Take a whack at balancing the federal budget!

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/budget-hero

I did pretty well, cutting our debt to 34% of GDP while reducing the size of government to 20% of GDP. My proposed budget would not run out of money until 2041! lots of cuts to military and congressional discretionary spending, and an overhaul of the tax code and medicare helped a lot.

there needed to be more options in some of the areas but still pretty cool overall.

I'm trying the "Tea Party wet dream" approach right now.

Edit: And I've successfully moved the budget bust date from 2031 to 2030. Terrific.

By only playing 3 cards, i've managed to create a 2021 surplus of $10b, extend the budget bust date to 2036, and reduce the debt by 15%.

What you should get from this is that even if we do everything current politicians talk about, the country goes broke before 2040.

Reduced debt to 37.1% GDP, delayed the bust until 2041, and shrank the size of government to 20.7% of GDP. I left healthcare alone for the most part.

My biggest cards played:
1) Rapidly reduce troop numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2) Reform and simplify the tax code, 3) Cut discretionary spending by 10%, 4) Freeze military spending, and 5) Eliminate Department of Energy.

All this has demonstrated that I don't have the faintest clue about crazy american politics.

Oh, yes, that particular hilarity is not lost on me.

well... got the budget to where it doesn't bust till 2039.
by 2021 national debt went from 77.1% of GDP down to 47.2%.
and from a 827$(billion) deficit to a 400$(billion) surplus.

did some reforms to social security and medicare, didn't really cut any benefits for current enroll... people.
didn't touch education or housing. and actually increased NASA's budget by 50%

All policies are decided by cute flash games.