This might be the baseline for a budget cut proposal by Republicans.

S

speedracer

Banned
This is from the Heritage Foundation. I wonder why they didn't put it out earlier in the election cycle?

Table 1: Spending Cuts for FY 2012
(in millions of dollars)

Agriculture
$15,000 Replace farm subsidies with Farmer Savings Accounts and improved crop insurance.
$2,033 Eliminate the Foreign Agriculture Service.
$1,500 Merge all four agriculture outreach and research agencies and cut their budget in half.
$1,000 Fund the Food Safety and Inspection Service with user fees.

Commerce
$500 Eliminate business subsidies from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Community Development
$6,000 Eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program.
$598 Eliminate the Rural Utilities Service.
$523 Eliminate the Economic Development Administration.
$480 Eliminate NeighborWorks America (formerly the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation).
$200 Consolidate the Rural Housing and Development Programs and convert them into block grants.
$73 Eliminate the Appalachian Regional Commission.
$48 Eliminate the Denali Commission.
$31 Eliminate the Minority Development Business Agency.
$8 Eliminate the Delta Regional Authority.

Education
$8,000 Return Pell Grants to their 2009 funding level of $24 billion, which is still double the 2007 level.
$2,000 Trim Head Start by $2 billion and convert it into vouchers.
$2,000 Scale back the Education Department bureaucracy.
$1,500 Eliminate dozens of small and duplicative education grants.
$298 Eliminate state grants for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities.

Energy and the Environment
$6,500 Reduce energy subsidies for commercialization and some research activities.
$600 Block grant and devolve Environmental Protection Agency grant programs.
$200 Restructure the Power Marketing Administrations to charge market-based rates.
$63 Eliminate the Science to Achieve Results Program.

Government Reform
$44,000 Halve federal program payment errors by 2012, especially by reducing Medicare errors and earned income tax credit errors. Tighten oversight by spending $5 billion on new resources, such as updated computer systems, and then recover $49 billion in payment errors.
$20,000 Rescind unobligated balances after 36 months.
$12,500 Halve the $25 billion spent to maintain vacant federal properties.
$10,000 Cut the federal employee travel budget to $4 billion (half of FY 2000 spending).
$3,000 Freeze federal pay until it can be reformed.
$1,000 Suspend acquisition of federal office space.
$600 Trim the federal vehicle fleet by 20 percent (a reduction of 100,000 vehicles).
$300 Cut the House and Senate budgets back to the 2008 level of $2.2 billion.
$215 Eliminate the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.
$100 Tighten controls on federal employee credit cards and cut down on delinquencies.
$70 Require federal employees to fly coach on domestic flights.

Health Care
$6,200 Reform Medigap.
$5,000 Repeal Obamacare (larger savings in later years).
$3,700 Require Medicare home health co-payments.
$673 Eliminate the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant.
$414 Eliminate Health Professions grants.
$327 Eliminate Title X Family Planning.
$150 Eliminate the National Health Service Corps.
$98 Repeal Rural Health Outreach and Flexibility grants.

Homeland Security
$2,700 Eliminate most homeland security grants to states and allow states to finance their own programs.

Income Security
$500 Better enforce eligibility requirements for food stamps.

Interior
$1,500 Open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to leasing. (The savings are leasing revenues, which are classified as negative spending in the federal budget.)
$200 Suspend federal land purchases.

International
$2,636 Eliminate the Development Assistance Program.
$625 Eliminate the State Department’s education and cultural exchange programs.
$321 Eliminate the International Trade Administration’s trade promotion activities or charge the beneficiaries.
$183 Eliminate the Democracy Fund.
$68 Eliminate the International Trade Commission and transfer oversight of intellectual property rights to the Treasury Department.
$56 Eliminate the Trade and Development Agency.
$29 Eliminate the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
$19 Eliminate the East–West Center.
$17 Eliminate the United States Institute of Peace.
$2 Eliminate the Japan–United States Friendship Commission.

Justice
$7,334 Eliminate all Justice Department grants except those from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute of Justice, thereby empowering states to finance their own justice programs.
$398 Eliminate the Legal Services Corporation.
$32 Eliminate the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service.
$30 Eliminate the duplicative Office of National Drug Control Policy.
$26 Reduce funding for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division by 20 percent because of its policy against race-neutral enforcement of the law.
$4 Eliminate the State Justice Institute.

Labor
$4,300 Eliminate failed federal job training programs.
$2,000 Eliminate the ineffective Job Corps.
$576 Eliminate the Senior Community Service Employment Program.

National Science Foundation
$1,700 Reduce National Science Foundation funding to 2008 levels.
$86 Eliminate National Science Foundation spending on elementary and secondary education.

Transportation
$45,000 Devolve the federal highway program and most transit spending to the states.
$1,900 Privatize Amtrak.
$1,009 Eliminate grants to large and medium-sized hub airports.
$554 Eliminate the Maritime Administration.
$125 Eliminate the Essential Air Service Program.

Treasury
$26,646 Eliminate the additional child refundable credit.
$103 Eliminate the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

Veterans
$2,500 Cap increases in Department of Veterans Affairs health care spending.
$1,930 Reduce Veterans’ Disability Compensation to account for Social Security Disability Insurance payments.

