THAT'S the correct verb...

While the current crop of presidential hopefuls (Ron Paul excluded) spout the usual talk about "cutting" government, Doug Bandow points out that's not the right level of action.  The Feds need a gutting, not a cutting (emphasis below added):

The basic purpose of the national government today is to allow everyone to live off of everyone else. The intent is to give away trillions of dollars. What matters most is giving it away, not giving it away efficiently.
Every week or so a new report is issued detailing how taxpayer money was spent with no effect, misspent to great loss, or can't be accounted for. Legislators express shock, shock, that such outrages could happen, before voting to spend more money on more programs which will generate similar reports in the months and years ahead. The one step which no one imagines taking is spending less money. After all, the usual interest groups were enriched, as intended by Congress. "Waste," however defined, is merely a cost of doing business in Washington.

The only way to get the federal budget under control is for the federal government to do less. A lot less...

The big spending boulders are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Pentagon, and interest. Cuts here would cause much political pain, which is why politicians prefer not to talk about such possibilities. The people must decide not to have the government do certain things.

As he points out in the rest of the essay, it's easy to identify the "big rocks." The problem is that each has an entrenched constituency.  So long as Americans demand government provide healthcare and retirement checks for everyone, while at the same time policing the world, subsidizing the defense of wealthy allies and throwing bales of money into various ratholes in failed states, nothing will change.  So long as we keep telling ourselves "we're America, dangit; we can do anything,"  nothing will change.

Breaking addictions is never easy, but it's essential to restore health.  Eating humble pie isn't easy, either, but it's just what the doctor ordered.