If I were President: Budget Deficit

I played the NY Times' Budget Puzzle. Here is my first attempt. I fixed the deficit with 43% tax increases and 57% spending cuts. Again, this was just a first cut. I basically went through and checked things I could live with. But I didn't do a great job of comparing all of the options and only choosing the least painful ones. I was surprised how easy it was. Of course, capping Medicare really helped (saving $562 billion!).

It is also surprising how many reasonable things I did not do, which shows that there is wiggle room. I did not choose to decrease the size of the Navy nor reduce Iraq and Afghanistan troop levels to 60,000 or (gasp) 30,000. I did not increase the Medicare eligibility age or the Social Security retirement age. I choose a moderate estate tax proposal (Obama's instead of Kyl's or Clinton's). But since I did choose the millionaire's tax, some of the things listed above could offset that if it is unreasonable.