You Make the Cut

To go along with this post from last week, I thought I'd try to inspire a little thought amongst any fiscal conservatives who stumble across this page over the weekend by posting a detailed breakout of where our tax revenue is spent:

(click for ginormous version)

Fiscal responsibility will be one of my primary concerns during the next Presidential election (insert you voted for Obama joke here), and though I am inclined to view the current budget deficit as necessary fiscal stimulus, I completely disagree with some of the steps taken over the past 9 months and hope that the long-term projected budget deficits fail to take into account future cuts in spending. Conor Friedersdorf over at the American Scene strikes the right chord by stating where we could start:

spend trillions less on foreign wars of choice*; take WFB’s advice — end a drug policy that includes military intervention in sundry foreign countries, billions in wasted military aid to dictators, and the costly imprisonment of countless non-violent offenders as part of a strategy that doesn’t even work; means test Social Security and Medicare; repeal prevailing wage mandates for government contracts... allow federal bureaucrats to anonymously submit egregious and otherwise unknown examples of government waste, and give them a sizable monetary reward should an act of Congress end the wasteful practice due to information they provided.

* here's a chart to help explain why I think a spending cut for the defense department might be necessary in the long run




UPDATE:

This is the budget forecast I was referring to.