That was an interesting exercise. Having:
-eliminated earmarks and farm subsidies,
-reduced the military back to levels last seen at the beginning of George W. Bush's presidency,
-canceled or delayed some Cold War-era projects,
-reduced non-combat military compensation and overhead,
-enacted medical malpractice reform,
-increased the Medicare and Social Security eligibility age to 70,
-reduced the tax break for employer-provided health insurance,
-capped Medicare growth beginning FY 2013,
-tightened eligibility for Social Security disability benefits,
-indexed Social Security benefits to inflation as opposed to wages,
-returned the estate tax to Clinton-era levels,
-adopted President Obama's proposal on investment taxes,
-raised the payroll tax until 90% of all incomes are once again covered by it,
-adopted the Bowles-Simpson tax reform plan,
-reduced mortgage deduction and other deductions for high-income households,
-adopted the VAT at 5%, as well as the carbon and bank taxes,
...what is the likelihood my
proposal -which gave us a $170 billion surplus for FY 2015, and a longer-term surplus of nearly a trillion- being adopted? Or at least some elements of it?
