Tea party: Top 10 federal government cuts

While a super committee in Congress is racing to come up with a program to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the national debt, a rival tea party panel is coming up with a plan of its own.

The “Tea Party Debt Commission,” a project of tea party-aligned FreedomWorks, is meeting to discuss ways to balance the federal budget in 10 years — by cutting $9 trillion in government spending — without instituting tax hikes.

Like the super committee, the Tea Party Debt Commission is made up of 12 people, though its members are all activists, not members of Congress. They plan to release their own report the week before the congressional panel’s program is due in November.

In preparation for their final report, the Commission did a crowdsource survey to learn the top 10 favored budget-cutting ideas from activists across the country. Organizers from the project released the survey results Wednesday:

1. Repeal Obamacare
2. Reduce duplicative purchases of Pentagon supplies
3. Eliminate the Department of Education
4. Privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
5. Reduce discretionary spending to 2008 level
6. Block grant Medicaid
7. End ethanol tax credits
8. Sell needless federal buildings
9. Eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development
10. Reduce Medicare teaching subsidies

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