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Last updated: December 1, 2010 1:25 pm

US deficit: Choose your cuts

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Earlier this month, leaders of a presidential commission on the US deficit proposed nearly $4,000bn in cuts to politically popular programmes such as social security, defence and Medicare to reduce the US budget deficit. The final report on the committee’s recommendation is due on December 1, but requires 14 of the 18 members’ support. Many suggest this result is unlikely

The commission has broken up for the Thanksgiving Day holiday, but will reconvene on November 29 for a series of crunch negotiations before the deadline. Even if the package does not garner a supermajority consensus, and is not taken up by Congress as a whole, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the co-chairs, have pledged to make it public as a marker for the debate over America’s fiscal options over the coming years.

Now it is your chance to choose what cuts would you make to the deficit. Cut healthcare spending? Raise taxes? Cancel a trip to the moon? The interactive graphic below gives you the opportunity to try to reduce the deficit by cutting specific programmes and suggesting any necessary tax hikes.

Data source: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and James Politi analysis

Related stories:
US fiscal panel members seek deficit vote
Editorial comment: Advice for Capitol’s lame ducks
US deficit plan looks to cut $4,000bn
US budget deficit narrows to $1,294bn
Interactive graphic: UK deficit buster

Additional reporting by Alan Rappeport

A note on the graphic:

The game is designed merely to be indicative. To keep it manageable, the cuts have been estimated according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget research. In practice, many smaller cuts are available and many of the catagories are subdivided. And there are, of course, many other options for cuts big and small, many of which are even more unattractive to politicians.

The FT estimates for savings are only approximate. Some options involve redundancies that would have costs, so the total savings could be lower.

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