Create Your Own Federal Budget!

[Redalgo]

Following the first link in the OP, my initial adjustments without reshaping institutions would be:


Military Spending ($255.72 billion: cut $190.38 billion)
Iraq and Afghanistan Operations ($36.98 billion: cut $74.86 billion)
Military Retirement ($138.58 billion: increased $23.1 billion)
International affairs ($39.84 billion: increased $8.25 billion)
General science, space, and technology ($47.94 billion: increased $23.97 billion)
Non-Defense Energy Spending ($2.33 billion)
Natural resources and environment ($46.85 billion: increased $15.69 billion)
Agriculture ($28.16 billion: increased $2.14 billion)
Commerce and Housing Loan Programs ($7.04 billion)
Transportation ($75.3 billion: increased $4.63 billion)
Community and regional development ($24.77 billion: increased $5.67 billion)
Education ($67.49 billion: increased $3.42 billion)
Training, labor and unemployment ($49.18 billion: increased $1.37 billion)
Non-Medicare Health Spending ($385.46 billion: increased $132.14 billion)
Medicare ($518.62 billion: increased $172.87 billion)
Civilian Retirement (Social Security excluded) ($78.74 billion: increased $6.71 billion)
Aid to Low-Income Families ($332.39 billion: increased $125.62 billion)
General Family Support ($25.62 billion)
Social security ($726.35 billion: increased $181.53 billion)
Administration of justice ($45.21 billion: increased $2.11 billion)
General government administration ($18.92 billion: increased $1.17 billion)
Net Interest Long ($211.08 billion)
Undistributed offsetting receipts and allowance ($-43.99 billion)


2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts ($0 billion: cut $294.88 billion)
Corporate Tax Breaks ($49.46 billion: cut $10.89 billion)
Personal Business & Investment Benefits ($56.33 billion: cut $30.37 billion)
Pension & Retirement Deductions ($188.24 billion: increased $19.77 billion)
Health Insurance Tax Benefits ($15.3 billion: cut $125.68 billion)
Housing tax benefits ($163.71 billion)
Other individual deductions and exemptions ($159.99 billion)


Old budget was $3748.1268 billion
New budget is $3751.61 billion
You have increased the deficit by $3.47 billion.
Your new deficit is $404.47 billion.


I was very surprised when there were no options available for raising the marginal income tax rate, social security tax, or tinker with the retirement age; without being able to do so I cannot really gauge to what extent I would manage (or fail) to balance the budget. That aside though, I find it almost hilarious that my deep cuts in some areas and boosts in others ended up being a wash. xD

Edit: Sifting through all the other links was somewhat disappointing. None of these sims afford me the flexibility to make major changes to both spending and revenue sources. The third link on the OP won't let me go past the "start" button after the intro, incidentally, so I can't check that one out.