If you were on the deficit commission,

how would you reduce the deficit?

Raise taxes on those making over $300,000 back to the 50% rate (which is where is was in the Reagan years), and release all non-violent drug offenders from federal prisons, and don't prosecute any more of them either.

were in line with everyone else's. Force those old boys to make hard decisions about which of those 700 foreign bases to keep and which to give up. Force them to sell off all the stuff they've been squandering money on and warehousing since WWII just to use up every dime so they can scream for more the next year. Abandon all the funding that goes to stopping the Soviets at the Fulda Gap. Above all, stop them being a welfare office for arms contractors, let them demonstrate a bias toward cheap stuff that works rather than overengineered stuff that's obsolete as soon as it leaves the drawing board and doesn't work that well in the field. Make them concentrate on giving our soldiers the protective gear they need. End outsourcing, it's too expensive and has given our military inferior goods and services, like those showers that electrocute them and that water that gives them dysentery.

In short, tell the Pentagon the party is over and it's time for a prolonged hangover.

Cut military spending

After giving the military a haircut, I'd go after farm subsidies, well, lots of subsidies.

We've learned in recent weeks that many large and extremely profitable companies don't pay taxes. Find where in time that became the case, crunch the numbers and hit 'em with a bill!

How many firms in how many cities got huge tax breaks for bringing jobs to the community that are gone? See about some make goods.

Levy fines against employers who hire illegally, they and their questionable practices are what is at the root of the immigration issue, not the folks who are exploited because they have different compensation standards.

End internalized profit and externalized expenditure as a guiding principle in practice and punish accordingly, those who refuse to give it up as a mantra.

Commerce is to serve the needs of the people, the people aren't supposed to be made to serve the needs of commerce. I'm sure there is someone to credit for that last statement, though I don't know who it might be.

More than this. Convene a world disarmament conference and lead the way in cutting militaries in all regions. Stop selling arms and move with the other major sellers to end the arms trade. (The US is most of the market so it has the leverage of saying it's giving up the most.)

End the war on drugs and release a million prisoners. Tax marijuana.

Execute the zombie banks and cancel any government debt they hold.

Raise taxes on the rich to pre-1980 levels.

Tax hydrocarbons.

Transaction tax.

Set up a new Bretton Woods currency system and end the era of completely free capital speculating to destroy currencies for profit.

After these measures are enacted, see how bad the deficit is then and open a national debate on what cuts to make. (Give everyone a blank pie chart and ask them to draw how they would divvy up the budget.)

I would take off the cap just like Medicare so that the money would flow into the SSI Fund.

I would also eliminate the double taxation of SSI benefits for those who have retirement incomes over $25k.

I would slap a 10-15 increase on the Gas Tax to go strictly for construction of High Speed Rail between major cities.

I would also raise the top marginal bracket to 45%.

I would increase auditing of corporate Tax Returns.

I would levy excise taxes on imported energy.

I would also pass a fee for corporations operating in the US but who have chosen to locate in tax havens such as the Carmen Islands.

I would charge an individual transaction fee on each and every stock sold on the US Stock Exchanges. Make it low enough to not be onerous to small investors but high enough to discourage intra day trades.

I would also raise the capital gains tax back to 28%.

I would also revamp the inheritance taxes.

I would also eliminate the stepped up bases for assets in an estate over say 1 million in value.

That's my take. It would shift the behavioral nudges from the tax code and also raise a ton of money.

there are a lot of things that aren't fair and a lot of stuff that is sloughed off.

We should have a special task force spot auditing Tax Free Foundations to see if they really are tax free and tighten up the religious exemption because all the Benny Himes and Pat Robertsons running around making millions and not paying any taxes...

pushing their political views from the pulpit.

They need to have their tax-exemption status revoked.

We would bring troops home from every foreign "entanglement".

We would stop the subsides of corporations on every front with the possible exception of R&D that would directly result in employing Americans in good paying jobs.

in political activism.