If You Ran the Federal Budget...

I came across the National Budget Simulation earlier today, and it's very enlightening. On my first try, I eliminated most of the federal programs I disagree with and ended up with about a one trillion dollar budget surplus. Not too shabby, though I forgot to lower taxes, and the complete and total elimination of all entitlement programs isn't particularly likely.

But I'd do it in stages anyway, rather than all at once. I decided my first stage should be to eradicate all tax exemptions. I'm a fan of simple law, and lots of little exceptions for things doesn't fit that mold. The result? An almost 380 billion dollar budget surplus. If nothing else, that's quite a large chunk of change to lower taxes for the poor people the tax breaks are supposed to help, but without all the extra complication and administrative overhead. (I really ought to rule the world.)

Nathan Newman seems to be interesting. It should be pretty obvious that I'm going to disagree with him on a lot of political issues, but where's the fun in surrounding yourself with yes-men?

In related news, if you haven't read Paul Graham's essay "Inequality and Risk", please do. He makes a very convincing argument as to why economic inequality is actually a good thing, but I fear I already agreed with him when he started, so I may be overlooking something.