Big ideas???

CBO’s big ideas for shrinking the deficit

By CAITLIN EMMA

The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday published its annual compendium of options for shrinking the massive federal deficit, which stands at $779 billion.

Most of the savings would come from changes to entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. But other suggestions would drum up trillions in savings and revenue over the next decade. CBO lays out 121 options, most of which would save $10 billion or more over that period.

Here are some of the bigger ideas:

— Slashing the Pentagon’s budget: One scenario for cutting the Department of Defense’s budget results in a reduction of $591 billion through 2028. Of course, President Donald Trump recently said he’s seeking to boost the Pentagon’s budget after facing intense backlash from military leaders for proposing a 5 percent cut.

— Capping Medicaid spending: Limiting federal spending for the entitlement program that helps millions of low-income Americans with health care costs could generate a gross savings of as much as $805 billion between 2020 and 2028.

— Instituting a carbon tax: Imposing a tax on greenhouse gases, which could help tackle climate change, would increase federal revenues by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years.

— Saying goodbye to space exploration: If all NASA money is eliminated for human space exploration and operations starting in 2020, the government would save $89 billion through 2028.

— Imposing a tax on financial transactions: Taxing certain financial transactions, like the purchase of stocks and bonds, could yield $777 billion in extra cash in the next decade.

— Clipping funds for international affairs: If the money for diplomatic programs and global health initiatives was reduced by 25 percent starting in 2020, it would yield a savings of $116 billion through 2028.

— Eliminating Head Start: The federal pre-K program for low-income families served about 900,000 children in 2017. But CBO says that killing it could save $92 billion. Eliminating Head Start has long been a conservative priority, although Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget request would’ve given it a minor boost.

— Tossing out housing vouchers: Scrapping the Housing Choice Vouchers Program, which helps low-income families afford housing in the private market, would reduce federal spending by $125 billion between 2020 and 2028.

— Downsizing Pell Grants: Reducing the amount of federal grants awarded to low-income students for undergraduate education would cut back on mandatory spending by $62 billion over a 10-year period, in one option detailed by CBO.