First of all, balancing the budget in a decade would be hard. It would involve reducing spending and/or raising revenue by $16 trillion. That's around a quarter of federal spending. pic.twitter.com/MsZeDJSxga

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

The chart above is just an illustration. Almost no one recommends balancing the budget by just cutting everything in the budget by a quarter.

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

But the exercise of looking at specific programs to change, trim, or eliminate highlights real political challenges. https://t.co/6tOQNcYeiI

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

Here's one plan, from the @RepublicanStudy, that includes many policy suggestions that would get the budget to balance with cuts alone. pic.twitter.com/T76L5cw4j2

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

Note that plan does involve reductions to Medicare and Social Security, as well as huge cuts to Obamacare and Medicaid.

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

What about balancing the budget without cutting Medicare or Social Security? Republicans booed at the SOTU when the president said they wanted to touch those programs. https://t.co/6tOQNcYeiI pic.twitter.com/Ue3OhvcZAm

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

Here's what @MarcGoldwein had to say about that math: “It’s incredibly difficult to balance the budget within 10 years. It goes from being incredibly difficult to practically impossible if you start taking things off the table.” https://t.co/6tOQNcYeiI

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

If you look at our charts, you can see why. Social Security and Medicare are where the money is. If you avoid cutting them--or defense--there's not much left.

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

You could also raise taxes to balance the budget. This is not an option much talked about in Washington, but we looked at some options from the @USCBO to give a sense of what might be involved. pic.twitter.com/V3ivemP39r

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

Could you balance the budget by cutting "woke" programs? No. pic.twitter.com/I2gmIY6uMp

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

Ok, but is balancing the federal budget the right goal? Some people think so, but the mainstream view of economists is that balance is not necessary as long as federal debt is stable relative to the size of the economy.

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

Here's how various budget proposals look relative to that standard. pic.twitter.com/lZqAsI7uE1

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

Read our article on balancing the budget for more detail, more helpful charts, and several delightful quotes. https://t.co/6tOQNcYeiI @aliciaparlap @jshkatz

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

One last point: It's not just "woke" programs. The size of the deficit is large enough that it is basically impossible to balance the budget in a decade by just cutting your least favorite line item or reversing your least favorite tax cut.

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

The only real exception would be if the entire Social Security program was your least favorite.

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 6, 2023

CBO is out with its own analysis of what it would take the balance the budget. If the Trump tax cuts are renewed, and cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Veterans, and Defense are off the table, zeroing out the rest of the budget still wouldn't be enough. https://t.co/qJwDhCutcl pic.twitter.com/Kkq3NcXKJy

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 14, 2023

This analysis differs by the one in our article in two main ways. 1) It takes veteran's benefits off the table. 2) It assumes the Trump tax cuts will be renewed. Our numbers assumed the tax cuts would expire after a decade.

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 14, 2023

It's impossible to list everything that would be eliminated in this scenario via tweet, but a few examples are: The FBI, farm subsidies, the State Department, air traffic controllers, the EPA, food assistance, medical research funding, border patrol, the judiciary...

— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 14, 2023