One obvious way to reduce government spending is to reduce the number of wars the US is currently fighting.

While it is currently dropping bombs in 6 different countries, it is also estimated that 1 in 6 US citizens are now on food stamps.

Yes Vanna,which is a point that Saul has cleverly side stepped.Ron Paul also wants to end the wars of corporate imperialism and the rest of Congress hates him.

Arjay,
I understand that one of the reasons why the Bush administration reduced the tax rates for the rich, was to increase the amount of tax being paid by the rich.

The rational was that if their tax rates were reduced, more of the rich would not become involved in tax avoidance schemes, and the net result would be more taxes being paid by the rich.

I dont know how this turned out.

However, there must be something deeply wrong with a system, where over 50 million people in the US do not have health insurance, it is estimated that over 100 cities could shortly become bankrupt because they can't raise enough revenue, but companies such as "WARREN Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has reported a 74 per cent rise in second-quarter profit to $US3.42 billion on improved results in its derivatives portfolio and gains on its investment in Goldman Sachs".

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/warren-buffets-berkshire-hathaway-reports-spike-in-second-quarter-earnings/story-fn91v9q3-1226109744510

Obviously the poor are being forced into the US army to find employment, (and therby helping to man the military-industrial complex), but I also think that large conglomerates in the US are also exploiting the population for all they can, and in whatever way they can.

Presidents and Pentagon chiefs start new wars even before they finish fighting the old ones! The U.S. initiated aggressive wars against five nations (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen)?
The Pentagon gets roughly half of every tax dollar.54% of the pie goes to the military compared with 30% for all human resources, 11 percent for general government and 5% for physical resources..
Defense contractors are awash in profits while lines lengthen at soup kitchens, foreclosed families sleep in shelters, 20 million are jobless or underemployed, food stamp use sets records, summer jobs for teens have vanished, and President Obama appears willing to rat out the elderly on Social Security and Medicare as too costly while he authorizes new CIA drone attacks on Pakistan.

The Pentagon spends more for war than all 50 states spend for all peaceful purposes; the Pentagon’s armed forces are bigger than the next dozen countries combined; the Pentagon leads the world in arms sales; and the Pentagon operates 800 overseas bases for “defense” when, in fact, they are used, like Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, for aggression.

Vanna & sarian,I think that the Western Corporate Elites will now push for war.They have decimated our economies and now probably fear us more than the Chinese or the Russians.So war be it risky even for them,will be their escape.

The riots/protests happening all around the planet have them very concerned.The internet has a created a new awarness that they hadn't counted on.They know how fragile and tenuous their grip on power is,but fear more than anything else the general populations' growing awareness.

Arjay, you might like to look up The Onion and perhaps reconsider your views on what bernanke may or may not have said in some bar. The fact that the piece you refernced was clearly labelled "satire" should help...