Thursday, January 20, 2011

BOOM! ShakaLaka, Here Come the Cuts!

Daily Caller reports:

A number of the House GOP’s leading conservative members on Thursday will announce legislation that would cut $2.5 trillion over 10 years...

... It includes both budget-wide cuts on non-defense discretionary spending back to 2006 levels and proposes the elimination or drastic reduction of more than 50 government programs.

Jordan’s “Spending Reduction Act” would eliminate such things as the U.S. Agency for International Development and its $1.39 billion annual budget, the $445 million annual subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the $1.5 billion annual subsidy for Amtrak, $2.5 billion in high speed rail grants, the $150 million subsidy for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and it would cut in half to $7.5 billion the federal travel budget.

Believe it or not, that's only $330Bn.

The rest of it consists of a return to 2006 spending levels.

Going back to 2006 levels would reduce spending by $2.3 trillion over ten years...

That includes a 15% reduction in Fed personnel.

Other cuts in the Jordan proposal include putting the $45 billion remaining in the stimulus toward deficit reduction, eliminating federal control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the tune of $30 billion in savings, and clawing back $16 billion currently scheduled to go toward helping state governments pay for Medicaid recipients...

SocSec and Medicare remain on the table.

It's a start.

2 comments:

Grim said...

Um, we really need USAID. It's the only reliably effective part of our diplomatic efforts, and a major part of our efforts in both Iraq and the Philippines (where it works hand-in-glove with the Joint Special Operations Task Force). Can't we cut the Institute of Peace instead? Most people don't even know it exists, and I've never heard of it actually accomplishing anything.

neomom said...

Grim,

The Institute of Peace is a Pelosi baby - it seems to be the Congressional version of the State Department. With a really nifty and impressive looking gazillion $$ building.

I've been calling for its complete defunding ever since we walked past that building on 8/28. It screams boondoggle and Statist self-importance.