Senate

Rogers’ First Cuts

By Jay Newton-Small | @JNSmall | February 9, 2011 | +

The House Appropriations Committee today released a preliminary list of 70 programs they intend to trim – or in some places slash. The committee tomorrow is expected to release it’s omnibus appropriations package to fund the government for the rest of 2011. Congress last year failed to pass any of the 2011 appropriations bills and the temporary continuing resolution that Congress passed during the lame duck expires March 4.

Republicans had pledged to cut $100 billion from this year’s non-defense discretionary spending. But given that the fiscal year, which ends in September, is nearly half over that goal got downgraded. Earlier this week House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan set the overall top line number at $1.055 trillion – or $35 billion less than what Dems wanted for 2011.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid blasted Ryan’s number as “draconian” and “unworkable.” It’ll be interesting to see if he can come up with some even more hyperbolic adjectives. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers seems to have taken the cutting a step farther with $58 billion in non-defense discretionary cuts and another $16 billion in security cuts. On the chopping block is a lot of green jobs funding:

·         Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy   -$899M
·         Office of Science   -$1.1B
·         GSA Federal Buildings Fund   -$1.7B (I presume this is money to make federal buildings green)
·         EPA   -$1.6B
·         DOE Loan Guarantee Authority   -$1.4B

Rogers agreed with President Obama that Community Services Block Grants need to be cut – to the tune of $405 million. He also clearly read a GAO report this week that took aim at the redundancies in government job training programs; he proposes to cut a whopping $2 billion in job training funds. Rogers was not impressed with Obama’s pitch for high speed rail: he wants to slice $1 billion from that program and an additional $224 million from Amtrak. Finally, health care took a bit hit as well with $1 billion in proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health and another $1.3 billion from Community Health Centers.

The bill is expected to pass the House next week. It will be open to amendments, though, which could delay things as Dems attempt to restore funding and Republican Study Committee members try and take more out – including at least one provision that will strip money for health care reform implementation. After that it’ll go to the Democratically-controlled Senate where a majority of these cuts will likely be restored before they send it back to the House. Let the ping ponging begin.

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Related Topics: 2011 budget, cuts, Budgets, Congress, Democratic Party, Harry Reid, Republican Party, Senate

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  • nflfoghorn

    “Let the ping-onging begin”
    .
    And the gridlock. Don’t forget the gridlock.

  • square1

    Ah, yes, the job-killing House of Representatives. Nothing like doubling down on a recession when unemployment is close to 10%.

    Truly, these people are out of touch.

  • marvyt

    So science, investments in renewable energy, and infrastructure are going to be cut in order to keep giving millionaires and oil companies tax breaks. Absolutely brillant.

  • Paul-no not that one

    EPA -$1.6B–after watching Gasland that number gives me pause.

  • apr2563

    Careful Michael S might think that is hyperbole.

  • Paul-no not that one

    Who the heck is Lisbeth Lyons?

  • http://shortplaysaboutrealpeople.wordpress.com Michael Maiello

    At least cutting funding to science will assure us that this climate change and evolution stuff will never trouble us again.

  • http://milascurtains.wordpress.com milascurtains

    Pure Job-Killing goal.
    Do they really think they were elected for that?
    How nice – to give free mercedes to richest in Tax Cuts and cut everything that has Anything to do with future – Job, clean energy, training, etc.

    Looks like Ignorance is ruling in House.
    Do we really need this House of Morons?

  • apr2563

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/polls-show-americans-largely-clueless-about-where-us-budget-goes.php?ref=fpblg
    .

    Yet when it comes time to get specific, the cuts that Americans are by and large in agreement on don’t add up to much. While they want Congress to drastically reduce spending overall, they overwhelmingly oppose doing so by scaling back some of the budget’s biggest pieces.
    .

    In a recentGallup poll, foreign aid was the only piece of the budget where a clear majority of Americans supported budget cuts. Foreign aid is actually a minuscule 1% of the total budget.
    ..
    When it comes to defense spending, Americans generally oppose cuts and wildly underestimating how much is already beYet the Rasmussen survey also asked this question:
    To ensure its safety, should the United States always spend at least three times as much on defense as any other nation? Only 25% of respondents agreed with that statement, compared to 40% who disagreed.
    .
    Total defense spending for 2011 is estimated at $719 billion, seven times higher than the approximately $100 billion in annual military expenditures by the next highest spender, China.

    .
    Congress will naturally exploit American citizen ignorance.

  • freeinpa

    “$1.055 trillion – or $35 billion less than the Democrats wanted”
    .
    3.3% is draconian and the left wants the public to believe they are serious about the deficits.

