Letters: Ask candidates serious about reducing the national debt what programs they'd ax

If you really want to see the national debt reduced over the next four or five years, vote for politicians who campaign on lowering the debt. But first, get them to tell you specifically what areas of the federal budget they are prepared to cut.

Defense spending? Tell the Navy it doesn’t need another aircraft carrier or nuclear submarine. Tell the Air Force it doesn’t need new fighter aircraft to match anything our potential enemies may be developing. Tell the Army it doesn’t need rapid deployment forces for the world’s next “hot spot.” Tell the Department of Defense to cut benefits going to current or retired military personnel.

Opinion: Wisconsin will vote on a referendum question Nov. 5. Like others, it's confusing.

Letters: Many utilities bloated and poorly managed. We Energies heading down that path.

Social Security? Cut benefits to retirees. Tell them they can move in with their adult children.

Medicare? Ignore the mounting numbers of citizens experiencing health-care bankruptcy.

Cut the Environmental Protection Agency? The Food and Drug Administration? The Federal Emergency Management Agency? The number of air traffic controllers?

Have them tell you what cuts, in which areas? Then ask yourself if you’re OK, personally, with such cuts. And remember, every budget always comes down to just two things: income and outgo.

Keep both sides of the income-outgo equation in mind when you go to vote.

Christos Galaboff, Franklin

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Letters: Ask candidates serious about reducing the national debt what programs they'd ax