least the first thing we should do is lower all salaries by 40%.\u00a0 And I understand there may be some lower paid employees for which this is an unreasonable cut.\u00a0 But that can be worked out on a case-by-case basis.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a good estimate for what we\u2019re trying to do.\u00a0 And as far as boondoggles, we know there are plenty of those.\u00a0 Probably not two and half trillion dollars\u2019 worth but still plenty to trim.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s be honest.\u00a0 We all probably benefit from many programs that will have to be cut.\u00a0 So be it.\u00a0 Everybody will have to suck it up to some extent.\u00a0 Who knows, it may turn out that we can\u2019t have free Chat GPT because it\u2019s really paid for by our tax dollars.\u00a0 Fine.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to pay for that and probably a whole bunch of other things ourselves.\u00a0 Well, in the words of RAH, \u201cThere ain\u2019t no such thing as a free lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was looking at the latest available numbers for the federal budget (fiscal 2023). Mandatory Social Security $1.3 trillion 1,300,000,000,000 Medicare \u00a0$839 billion 839,000,000,000 Medicaid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[143,2517,4803,16,2680],"class_list":["post-32275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-trump","tag-drain-the-swamp","tag-elon-musk","tag-reduce-government","tag-trump","tag-trumps-second-term"],"yoast_head":"\nTANSTAAFL! - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/13\/tanstaafl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TANSTAAFL! - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was looking at the latest available numbers for the federal budget (fiscal 2023). 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