I received the following supposed budget cuts from a friend. While I haven't been able to verify every cent, if even some of them are correct, this is shocking.
My question is, what is all this doing in the budget in the first place? If, indeed, these figures are accurate, they are only the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot of waste in the military budget just as, I'm sure, in every Federal bureaucracies' budgets. We should scrub all of them to the essentials.
Also, BEFORE we allow congress resort to raising our taxes to support their profligate spending, we should do a salary and benefit review of their compensation packages. They've voted themselves far better benefits than an average American enjoys, yet there is no penalty for them if they do a poor job. The worst that can happen is they are voted out of office and collect their pension and benefits. Bet you'd like a job like that!
We should demand that Congress re-evaluate all of our foreign aid expenditures as well as our participation in, and contribution to, the United Nations. It's become very one sided in our funding and hosting them yet very little support for our interests or initiatives. We'd be better served to establish strong alliances with countries that have similar interests and aspirations and lend our foreign aid to them--and only them.
It is time to stop borrowing money to give away to other countries and wasting on inefficient government programs at home. It is unconscionable that we would allow our government to saddle future generations with a debt that they have had no say in how the money was spent. Essentially this is TAXATION (of the yet to be born) without any REPRESENTATION! The very principle that drove our separation from England.
PAUL RYAN'S PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS
A List of Republican Budget Cuts. Notice Social Security and the military are NOT on this list .
These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting.
Read to the end.
* 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 duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep.. McKeon, eliminates 68 such duplicative efforts 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.
* Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
* Freedom CAR 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. WHAT???
* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
* Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL
* Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.
* USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
* Subsidy to Organization 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!
My question still is, what is all this doing in the budget in the first place?
Maybe this is why the Democrats are attacking Paul Ryan.
