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Title: House GOP Lists $2.5 Trillion in Spending Cuts
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URL Source: http://www.usnews.com/news/washingt ... s-25-trillion-in-spending-cuts
Published: Jan 20, 2011
Author: Paul Bedard
Post Date: 2011-01-20 14:51:59 by Capitalist Eric
Keywords: None
Views: 44241
Comments: 72
Moving aggressively to make good on election promises to slash the federal budget, the House GOP today unveiled an eye-popping plan to eliminate $2.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years. Gone would be Amtrak subsidies, fat checks to the Legal Services Corporation and National Endowment for the Arts, and some $900 million to run President Obama's healthcare reform program. [See a gallery of political caricatures.] What's more, the "Spending Reduction Act of 2011" proposed by members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, chaired by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, would reduce current spending for non-defense, non-homeland security and non-veterans programs to 2008 levels, eliminate federal control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cut the federal workforce by 15 percent through attrition, and cut some $80 billion by blocking implementation of Obamacare. Some of the proposed reductions will surely draw Democratic attack, such as cutting the Ready to Learn TV Program, repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, the elimination of the Energy Star Program, and cutting subsidies to the Woodrow Wilson Center. [See editorial cartoons about the GOP.] Here is the overview provided by the Republican Study Committee: Discretionary Spending Limit, FY 2012-2021: Eliminate automatic increases for inflation from CBO baseline projections for future discretionary appropriations. Further, impose discretionary spending limits through 2021 at 2006 levels on the non-defense portion of the discretionary budget. $2.29 trillion savings over ten years. Federal Workforce Reforms: Eliminate automatic pay increases for civilian federal workers for five years. Additionally, cut the civilian workforce by a total of 15 percent through attrition. Allow the hiring of only one new worker for every two workers who leave federal employment until the reduction target has been met. (Savings included in above discretionary savings figure). "Stimulus" Repeal: Eliminate all remaining "stimulus" funding. $45 billion total savings. Eliminate federal control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. $30 billion total savings. Repeal the Medicaid FMAP increase in the "State Bailout" (Senate amendments to S. 1586). $16.1 billion total savings. More than 100 specific program eliminations and spending reductions listed below: $330 billion savings over ten years (included in above discretionary savings figure). Here is the full list of cuts: Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings. Save America's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings. International Fund for Ireland. $17 million annual savings. Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings. National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings. National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings. Hope VI Program. $250 million annual savings. Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings. Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually. U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings. Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings. Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings. John C. Stennis Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings. Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings. Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings. Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings. Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings. Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings. Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings. Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings. Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings. Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings. New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings. Exchange Programs for Alaska, Natives Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts. $9 million annual savings. Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings. Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings. Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings. Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings. Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings. Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings. FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings. Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings. Economic Assistance to Egypt. $250 million annually. U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings. General Assistance to District of Columbia. $210 million annual savings. Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings. Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years. No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings. End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services. Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually. IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years. Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings. Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years. Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings. Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings. Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings. Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings. USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings. Subsidy to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). $93 million annual savings. Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million annual savings. Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings. Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings. HUD Ph.D. Program. Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act. TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years
FY 2011 CR Amendment: Replace the spending levels in the FY 2011 continuing resolution (CR) with non-defense, non-homeland security, non-veterans spending at FY 2008 levels. The legislation will further prohibit any FY 2011 funding from being used to carry out any provision of the Democrat government takeover of health care, or to defend the health care law against any lawsuit challenging any provision of the act. $80 billion savings.
Additional Program Eliminations/Spending Reforms
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 63.
#8. To: Capitalist Eric (#0)
(Edited)
The federal government will spend more than $40 trillion on the next 10 years, so this "eye popping" plan only amounts to 6% of that they'll spend. The British government just cut spending by 29%. Sure, it's better than nothing, but it's not good enough. Ronald Reagan wanted to eliminate the Department of Eduction. Bush doubled it. Why aren't they talking about that? Jimmy Carter's Department of Energy failed to solve our dependence on foreign oil. Why aren't they talking about that? What does the Department of Commerce do anyway? How about the Department of Labor? Why are we paying for this? Why are we forking over billions of dollars to wealthy corporate agribusinesses with things like sugar price supports and mohair subsidies? The government started subsiding mohair because it was used in military uniforms. That hasn't been true in several decades. Why is the subsidy still there? WHY??? Let's not forget the critically needed subsidy for raising Alpackas. The world would certainly come to an end without this. In addition, the structural deficits cannot be eliminated, the budget cannot be balanced, and the national debt cannot be paid down unless they also reform Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and their numerous military adventures abroad. Again, better than nothing, but it won't fix our problems.
Sure, it's better than nothing, but it's not good enough. I agree completely, with your assessment. I think the ramifications of what's coming, will make the whole argument moot, though. This country has been torpedoed for decades, and the Bush presidencies, clintong and now obama have been steadily working to finish the job. Bernanke and Greenspan have pulled their weight in the attack on our country as well... And the results will be a catastrophic economic collapse. Their spending will be cut, no matter what. It's only a matter of time.
We can push the timeline up by pressuring the GOP hard to NOT raise the debt ceiling. What will happen if they don't? The government will have to prioritize spending to fit within tax revenues. #1 - pay the current interest on the debt so that the U.S. government doesn't default #2 - pay for enough military to keep the country safe #3 - make sure that senior citizens who actually need the money continue to get social security and medicare Their won't be any money left for anything else. That's a good thing. Of course, this is not going to happen, but I am surprised at how many GOP politicians -- from Pat Toomie to Tim Pawlenty -- are pretty much saying the same thing.
