U.S. Budget Proposal

Budget Proposal
The 2014 budget proposal is online at Slideshare and is embedded below:

File:U.S._Budget.pdf

Minimum Wage Based Trade Restrictions
Countries which have low or no minimum wages have unfair trade relationships with the U.S. China in particular exports (sells) hundreds of billions of dollars more to the U.S. than it imports (buys) each year, in large part because Chinese manufacturing workers make on average 50 cents an hour. A substantial trade deficit also exists with Mexico due to its similarly low minimum wage and consequent outsourcing.

Specifically, trade should be stopped with all countries which have less than a $4.00/hour national minimum wage and more than $8 billion in imports. This would most notably stop trade with China, Mexico, Russia, India, and Taiwan. Unlike a tariff, this would be an adjustable trade restriction, with trade to be resumed with any country each January who has passed a national minimum wage law of a $4.00/hour minimum wage equivalent or higher.

Simplification of Tax System, Tax Breaks to Companies that Hire U.S. Workers
My budget proposes a study of which tax questions best determine overall wealth for purposes of individual and corporate taxation, then whittling the tax code down to keep only the 5-10 questions which best determine wealth. Furthermore, the complex tax loopholes which currently exist should be thrown out entirely, with the only tax break given to companies who hire more U.S. workers in relation to company earnings. For specific calculations related to how such tax code restructuring could be accomplished, see the budget proposal.

Remove ObamaCare
ObamaCare's individual mandate, and eventually all of ObamaCare need to be removed. The mandate is harming small businesses by forcing them to cover employee healthcare expenses they can't afford. It is forcing a conversion to poorer-paying part-time temporary work as companies seek to avoid hiring employees which work over 30 hours a week to skirt the onerous healthcare requirements. It leads to outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries.

Return of Military Troops Overseas to Guard Borders
Only 22.08% of defense spending goes to military personnel and 10.69% to research and development. The much larger bulk of spending goes to operation and maintenance, 42.55%, and procurement, 18.39%. My budget would cut from this 61% of defense spending by recalling troops from their overseas stationing, particularly in the middle east, and provide them voluntary employment opportunities to guard the borders or act as police reserves. Most of our defense spending goes to billion dollar technological procurements like the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II of which 2,000 have been purchased for $323 billion or the Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier of which 10 were purchased for $321 billion.

Research and development are necessary to maintain a world-class military force, and we should give our troops the option to remain federally employed since Gulf War Era II veterans are returning to 30% unemployment rates. However, we should cut spending on expensive jets, aircraft carriers, and tanks to focus on defending our own borders. What equipment we have can be put into storage. Such changes should result in $211 billion savings for the United States annually.

Increase of Benefits Age for Social Security and Medicare
Because Americans are living on average 78.8 years as of April 2016, they are living 17.1 years longer than when Social Security was instituted in 1935 (life expectancy then was 61.7), and 8.6 years longer than when Medicare was instituted in 1965 (life expectancy then was 70.2). However, the limited benefits age has never been increased for Social Security and remains set to 62, while Medicare eligibility likewise remains unchanged at age 65.

In other words, Americans are paying for 17.1 more years of benefits under Social Security and 8.6 more years of benefits under Medicare than the two programs were designed for, which is why the programs are bankrupting the country. Social Security and Medicare alone account for over 41% of the budget, $1.36 trillion. While Americans have paid considerable taxes over their lifetimes for which they should be reimbursed, the benefit ages need to be increased to offset this increasing life expectancy for the U.S. Budget to remain sustainable.

My budget proposal would increase the Social Security and Medicare benefits ages to 70, and remove the limited benefits age entirely. Based on calculations using CDC data, this would result in annual savings in excess of $386 billion each year.

3-Year Temporary Public Works Program
To stimulate hiring and U.S. employment which has been largely stagnant after the recession, much of the $597 billion annual savings from entitlement/military spending cuts would be funneled into a temporary, 3-year public works program with an annual cost of $400 billion. Logically 15 million Americans can be put to work for jobs paying $20,000 each at a cost of $300 billion with the remaining $100 billion to cover expenses such as supervising, equipment, transportation, and utilities.

As observed by Pollin & Peltier, for government to create jobs effectively, job creation must be labor-intensive and spend primarily on employees and less on extraneous expenses.

“In addition, education is a relatively labor-intensive industry. This means that, compared with the other industries we are examining, for every $1 billion in new spending in education, proportionally more money is spent on hiring new people into the industry and relatively less is spent on supplies, equipment, buildings.”

Examples of public works jobs that would spend primarily on labor to ensure efficient job creation per dollar spent include:


 * Conservation, cleaning up parks and forests, and reforestation.
 * Repairing/cleaning up public buildings such as schools, hospitals, etc.
 * Censuses of local areas via the U.S. Census Bureau.
 * Painting murals and creating works of art/music.
 * Sewing projects.
 * Public education courses held in public areas (libraries, parks, and other freely accessed areas).
 * Farming – physical, labor-intensive only, not technological.
 * Low-cost, labor-intensive construction/landscaping projects like digging ditches.

Mandatory Shareholder Voting on CEO Compensation
Given that shareholders own publicly traded companies, there is no good justification for allowing CEOs or a CEO-nominated Board of Directors to determine what a CEO’s salary should be. Shareholders should be able to determine a CEO’s pay in proportion to the shares they hold in the company as it is their money being spent.

A CEO has a vested interest in firing workers so long as they can determine their own pay, since doing so is the easiest way to free up company payroll for CEO bonuses. A company’s primary expense is typically payroll, and thus paying workers less is the easiest way to increase company profits. A CEO can easily profit a company and justify their own increased salary by reducing the company’s workforce through outsourcing, automation, and conversion to parttime/temporary workers so as to avoid the overtime and benefits of full-time workers.

America’s top 500 companies, the S&P 500, have been recording record profits year after year even as they reduce their U.S. workforces. Furthermore, CEO compensation has increased from 59:1 in 1989 to 273:1 in 2012.13 The CEOs who fired the most workers in 2009 received on average 42% more pay than their S&P 500 peers.14 The 20 companies which received the most bailout money laid off 160,599 workers while giving their CEOs $275.6 million of compensation in 2008 alone, and some like Citigroup, Chase, Wells Fargo, Suntrust Banks, American Express, and State Street Corporation even increased their CEO pay dramatically after receiving bailout money.15

For all of these reasons, this budget mandates shareholder voting of CEO compensation at all publicly-traded companies to remove the incentive of CEOs to fire U.S. workers.

Existing Budget Summary
The four largest expenses, Health, Military, Social Security, and Income Security, account for 82.48% of the total budget; $2.89 Trillion. All other budgetary expenses combined account for 19.99% of the total budget; $702 Billion. Undistributed offsetting receipts make for -2.46% of the budget; -$86 Billion. Total Budget Authority was $3.51 Trillion.

Budget Summary
The following is a summary of the U.S. Budget, 2011 (last year for certain data, as opposed to estimates - uses 2013 budgetary data).

Off-Budget
The U.S. Budget marks certain expenses as "Off-Budget". The above calculations include all expenses, including those considered "Off-Budget". A total of $499.74 Billion is considered "Off-Budget". Off-Budget expenses include the following:

Largest Expenses
The largest single expenses in the U.S. Budget, those exceeding $100 Billion, are as follows: