Heritage Foundation Releases 2022 Budget Blueprint

The Heritage Foundation recently released their 2022 Budget Blueprint, a list of over 200 specific policy proposals that would “roll back excessive government spending, prioritize taxpayer dollars, reform major entitlement programs, restore federalism, promote opportunity for all, and protect rights and American values”, according to the executive summary.

The plan includes 178 proposals that would reduce deficits by more than $12.1 trillion over ten years, either by reducing spending directly or by increasing revenues through reductions in tax expenditures. Another 11 proposals would either increase spending or reduce tax revenue, costing the federal government approximately $3.6 trillion over that same period. With the remaining 17 provisions in the plan being scored as having no budget impact, the overall plan would reduce federal deficits by approximately $8.5 trillion over ten years.

Below are some of the more noteworthy savings proposals, as well as a table listing estimated savings from each area of the federal budget:

• Put Federal Medicaid Spending on a Budget – $1.2 trillion
• Repeal the State and Local Tax Deduction – $1.1 trillion
• Convert Medicare to a Premium Support System – $1.0 trillion
• Eliminate ACA Insurance Subsidies and Medicaid Funding – $930 billion
• Gradually Shift Social Security to a Flat Benefit - $667 billion
• Update Medicare Premiums – $514 billion
• Reduce Taxpayer Subsidies for Wealthy Medicare Recipients – $511 billion
• End Medicaid Provider Taxes – $497 billion
• Return Control of and Fiscal Responsibility for Low-Income Housing to the States – $352 billion
• Wind Down the U.S. Department of Education – $332 billion