How to reduce the deficit and balance the budget, from my point of view. (Part 1)

As you many know, we are locked in a fierce budget between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats went to raise taxes on top earners and mildly cut spending, while Republicans want to cut, no wait, butcher spending and maintain and even reduce taxes on the top earners, claiming that if we raise taxes on the top earners, the economy will slow down because those are the people that produce jobs in this county. Thus, if any type of new regulation or taxes is introduced, a minute will not pass before they label it as "job-killing."

To both parties, you are both wrong.

To balance the budget, you must raise taxes and cut spending at the same time. It's just common sense. Sure, it'll involve make some tough choices, but when you have a growing deficit and debt, those choices are really necessary. Those who do make those tough choices and follow through with it display leadership, something we haven't seen from both Democrats and Republicans alike in a long time.

From my point of view, as I mentioned before, we need to cut programs and raise taxes. How do I this? With the help of an interactive from the New York Times called Budget Puzzle.  I will start off with Domestic Programs and Foreign Aid. I chose here to cut and to eliminate earmarks, farm subsides, cut 250,000 government contractors, and I would cut pay of Federal Employees by 5% Why? The earmarks is a reason in itself, and the farm subsides are mainly used by big agricultural interests and disrupt the flow of the market. The cutting of 250,000 government contractors is due to the fact that may outnumber Federal Employees by millions- sure, they provide useful services, but their numbers are just too high. Again, a tough choice, but we need to make tough choices. Freezing and cutting wages is just what you have to do when you are in bad economy and have a large hole in the budget. I'm not saying government employees are overpaid- but in times like these, you need to freeze pay to balance things out. Already, $59 Billion of the $418 Billion shortfall for 2015 was been accounted for, and $62 Billion of the $1345 Billion shortfall has been accounted fo as well.

More to come soon.

Cutting & Taxing-This is the first in a series of articles that will examine how to balance the Federal Budget and in the long run, reduce the long term deficit.