I saw this earlier today but didn't pay much attention to it at the time. Thanks for posting this Jaerik.
Here's my plan. I'll send an invoice to Congress requesting payment for the 10 minutes of time I spent fixing the budget. America, you're welcome:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=2j2k4bm9
Overall, 50% of my savings come from spending cuts, and the other 50% came from tax increases on those who could afford it if their common sense was as healthy as their pocketbooks.
Since I didn't have the option to outright abolish the Department of Homeland Security, I opted for the 5% pay cut for Federal employees and cut contracts for private contractors. Many states are not in healthy economic shape, so I preserved their aid. Same with foreign nations.
Aside from cutting the military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan to 30,000 troops by 2013 (which doesn't seem realistic...but neither is this budget-cutting exercise!), I left the military alone.
Defensive medicine is enormously expensive. I enacted medical malpractice reform (doctors and hospitals are not lottery tickets), and I capped Medicare growth. I do not need to see three specialists and order a battery of expensive tests for some harmless mole on my leg that my family doctor's known about since I was 5 years old.
In terms of medical costs, we all need to do our part. Hospitals and doctors are enormously wasteful spenders (and spend lots of money on insurance and defense of lawsuits), and we Americans generally live tremendously unhealthy lifestyles. We also need to shift our primary care providers from ER doctors to the offices of primary care physicians.
I reduced Social Security payments to those with high incomes.
As for tax policy, I generally chose President Obama's proposals. They're a comfortable middle ground between the higher taxes of the 90s and the 2000s Republican policy of not taxing rich people at all.
I also chose the Bank Tax. I approve of higher taxes on risky investment holdings, especially since I know my tax dollars are on the line. The US government did earn profit off the TARP bailouts, and I'd like to continue earning profits off the riskiest banks in order to finance their bailouts and soften the financial blow from their collapses.