@parados,
I am a pretty analytical person, Parados, my daughter accuses me of being too analytical and therefore too procrastinating about everything. For example, I analyze my utility bills, cell phone bills, and all of that all the time. I also do much research and screen things down from a broad selection of cars until I settle on one car. My daughter complains of bills like her phone and cell phone bills, but I constantly point out that she should go over the billing, analyze them carefully by charting all the stuff out, and she could eliminate features that would cut her phone bills down.
With that said, I think that sets the stage for answering your question. I do not think I can give you a solid laundry list of what I would cut first without first having the time and familiarity with all of the budget items, and I do not have that time and familiarity. However, I can give you some preliminary probables, that being I do not think I would cut Food Stamps first. I would look into cutting the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture both programs and personnel, as I know personally of wasteful spending in the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service for example. Other places I would go over with a fine toothed comb would be the Department of Education, and in fact I think most of that responsibility should be shifted back to State and Local authorities. The department could potentially be totally eliminated. The Department of Energy is another huge area of potential wasteful spending. Also HUD. To conclude my answer, I am sure there are many bureaucracies with tremendous waste, and I would go over every budget item very carefully before naming all of my priorities in cuts. I would not propose cuts without first doing my homework very carefully.
Based upon my first impressions however, I don't think cutting Food Stamps is a very wise thing to do, as you are punishing citizens rather than fat bureaucracies. My gut feeling is that it is the fat bureaucracies that should be cut before citizens are punished. I wonder, I don't know for sure, but I wonder if the Democrats cutting of Food Stamps could be simply a ploy of bureaucrats cutting first where the citizens first notice it, so that they can sway the public opinion toward accepting a tax hike. Kind of like shutting down the Statue of Liberty or some other monument that is visited by hundreds of thousands of people, or like a city government shutting down trash pickup instead of lowering the exorbitant salaries of the city managers for example. Such has been a favorite ploy of bureaucrats angling for tax hikes to pad their own pockets with more salary increases.
Actually, Food Stamps may be part of the Dept. of Agriculture, but I think there are plenty of other programs in that department and other departments to possibly cut first.
