Friday, February 04, 2011

Are Ryan's Cuts Enough?

Well. Yesterday Paul Ryan proposed to cut $74Bn from the budget this year (actually, beginning March.) Earlier, the Republicans had proposed a $100Bn cut.

Today that "$74Bn" number shrank.

House Republican leaders on Thursday said they would seek $32 billion in spending cuts from the resolution currently funding the government.

Republicans framed their proposal as cutting $74 billion from President Obama's 2011 budget request. However, because Obama’s budget was never approved by the last Congress, the cuts would actually be made against a continuing resolution now funding the government.

Obozo's Regime has accelerated spending since the election--thus, there are less "cuttable" dollars, and of course, this is a "half-year" cut.

There is discontent among the hoi polloi--that is, the taxpayers and TEA Party activists.

The conservative House Republican Study Committee (RSC) is demanding a full $100 billion cut in non-security discretionary spending, and Republicans are trying to fend off internal criticism by offering conservative lawmakers the chance to offer amendments to the spending bill that would make more significant cuts.

There's one very bright spot:

...a leadership aide indicated the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be targeted. The aide said EPA has tripled its budget in the last three years and said agencies that have seen such growth will be affected.

Of course, that's bellicose-talk and will undoubtedly lead to mayhem and shootings.

Gee. I wonder how Ryan feels now with that "moderate" label?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Minor point of order - that $100 billion in the Pledge to America was also against the FY2011 Obama budget. The RSC estimated that a full return to FY2008 non-security discretionary spending would be an $80 billion cut versus FY2010 spending (re-estimated by me to be $82.9 billion).