Lest y’all think I’ve lost my mind, I think we should start with tax breaks for billionaires who don’t pay their employees a living wage.  Now, that’s an entitlement!  I’d force these greedy bastards to fund the welfare benefits for employees who don’t make enough to feed their families or provide medical care.  This will silence the bullshit rhetoric on ObamaCares.  While we’re at it, we can remind the greedy corporate farmers that all their subsidies come with strings attached:  food stamps.

Thanks, Kit Gruelle

Next, I’d go after the corporations who don’t pay their fair share of taxes.  Many of these evil empires have shipped our living wage jobs overseas and slashed the pay and benefits for employees still lucky enough to have a job here in the United States.

Update:  Terri Marshall Gilfillan has done some excellent research on this issue and posted two excellent articles on Facebook.  One Wal-Mart superstore costs the taxpayers about $1 billion/year.  Now, that’s some serious entitlement spending that benefits the uber-rich Walton family:

Wal-Mart’s low wages cost taxpayers, by Emily Jane Fox, CNNMoney, 6/5/13

The High Cost of Low Wages by Wayne F. Cascio, Harvard Business Review, 12/06

We wouldn’t have a budget crisis if people like me were working and paying taxes.

Finally, I’d slash the hell out of the Defense budget to fund programs that promote peace.  Diplomacy is always, always less expensive than war.

It isn’t hard to balance the budget.  But, the Republicans and their lobbyists wouldn’t like my definition of entitlements.

So, President Obama, I say call Rep. Boehner’s bluff.  Tell him that you don’t negotiate with terrorists, and this includes the Tea Party bullies.  Let’s balance the budget by going after the real drain on our Treasury:  entitlements for the 1%.

Which entitlement spending would you eliminate from the federal budget?  Sound off!

Related Post:

Kitchen Table Economics:  Balancing the Budget Isn’t Rocket Science — You Can Do It with a Few Clicks of Your Mouse

The Shutdown Is Workplace Bullying Gone Wild by Cindy Waitt, Huffington Post, 9/30/13

Message to Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA):  It’s Time to Deliver, 10/19/13