A department-by-department guide to cutting the government's budget.

Department of Defense

The Department of Defense oversees a vast array of people and assets at home and abroad, but we could improve security and reduce costs with a more restrained military strategy.

The department will spend about $668 billion in fiscal 2012, or $5,800 for every U.S. household.

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Department of Commerce

The Department of Commerce subsidizes businesses, restricts foreign trade, and oversees the Census Bureau and Patent Office.

The department will spend about $11 billion in 2012, or about $100 for every U.S. household. It employs 41,000 workers and operates more than 97 subsidy programs.

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Department of Transportation

The Department of Transportation subsidizes and regulates highways, airports, air traffic control, urban transit, and passenger rail.

The department will spend $84 billion in 2012, or about $710 for every U.S. household. It employs 58,000 workers and operates 83 different subsidy programs.

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From the Downsizing Blog

IRS Abuses Past and Present

The stories coming out about IRS abuses of nonprofit groups are appalling. We will likely find out that arrogant and biased officials are to blame, as well as members of Congress who pushed them to be especially aggressive on conservative groups.

Big Sugar Tries to Protect Its Sweet Deal from “Big Candy”

We’ve written about the outrageous sugar import quotas here many times. And Chris Edwards wrote in March about the American Sugar Alliance’s ad in the Washington Post titled “Big Candy’s Greed.” But we couldn’t link to the ad because for some reason the American Sugar Alliance has not chosen to put a version of the ad on its website. But the Alliance ran its expensive quarter-page ad in the Post last week, so we’re now able to provide the public service of making it available online.

IRS’s Soaring Budget and Refundable Tax Credits

Chris Edwards showed that the Internal Revenue Service’s budget has been soaring and the main culprit is refundable tax credits. The magnitude of refundable tax cuts is obfuscated in the IRS’s budget because only the refunded portion of the credit shows up as an outlay —the rest is recorded as a reduction in revenues.
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Downsize the Department of Agriculture