So your remedy is basically to disregard ALL of reality and play pretend? Because that is what you are proposing, to replace all of reality with pretend and say that if pretend is -5 then +5 will fix pretend.
The real problem isn't the growth of government, it's the growth of government agencies and most of all the defense.
Cut it in half and it would be twice as big as it needs to be. Raise taxes for the wealthiest with 16% and whoopdefuckingdoo, there you have what you can either not do and wait until you get to the point of Greece (not really, you have nothing anyone needs and if your economy fails, we don't care much about it).
My remedy is first off, to stop making things worse. When you find yourself in a hole you don't argue about whether you should dig a little more slowly or a little more quickly, you stop digging and take some time to figure out how you got into the hole and how you can get out. There are no easy answers; much of our problem has been looking for easy answers. We can't cut our government in half in any meaningful time frame; our government is simply far too big a part of our economy. We'd be in depression. And we can't raise taxes and/or increase government to get out. The bigger the cart, the fewer people left to pull the cart. The steps I would take (off the top of my head) are:
1. Crack down on illegal immigration. We have a surfeit of labor when we need labor to be more highly valued. I'd establish a path to citizenship AFTER I closed down the border, but it would be what citizens pay PLUS back taxes and penalties PLUS penalties for coming here illegally, only for productive people without criminal records, require speaking and reading/writing legible English, and with a healthy multi-year probationary period. I won't cut off my nose to spite my face by kicking out otherwise law-abiding illegals and importing less Americanized if more law-abiding replacements, but American citizenship is precious and should be valued accordingly.
2. Take a hard look at where we need legal immigration increased (such as specific fields of PHDs) versus where business would like to cut costs and then temporarily increase those visas while simultaneously using tax cuts and retargeting spending to incentivize the private sector and public universities to provide more of these fields. Lower general legal immigration quotas, and revise the process. I don't want to know that your cousin is already here or that you're from a critically under-represented country or ethnic group, show me what you bring to the party that I need. And if all you can bring to the table is diversity, sorry. You may want to reapply when I'm not broke and hurting. The one exception might be Asians; we can use some more Asians. And Jamaicans. And hot chicks in general. You want rich guys to start spending money, bring in some hot chicks.
3. Start phasing in real reciprocal trade agreements with other nations. If your nation has a 25% import tariff, inspection fee, or duty on our imported goods, we now have the same 25% import tariff, inspection fee, or duty on goods imported from your nation. To hell with free trade, that's a race to the bottom; I want duty-free trade with only those nations with equivalent or better labor rates and standards of living.
4. I'd increase foreign aid, but make it only in kind. We'll give Egypt a billion dollars worth of Fords or Maytags or Century Wreckers; we won't give them a billion dollars borrowed so that they can cut their best deal elsewhere. Want to build a domestic automobile industry? Fine, but I'm not funding my competitor. And that aid will be dependent on how each nation behaves; if you continually undercut us in the UN or in other ways, you obviously don't need our help. That way we get a nice boost to our manufacturing economy and also a recurring parts sales stream.
5. I'd start a dialog with business leaders about what they need, what they want, to manufacture in this country. Then I'd present a list of things I want and do some horse trading. I'll give you tax breaks, but I'll tie them directly to payroll increases. (Head count, not total outlay. $100 million in CEO-level bonuses is NOT equal to 2,000 $50K jobs.) You want this regulation eased, maybe I want 10% cleaner exhaust or 10% better energy efficiency. (Note: This already happens, but the payoff is in campaign donations and jobs for otherwise unemployable relatives and mistresses.)
6. I'd draft a simple plan dropping corporate taxes over ten years to zero while raising short term (say, a year or less) capital gains to be taxed as wage income. Make your money however you want and legally can, everyone gets treated the same. The only corporate taxes I'd have in the end would be on excess payroll on the executive level (I'd have to study the issue to determine how to craft proper guidelines) and on money sent out of the country. Build it here and sell it tax free; import your gidgets and I want Uncle Sam's cut of that money. Stock options tied to company performance I'd tax as wage income; stock options not tied to company performance, so that however the stock price fares the recipient enjoys a nice profit at no risk or investment, I'd tax as wage income plus a 10% penalty, just like early 401K withdrawals. Long term capital gains I'd tax as maybe 3/4 of wage income, after indexing for inflation.
7. I'd put a virtual freeze on government hiring. When someone leaves, he doesn't get replaced, and if necessary we would transfer to fill essential positions.
8. I'd immediately cut every department 5% over two years, with the understanding that the next five years after that we would cut 1% a year. Find the fat, guys, we all have it.
9. I'd begin pulling out of every foreign base except South Korea, the only ally currently at war and at risk of being invaded, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Iraq I would put on a training-only, payment basis, where the host nation pays our actual cost if they want us there. I'd offer the same deal to other places, but the vast majority of our bases are neither needed nor wanted except for the revenue we spend maintaining it. Otherwise, if you want us to have a base in case Russia or Red China invades, you can maintain it to our standards and we'll execute a reciprocal agreement - if we're obligated for fight for you, you're obligated to maintain a proportionally sized and equipped force and you're obligate to fight for us. I'd take a portion of the money saved and use it to defend our own border, and I'd take another portion and fund a large fleet of fast heavy haulers so that we can deliver and maintain a fighting force where it's needed, when it's needed. Without the need to maintain so many bases, we could easily cut our overall forces and still increase our combat and combat support troops.
10. I'd start requiring all government grants, purchases, and tax breaks to be for American-made products or American-owned service companies. If the UN wants to make a major stink, I'm fine with getting the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US. About the only thing we have left is that we're the world's most profitable market and I'm tired of giving other nations better terms to come take a piece of it. A leaner group of nations made up of like-minded democratic republics - the UK, the EU, Japan, South Korea - would serve us better anyway, without such atrocities as Yemen or Saudi Arabia chairing the Commission on Human Rights.
11. I'd start phasing out that portion of the EITC beyond what the taxpayer actually paid. No wealth transfers.
12. I'd start removing the cap on payroll taxes. Yes, it sucks that Social Security won''t be there for you if you don't need it. Our previous politicians (which YOU helped elect by action or inaction) spent that money, now it's just another entitlement and just another tax. I want to eventually transition it to an individual account in approved investments similar to that Congress enjoys, but just at the moment we can't afford it.
13. After the first year of actually spending less than the year before, I'd come back to the people and ask to sunset the Bush tax cuts on everyone. We've all dug a hole, and we all need to help pull ourselves out of it. It's going to be a tough few years as we transition back to less consumption and more production, but in the end we'll own our own nation again.
EDIT: Forgot to add: 14. Ask Congress for a clean bill legalizing pot and a clean bill legalizing gay marriage. If nothing else that should keep them too busy to commit much Congressiony mischief. And if I get them, I can move all those LEOs chasing pot dealers to preventing the BATFE from arming the cartels and all the gay weddings and honeymoons will be a nice boost to the economy.
Mind you, that's all off the top of my head.
