Gene, you are just trying to ignore the hard truth.

Let's see..using http://www.budgetsim.org/nbs/shortbudget06.html to balance the budget...

Results:

Spending ($2147.56 billion: cut $524.96 billion)

$446.11 billion .... Military Spending (No Change)

$123.04 billion .... Iraq War and Afghanistan Operations

Increased $11.19 bil. from base of $111.851 bil.( 10%)

$115.48 billion .... Veterans & Retired Military Pensions and Services (No Change)

$31.59 billion ..... International Affairs (No Change)

$23.97 billion ..... General Science, Space, and Technology (No Change)

$2.12 billion ...... Non-Defense Energy Spending (No Change)

$31.16 billion ..... Natural Resources and Environment (No Change)

$20.82 billion ..... Agriculture

Cut $5.19 bil. from base of $26.020 bil.(-20%)

$70.67 billion ..... Transportation (No Change)

$19.1 billion ...... Community and Regional Development (No Change)

$0 billion ......... Education

Cut $64.06 bil. from base of $64.068 bil.(-100%)

$47.81 billion ..... Training, Labor and Unemployment Programs (No Change)

$0 billion ......... Non-Medicare Health Spending

Cut $253.31 bil. from base of $253.320 bil.(-100%)

$345.75 billion .... Medicare (No Change)

$71.94 billion ..... Civilian Retirement (Social Security excluded) (No Change)

$0 billion ......... Aid to Low-Income Families

Cut $206.76 bil. from base of $206.773 bil.(-100%)

$25.62 billion ..... General Family Support (No Change)

$0 billion ......... Commerce and Housing Loan Programs

Cut $6.81 bil. from base of $6.816 bil.(-100%)

$544.82 billion .... Social Security (No Change)

$43.1 billion ...... Administration of Justice (No Change)

$17.75 billion ..... General Government Administration (No Change)

$211.08 billion .... Net Interest (No Change)

$-44.37 billion .... Undistributed Offsetting Receipts and Allowance (No Change)

Result: A $123 billion SURPLUS.

And I didn't even touch Medicare OR Social Security. I reduced the budget by $524 BILLION in one year.

So cutting spending can definitely eliminate the deficit and you don't even have to touch "entitlements". I eliminated programs that the federal government has no business being in.

I even increased military spending in Afghanistan by 10%.

But in reality, I wouldn't even have tod cut this much. I could just reduce most of those prograsm I eliminated by a little bit and wait for the tax receipts to catch up.

I saved over $200 billion just eliminating food stamps, federal low income housing, and other government programs that simply give money to people who didn't do anythign to earn it. If you believe in charity, like I do, donate to that to help the poor. But the federal government has no business taking money from its citizens to give to other citizens. Or put another way, it has no business doing that while we are running deficits.

I want to see how Gene gets around what I posted above.

He insists you can't balance the budget by cutting spending. I show how you can balance the budget instantly without even touching social security or medicare.

And in reality, if we just froze the programs I'd but rather than eliminate them, in a few years, the tax receipts from the growing economy would create a surplus anyway.

You don't need to raise taxes to get rid of the deficit. That is a FACT. Gene simply doesn't WANT to cut spending because he is a socialist who sees it the government's responsibility to steal from its most productive citizens at the point of a gun to give to people who have done nothing to earn it.

The government isn't a charity.