How to Save $500 Billion in Just Ten Years

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Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is a candidate for the GOP nomination for President of the United States. Today he realized a comprehensive plan that would thoroughly cut some of the country’s most expensive agencies and programs.  Here is that  plan:

I. FIVE FOR  FREEDOM

Abolish the IRS, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A Cruz Administration will appoint heads of each of those agencies whose sole charge will be to wind them down and determine whether any programs need to be  preserved.

  1. Internal Revenue Services – end the political targeting, simplify the tax code, and abolish the IRS as we know  it.
  2. Department of Education – return education to those who know our students best: parents, teachers, local communities, and states. And block-grant education funding to the  states.
  3. Department of Energy – cut off the Washington Cartel, stop picking winners and losers, and unleash the energy  renaissance.
  4. Department of Commerce – close the “congressional cookie jar” and promote free-enterprise and free trade for every  business.
  5. Department of Housing and Urban Development – offer real solutions to lift people out of hardship, rather than trapping families in a cycle of poverty, and empower Americans by promoting the dignity of work and reforming programs such as Section 8  housing.

II. TWENTY-FIVE FEDERAL  “ABCs”

Empower the people by reducing the alphabet soup of Agencies, Bureaus, Commissions, and other programs that prop up special interests, at the taxpayer’s expense. A Cruz Administration will identify all unnecessary programs – these 25 are merely a  start:

Eliminate the following Agencies, Bureaus, Commissions, and  programs:

  1. Appalachian Regional  Commission
  2. Climate Ready Water Utilities  Initiative
  3. Climate Research Funding for the Office of Research and  Development
  4. Climate Resilience Evaluation Awareness  Tool
  5. Consumer Financial Protection  Bureau
  6. Corporation for Public  Broadcasting
  7. Corporation for Travel  Promotion
  8. Global Methane  Initiative
  9. Green Infrastructure  Program
  10. Greenhouse Gas Reporting  Program
  11. Legal Services  Corporation
  12. National Endowment for the  Arts
  13. National Endowment for the  Humanities
  14. New Starts Transit  Program
  15. Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery  Fund
  16. Presidential Election Campaign  Fund
  17. Regulation of CO2 Emissions from Power Plants and all  Sources
  18. Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from  Vehicles
  19. Renewable Fuel Standard Federal  Mandates
  20. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development  Corporation
  21. Sugar  Subsidies
  22. Transportation Investment Generating Economic  Recovery
  23. UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Change
  24. UN Population  Fund
  25. USDA Catfish Inspection  Program

III. GRACE COMMISSION  2.0

Re-institute President Reagan’s Grace Commission to assess federal spending levels and evaluate areas of waste and  fraud.

  • Appoint private-sector leaders to serve on a commission that, as President Reagan described, will work like “blood hounds” to improve government  efficiency.
  • Under Ronald Reagan’s Administration, the Grace Commission report recommended 2,478 “cost-cutting, revenue-enhancing” suggestions, without raising taxes, weakening defense, or harming social  welfare.
  • As Chairman Grace recognized then, “every dollar we can stop spending is a dollar that the government does not need to borrow.” Never has that been more needed than  today.

We should shrink the size and power of the federal government by every and any means possible. What does that mean? That means eliminating unnecessary or unconstitutional agencies.

IV. CONGRESSIONAL  ACCOUNTABILITY

Hold Congress accountable by enacting a strong Balanced Budget Amendment and requiring that a majority of members approve any major, cost-inducing  regulation.

  • Sign a Balanced Budget Amendment to start spending responsibly and save future generations from additional crippling  debt.
  • Sign the REINS Act to ensure that Congress approves of any regulation or rule that would have an impact of $100 million or  more.

V. HIRING FREEZE AND  REDUCTION

Reduce costs by instituting a hiring freeze and federal pay  reforms.

  • Put in place a hiring freeze of federal civilian employees across the executive  branch.
  • For those agencies in which it is determined that a vacant position needs to be filled, I will authorize the hiring of a maximum ratio of one person for every three who  leave.
  • Reduce the annual across-the-board adjustment for federal civilian pay so that rather than receiving automatic yearly raises, federal workers would have more opportunities for merit-based pay  increases.

Total Savings from these reforms:  $500,000,000,000.00 over ten  years.

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