The Low-Hanging Fruit for Trump

Photo by Gage Skidmore

The low-hanging fruit for President-elect Donald Trump is spending cuts. My friend Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at Cato Institute, gives his advice here:

So let me suggest some wasteful spending that the new administration should tackle, and the annual savings from terminating each:

• K-12 school subsidies, which generate bureaucracy and stifle innovation ($25 billion).
• Farm subsidies, which enrich wealthy landowners and harm the environment ($25 billion).
• Rural corporate welfare, which is handed out by the Department of Agriculture ($6 billion).
• Energy subsidies, which have been one boondoggle after another ($5 billion).
• TSA airport screening, which Trump has said is “a total disaster” ($5 billion).
• The war on drugs, which wastes police resources and generates violence ($15 billion).
• Excess pay for federal workers, especially gold-plated retirement benefits ($33 billion with a 10 percent cut).
• Housing subsidies, which distort markets and damage cities ($37 billion).
• Community development aid, which is corporate welfare used for buying votes ($11 billion).
• Urban transitand passenger rail funding, which are properly local and private activities ($12 billion).
• Obamacare exchange subsidies and Medicaid expansion, which should be repealed along with the overall law ($225 billion a year by 2026).

President Trump will face major budget pressures in coming years as deficits and entitlement spending soar. Today’s $600 billion deficits are headed toward $1 trillion, and deficits will be even higher if a recession comes along.

Federal spending cuts would help avert a fiscal crisis and boost growth by reducing economic distortions. The incoming Trump team should start with some of the cuts here, and there are plenty more proposals at DownsizingGovernment.org.

Chris Edwards discusses what a Trump or Clinton election win would mean for the economy

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com

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