  • doddeb

    PNNTO: Was that a frightening documentary or what? Believe me, cutting funding to the EPA is no doubt partially related to the influence of the gas and oil industry. The destruction of groundwater due to fracking in upstate NY and Pennsylvania continues, but activists and some folks in state/local government are trying to slow down the spread.
    .
    Found a good website for more info:
    .
    http://www.marcellusprotest.org/
    .
    The eastern portion of my state, Ohio, is also part of the Marcellus shale deposit. With our new GOP governor, Kasich, I believe it’s only a matter of time before fracking is widespread here as well.

  • marvyt

    The Republicans count on the population remaining ignorant of public policy and its repercussions. The public’s ignorance is the primary factor destroying our country.

  • libssd

    If the Appropriations Committee had listed these cuts with percentages in addition to absolute numbers would have been far more informative.
    .
    I copied their data into a spreadsheet, then sorted by size of cut.
    .
    Job Training Programs: $2,000,000,000
    EPA: $1,600,000,000
    DOE Loan Guarantee Authority: $1,400,000,000
    Community Health Centers: $1,300,000,000
    Office of Science: $1,100,000,000
    NIH: $1,000,000,000
    High Speed Rail: $1,000,000,000
    .
    Also, because they are so closely linked, if one adds CDC to NIH, you get $1,755,000,000 in public health research cuts. Significant or catastrophic? Without the percentages, it’s hard to say.
    .
    Conspicuously absent from the list are anything related to the military, Social Security, or Medicare, which are the big three when it comes to dealing with the long-term structural deficit.

  • kbanginmotown

    If 29% believe this, it must be worth considering…%-/

  • nflfoghorn

    Similar doc was on the Science Channel a few months ago. Tap water literally poured on fire. But we don’t need to worry about that kinda stuff DO we???

  • Paul-no not that one

    Yeah that movie helped my education on fracking/Natural gas.
    .
    I did read that Buffalo NY banned any of it today.
    .
    If anything I think you might be underestimating the influence the industry has in defunding their watchdog.
    .
    Glad Minnesota isn’t sitting on any shale. Tough economic times lead to bad decisions.

  • Matt

    None of these cuts are substantial enough to make one iota of difference in the long-term deficit. And they all come at the expense of programs popular with the public — Amtrak, health care and medical research, energy efficiency aid for homeowners. These are also programs that lawmakers — Dem and Republican — don’t want to see disappear from their districts. They won’t cut their local Amtrak service or close clinics because of a cut in government funding.

    The Republicans have purposefully targeted cuts that are not viable and will never happen, apparently just to say “we tried” as a political ploy.
    http://www.sunstateactivist.org

  • jsfox

    The basic way that conservative politics works is that first you reduce taxes on rich people, creating a budget deficit. Then you rail against “spending” with reference to specific “weak claims” on the public purse. Then when it comes time to actually write a budget, you slash spending on “weak claimants,” vulnerable people with little political influence.

    I other words don’t cut agricultural subsidies cut food stamps. Don’t cut $20 Billion in Oil industry tax breaks cut education, science, infrastructure spending

  • shepherdwong

    “Careful Michael S might think that is hyperbole.”
    .
    Could be worse. JNS thinks “unworkable” is a “hyperbolic adjective.” Apparently, no one sprung for a dictionary at J-school.

  • freeinpa

    “The basic way that conservative politics works is that first you reduce taxes on rich people, creating a budget deficit”
    .
    Since your first premise is incorrect the rest can only be garbage. The problem is not enough revenue, it is spending and entitlements pure and simple. Without those so-called rich people there owuld be no money- period.

  • freeinpa

    “None of these cuts are substantial enough to make one iota of difference in the long-term deficit. And they all come at the expense of programs popular with the public”
    .
    This is similar to the dopey argument about drilling for roil. It will take ten years so don’t do it.
    .
    It’s too small, it own.t make a difference, it’s popular with the public are 3 big reasons we are where we are.

  • robbert5

    Freeps,

    you as well as anybody else who is a frequent visitor to this blog should know better. The answer lies in increased revenues as well as entitlement reform.

    As you pointed out yourself (although I believe you didn’t mean it this way) the problem is not enough revenue, but that is only part of the story. The tax rate is the lowest since the 1950′s and we are fighting two wars overseas. And you are really scratching your head and wonder what happened?

    We were also in a deep recession and are still climbing out of a very deep hole that had a direct negative impact on tax revenue and you are still sctratching your head and ask what happened?

    Deep cuts is not the shortterm answer. It only puts aqll the burden on the have-nots in this country as the Rodgers plan showed. In the longterm, entitlement, tax code reform and increased taxes will be the answer to retrieve fiscal soundness.

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