§ Aircraft purchases by the Air Force and Navy are cut by $3.5 billion.
§ Military operations across the services are cut by about $13.5 billion.
§ Military research is cut by $6.3 billion.
§ The National Institutes of Health get cut by $1.6 billion.
§ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are cut by about $323 million.
§ Border security is cut by about $581 million.
§ Immigration enforcement is cut by about $323 million.
§ Airport security is cut by about $323 million.
§ Head Start gets cut by $406 million, kicking 70,000 kids out of the program.
§ FEMA’s disaster relief budget is cut by $375 million.
§ Public housing support is cut by about $1.94 billion.
§ The FDA is cut by $206 million.
§ NASA gets cut by $970 million.
§ Special education is cut by $840 million.
§ The Energy Department’s program for securing our nukes is cut by $650 million.
§ The National Science Foundation gets cut by about $388 million.
§ The FBI gets cut by $480 million.
§ The federal prison system gets cut by $355 million.
§ State Department diplomatic functions are cut by $650 million.
§ Global health programs are cut by $433 million; the Millennium Challenge Corp. sees a $46 million cut, and USAID a cut of about $291 million.
§ The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is cut by $55 million.
§ The SEC is cut by $75.6 million.
§ The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is cut by $2.6 million.
§ The Library of Congress is cut by $31 million.
§ The Patent and Trademark office is cut by $156 million.
Of course Obama and Democrats want to replace sequester cuts with tax increases including cutting tax loopholes. They claim up to 2 million jobs will be lost to sequestration cuts. Even if this is true, more tax increases (remember Congress just passed a tax increase on those making 400 thousand per year), will also destroy job creation and lead to more layoffs. But let’s face facts; most Democrats are in favor of defense cuts and against discretionary spending cuts. And we should not forget that Obama signed sequestration into law and it is coming to fruition because he and liberal lawmakers refused to implement any Simpson-Bowles budget cut proposals.
Republicans, on the other hand, prefer to replace the defense cuts with more domestic cuts including to the food stamp program, ObamaCare, Medicaid, and the Dodd-Frank Act.
And of course, most special interest groups in Washington do not want to see any sequestration cuts enforced.
Cutting the deficit, debt, and spending is not going to be easy. Let’s put the sequestration cuts in perspective – they amount to just over 2% of the 2013 fiscal budget of 3.8 trillion dollars and only account for about 9% of our budget shortfall for the year. In the big scope of things, these cuts are not enough to avert our growing deficit issues. We need more cuts!
I agree with Republicans that cutting defense is more cataclysmic than cutting other discretionary and entitlement spending for several reasons. First, defense spending directly affects private sector companies and economic growth whereas most discretionary and entitlement spending do not. Secondly, most intellectual property generated by the U.S. government comes from defense research and development and NASA. Thirdly, these cuts will make the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist attacks at home and abroad and will lead to more illegal immigration.
Despite my objections to defense cuts I am 100% in favor of the sequestration cuts as proposed today. If Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and special interest groups do not like the sequestration cuts, then that means it is a good compromise and starting place for budget cuts. In fact, we need further and more deep cuts to avoid fiscal oblivion because sequester cuts do not scratch the surface of U.S. financial woes. There will have to be a lot of pain to avert the fiscal calamity we face as a nation. It is sad that people will lose their jobs, but we cannot keep spending money we do not have. And it is a national security risk to have countries like China owning our debt. We need to break our growing addiction and dependency on government handouts – they are not free for all. Americans have made this problem and now it is time for us to correct it.
"Baseline budgeting" has on average each line item of a federal budget automatically increasing by about 8% from one FY to the next. This, when anyone in Washington talks of, say, a 3% cut, you should hear a mere 5% increase.
ReplyDeleteThat is what all the "cuts" talk is, smoke and mirrors.
The "tax increase" talk is also phoney-baloney-good-time-rock'n'roll as well. It's based on "static budgeting" which dictates ignoring history, reality, and human nature. Nothing so far proposed or done, or what will be proposed or done, will increase tax monies to the Treasury.
The “sequestration” and the games that are being played offer some of the clearest evidence of what evil people these leftists are, even though their followers will continue to pretend they don’t see it.
ReplyDeleteThe sequester scheme was Obama’s brainchild. FROM THE VERY BEGINNING he planned to use it to coerce republicans into raising taxes. He NEVER had any intention of cutting spending. Now he blatantly LIES and denies that it was his idea, then travels around on OUR TAX DOLLARS to give speeches denouncing those who represent US in an effort to EXTORT more money from the rich to expand his wealth transfer program. He acts like he’s playing a game of monopoly – completely indifferent to the fact that the money he plays with represents the hard-earned labor of all Americans.
This is an evil man. He is as corrupt as they come.
Yep,Obama wanted this and you are right he is now lying about whose fault it is.
ReplyDelete