Tad DeHaven@catoAtLiberty: Presidential candidate Ron Paul has released a fiscal reform plan that would dramatically cut spending and rein in the size and scope of the federal government. [...] The following are some of the plan’s highlights:
Paul would immediately eliminate five cabinet-level departments: Commerce, Education, Energy, HUD, and Interior.
Paul says his plan would cut spending by $1 trillion in the first year alone, and balance the budget in three years without increasing taxes.
Funding for the wars would end. That’s not isolationism – it’s a common sense position that also reflects popular opinion. In addition, foreign aid spending would be zeroed out.
Intelligent government reforms are proposed, including privatizing the Federal Aviation Administration and repealing costly Davis-Bacon rules.
On entitlements, younger people would be given the freedom to opt out of Social Security and Medicare. Spending would be frozen for Medicaid and other welfare programs and they would be converted to block-grant programs.
That’s an ambitious agenda to say the least, and one that the press is likely dismiss as a pipe-dream. Then again, Paul has managed to single-handedly turn the Federal Reserve into a campaign issue, which nobody could have foreseen just several short years ago.
thankful