With mere hours to go before the final Presidential debate at 9 p.m., consider the budgetary proposals the National Taxpayers Union Foundation compiled on Mitt Romney during the GOP Primaries (totals are annualized and indicate changes in current spending):
Economy, Transportation, Infrastructure: -$4.3 billion (savings)
- Repeal Dodd-Frank Act: -$4.3 billion
- Reform Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Unknown
- Create Trans-Pacific Trading Partnership: Unknown
- Create Reagan Economic Zone: Unknown
- Initiate More Customs Enforcement: Unknown
- Challenge Unfair Trade Practices: Unknown
- Create Personal Reemployment Accounts: Unknown
Energy, Agriculture, Environment: Unknown
- Conduct Domestic Energy Survey and Expedite Leasing: Unknown
- Reform Environmental Laws: Unknown
- Reform Environmental Regulations: Unknown
- Reform Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Unknown
Federal Government Reform: -$383.409 billion (savings)
- Block-Grant Federal Programs: Unknown
- Reduce Non-Security Discretionary Spending: -$22.807 billion
- Cap Spending at 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product: -$340.383 billion
- Curb Waste, Fraud, and Abuse: Unknown
- Consolidate Federal Training Programs: -$300 million
- Eliminate Amtrak: -$1.34 billion
- Eliminate Other Programs: -$760 million
- Reduce Federal Workforce: -$6.919 billion
- Limit Federal Pay and Benefits: Unknown
- Adopt Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act: Unknown
- Repeal Davis-Bacon Act: -$10.9 billion
Health Care: -$136.098 billion (savings)
- Repeal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: -$40.6 billion*
- Block-Grant Medicaid Funding: -$93.45 billion
- Expand Tax Deductibility: Unknown
- Purchase Insurance Across State Lines: $65 million
- Create Small Business Purchasing Pools: $7 million
- Reform Medical Malpractice: -$2.42 billion
- Health Savings Accounts: Unknown
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement: Unknown
- Create Joint Hemispheric Task Force: Unknown
- Combat Drug Cartels: Unknown
- Complete Border Fence: Unknown
- Simplify Congressional Reporting for Department of Homeland Security: Unknown
National Security, International Relations: $170.802 billion
- Expand Naval Capabilities in the Pacific: Unknown
- Maintain Defense Spending at 4 Percent of Gross Domestic Product: $170.802 billion
- Support Civil Society Groups in China: Unknown
- Support Civil Society in Russia: Unknown
- Cooperate on Israel Security: Unknown
- Support “Arab Spring” Governments: Unknown
- Increase Enforcement of the Proliferation Security Initiative: Unknown
- Reorganize Diplomatic and Assistance Efforts in the Middle East: Unknown
- Prevent Cyber-Attacks: Unknown
Net Total: -$353.005 billion (savings)
Total Number of Identified Proposals: 42
- Number of Spending Increase Proposals: 3
- Number of Spending Decrease Proposals: 11
- Number of Unknown Spending Effects Proposals: 28 (66.6% of all proposals)
* NTUF has updated this estimate to a $63.9 billion annual savings (Source: Repealing "Obamacare": A Look Beyond the Media’s Misguided Deficit Focus, National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Issue Brief 164, July 2012)