Typical wp_kses $allowed

I would disagree with the solution posted by @JaredCobb, wp_kses() is much more flexible than the method he presented. It can strip out unwanted attributes from tags without destroying the tags themselves. For example, if the user put in <strong class="foo">, wp_kses() would return <strong> if you did not allow class, whereas strip_tags() would remove the <strong> completely.

@redconservatory: The attributes you’ll want to use are as follows:

$args = array(
    //formatting
    'strong' => array(),
    'em'     => array(),
    'b'      => array(),
    'i'      => array(),

    //links
    'a'     => array(
        'href' => array()
    )
);

This will allow bold and italics with no attributes, as well as anchor tags with an href attributes…and nothing else. It uses the whitelisting principle, which @jaredcobb rightly noted is the better way to go here.