Cuts of $300 billion could balance budget.

• Position: Government - Federal budget, United States - Brief Article

The Federal budget could be cut by $300,000,000,000 and brought into balance by 2009 while keeping Pres. George W. Bush's tax cuts in place, contends Chris Edwards, director of fiscal policy studies at the Cato Institute, Washington, D.C., who insists the Federal government is heading towards a financial crisis thanks to chronic overspending, large deficits, and the looming cost increases for Social Security and Medicare.

In "Downsizing the Federal Government," he details agency-by-agency spending cuts. As evidence that government has grown out of control, Edwards documents the recent string of scandals at Federal agencies from the Department of Energy to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Government has grown so large, he indicates, that Congress cannot properly oversee the 2.3 trillion-dollar behemoth. There are over 100 low-priority programs and agencies that could be terminated.

"The good news is that Americans do not need such a big government," says Edwards. "Most Federal programs are unconstitutional, unnecessary, actively damaging, or properly the responsibility of state...