If Congress did not extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy for FY 2012, then at least 90% of the deficit would've remained. I don't get what's so hard for so many people to understand about that. Federal taxes need to be abolished.
If they can't be abolished then the gas tax should be reduced to 10.2 cent per gallon, the corporate tax rate to 13% (with a 100k exclusion) with no deduction for providing insurance. Then the AMT should be repealed. The size of the 10% bracket should be doubled. There should be personal deductions for all health care expenses. HSAs should be tax free. Withdrawing from your savings to pay off your house should be tax free. There should be a standard exclusion of $12k/individual. DoddFrank and SOx should be repealed. Taxes on gold, palladium, platinum, copper, and silver need to be repealed. The NFA should be repealed. The FICA tax cut should be extended and people 25 or younger should be out of the SS and MC system. U.S. Federal lands and U.S. military weapons should be sold at 80-90% of what the average private seller would sell them for each year. The Federal debt to the Fed should be repudiated, 2/3 of the U.S. government debt held by foreigners should be repudiated without interest paid on the other 30%. 50% of the Federal debt held by Americans should be repudiated and the other 1/2 paid immediately without interest. Medicare Part D needs to be reformed via IP abolition and favoring of imported drugs for Medicare. Means testing needs to be done for Medicare and Social Security. 7 Departments and many agencies could realistically be cut. Congress's salary and cost of office should both be reduced by 1/3. Remaining Federal employees should have their compensation cut to 2/3 what it currently is. 1/2 of the bases here should closed and that land sold. 100% of overseas bases should be closed. The TSA and CIA should be abolished. The DoJ should be cut to 1/8 or less of what it currently is. If it is absolutely necessary to balance the budget, then a 10% tax on all goods entering the country and a 5% tax on all goods leaving the country would be okay. All import quotas should be repealed.