So you'd like to see an end to the border patrol, FBI, federal prisons, road construction, the coast guard, embassies, and the national park system? Seriously? I really never thought I'd hear Republicans argue for opening the borders and emptying the prisons. I guess you'll celebrate when Ramsi Yousef is once again a free man?
These things cost almost nothing compared to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Pentagon. Yes, our infrastructure is crumbling. Why? Because we spend too much money on government handouts and foreign adventures. China doesn't have much in the way of a welfare system. They don't station troops around the world. But they do spend a ton of money of infrastructure. We should learn something from them. The border patrol, FBI and coast guard have a national security component, so they were lumped in with my #2. Embassies are an obsolete and wasteful concept. They could be largely replaced with video conferencing. The U.S. government owns very little property east of the Mississippi. It owns 85% of Nevada, and very large percentages of most western states. They have no business doing this. Most federal lands should be turned over to the states.
Agreed, and yet the GOP has taken Medicare, SS, and defense off the table as far as budget cuts, which means in order to close a $1.2 trillion deficit, you need to end all funding for border patrol, the FAA, the FBI, the DEA, road construction, and so on, and even if you zeroed out all discretionary spending, you are left with a $800 billion annual deficit. OK, so now you are even taking some discretionary spending off the table. I guess we'll just ignore the fact that there's only $440 billion in total discretionary spending to cut (which includes things like the FBI, border patrol, etc.).
Most of it should be eliminated. By bye Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor... with a few exceptions like OSHA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We should IPO the Post Office and let it compete fairly with FedEx and UPS. This would be the biggest IPO in history. It would raise a ton of money. We could cut domestic discretionary spending by $200 billion a year and almost no one would notice. We could cut the military budget by $200 billion a year and not harm our national security. That's still leaves us with a $700 billion deficit this year. We need to reform entitlements that then grow the economy to make up the rest.
So the answer to our ailing economy is to put hundreds of thousands of government workers out of work, further weakening the economy and the employment situation? Are you serious?
Absolutely. The U.K., which about a 4th or 5th our size is laying off 500,000 bureaucrats. Tiny little Cuba is laying off 500,000 bureaucratic. What is the U.S. doing? Hiring more bureaucrats, and handing them six figure salaries and pensions. We should be looking at making 1 million federal employees available to the market.
Can you back that claim with a link?
The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data. Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted. Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector. When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
Shows you the free market does not work in raising the salary levels of workers who have seen a decrease in real household incomes since the 70s. We went from one income families to 2 family incomes to needed 3 family incomes (kids working) for the middle class. I find the right wing scum always screaming "class warfare" anytime the left brings up the compensation of executives in America but the right wing has no problem attacking the income of workers in govt or in unions and doing class warfare against their blue collar brothers so that the non union workers in the GOP can hate the union workers and govt workers and feel envious towards them and not question the union hating policies that would benefit them and thus do the bidding of the "richers". The private sector refuses to hire? Start making federal alphabet agencies to employ the American people via 90% taxation of multi-millionairs like President Eisenhower did.
Are you dumb enough to believe anybody ever paid anything close to 90%? There were MANY more deductions at that time.
So what? Still worth it.
So what? Still worth it. It doesn't matter what the tax rate is, the wealthy will still whine.
The rich in America are parasites. Very few of the rich in America are men of innovation like Henry Ford was who created the wealth via industry. We should pass a law stating that any wealth over a million dollars not invested in job creating endeavors should be taxed at 90%.
#65. To: Godwinson (#63)
Steve Jobs may be in the Ford category - at least investors seem to think so. The Waltons however - definitely not. I doubt the market would notice much if they all shuffled off this mortal coil.
You mean like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), on and on... Most wealthy people in American work longer and harder than anyone else. Sure, there are wealthy parasites living off of 3rd and 4th generation money. They are called the Kennedy family.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latesthe House GOP today unveiled an eye-popping plan to eliminate $2.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years
#14. To: jwpegler (#8)
The federal government will spend more than $40 trillion on the next 10 years, so this "eye popping" plan only amounts to 6% of that they'll spend. The British government just cut spending by 29%.
#22. To: Capitalist Eric (#14)
Their spending will be cut, no matter what.
#23. To: jwpegler (#22)
Their won't be any money left for anything else. That's a good thing.
#24. To: go65 (#23)
So you'd like to see an end to the border patrol, FBI, federal prisons, road construction, the coast guard, embassies, and the national park system?
#27. To: jwpegler (#24)
(Edited)
These things cost almost nothing compared to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Pentagon.
The border patrol, FBI and coast guard have a national security component, so they were lumped in with my #2.
#31. To: go65 (#27)
that there's only $440 billion in total discretionary spending to cut
#44. To: jwpegler (#31)
Most of it should be eliminated.
#51. To: go65, capitalist eric (#44)
So the answer to our ailing economy is to put hundreds of thousands of government workers out of work
#53. To: jwpegler (#51)
What is the U.S. doing? Hiring more bureaucrats, and handing them six figure salaries and pensions.
#55. To: lucysmom (#53)
(Edited)
Can you back that claim with a link?
#57. To: jwpegler, lucysmom, go65 (#55)
(Edited)
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.
#58. To: Godwinson (#57)
via 90% taxation of multi-millionairs
#61. To: no gnu taxes (#58)
Are you dumb enough to believe anybody ever paid anything close to 90%? There were MANY more deductions at that time.
#62. To: Godwinson (#61)
Are you dumb enough to believe anybody ever paid anything close to 90%? There were MANY more deductions at that time.
#63. To: lucysmom (#62)
Replies to Comment # 63. Very few of the rich in America are men of innovation like Henry Ford was who created the wealth via industry.
#67. To: Godwinson (#63)
Very few of the rich in America are men of innovation like Henry Ford
End Trace Mode for Comment # 63.
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