Cross-Agency and Other
$60,000 Repeal unspent stimulus spending.
$8,000 Switch to using the “Superlative CPI” in funding calculations.
$6,000 Repeal the Davis–Bacon Act.
$2,250 Eliminate Federal Communications Commission funding for school Internet service.
$2,000 Ban project labor agreements on all federally funded construction projects.
$1,000 Eliminate the Small Business Administration, which unnecessarily intervenes in free markets.
$736 Eliminate the National Community Service programs, such as AmeriCorps.
$253 Eliminate the Institute of Museum Services and Library Services.
$140 Eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities.
$133 Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts.
$61 Eliminate Army Corps of Engineers funding for beach replenishment projects.
$10 Eliminate the Commission of Fine Arts.
$8 Eliminate the National Capital Planning Commission.
$5 Eliminate the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

============================================

Total $343,207 million
 
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You could have left out Republicans and I doubt many of us couldn't have figured it out. that reads like a Republican calling card.
 
Of course. They want Republican Big Government (foreign policy), but they categorically reject Democratic Big Government (domestic policy.) It's an ideological difference.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']Source?[/quote]Sorry bout that.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/10/How-to-Cut-343-Billion-from-the-Federal-Budget
Seems to be lacking in Military Cuts.
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They cut billions from VA though! They saw how those dirty disabled veterans were collecting SSI and military disability and made sure they proposed a cut. Jesus, it's like these lazy veterans were disabled BY the government or something. God, they're probably clearing $25,000 a year in exchange for a normal life.

You know what costs the government more than those damned disabled vets? Two F-22 Raptors.
 
Eliminate all Justice Department grants except those from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute of Justice, thereby empowering states to finance their own justice programs.
Click to expand...

Awww, dude, if I was still single. I'd go out on blind dates to the fanciest places in town, then leave before the after-dinner drink. I'd email the woman later and say "lady, I empowered you to finance your own goddamned dinner!"
 
It makes you wonder what the National Institute of Justice. I mean, they got nothin but hate for just about everyone, yet specifically name them as an entity that keeps getting that tasty pork.

Looked it up:
NIJ is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. We provide objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools to meet the challenges of crime and justice, particularly at the state and local levels.
Click to expand...
Socialism!!
 
The Government and International cuts mostly sound good, but I can admit that I don't understand enough about the other programs, what they do and don't do, and what they are for, to comment.

That's the problem with stuff like this. Each and every item on that list can and would be debated on why or why we don't need it. Would never happen.
 
What things I think should be cut and what shouldn't be.

Should be cut:
$15,000 Replace farm subsidies with Farmer Savings Accounts and improved crop insurance.
$298 Eliminate state grants for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities.
$10,000 Cut the federal employee travel budget to $4 billion (half of FY 2000 spending).
$100 Tighten controls on federal employee credit cards and cut down on delinquencies.
$70 Require federal employees to fly coach on domestic flights.
$2,700 Eliminate most homeland security grants to states and allow states to finance their own programs.
So we're looking at a savings of $28,168 million. A little over $28 billion. Not too shabby ehhh? None of these I believe are that offensive to either side.

What shouldn't be cut:
$1,500 Open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to leasing.(Why don't we just drill for oil in the National Parks ok?)
$86 Eliminate National Science Foundation spending on elementary and secondary education.(What help does this give to urban school districts, to get kids excited about science?)
$1,900 Privatize Amtrak.(Some of the savings as listed above should be used to FIX Amtrak, to either upgrade it to magnetic rail or just up to Bullet Train standards. After this market it as an alternative to those who don't want to take an airplane. If this is privatized I likely wouldn't be able to afford it and there's no way I'm getting body scanned in an airport.)
$2,500 Cap increases in Department of Veterans Affairs health care spending.
$1,930 Reduce Veterans’ Disability Compensation to account for Social Security Disability Insurance payments.
$1,000 Fund the Food Safety and Inspection Service with user fees.(I don't mind my tax money going to making sure food is safe. I have the feeling if this was eliminated it would make locally canned/processed food ridiculously expensive compared to the big brands.)
$8,000 Return Pell Grants to their 2009 funding level of $24 billion, which is still double the 2007 level.(fuck no, with the economic situation being what it is and how it's likely to stay I believe the funding should even be increased.)
$2,000 Trim Head Start by $2 billion and convert it into vouchers.(No, no, no. I do not want to see public tax money being used to fund private schools, some of which parents enroll their kids in for the express purpose that it's a RELIGIOUS private school.
$3,000 Freeze federal pay until it can be reformed.

What I'm unsure about:
$1,000 Eliminate the Small Business Administration, which unnecessarily intervenes in free markets.(What is the point of this org. truly? I see what the line by Heritage is but can anyone elighten me?)
$600 Trim the federal vehicle fleet by 20 percent (a reduction of 100,000 vehicles).(I like the idea but I wonder how much savings we might see by them keeping said vehicles.

So as you can see, over $28 billion that could be eliminated without most people here protesting. I picked the farmer subsidy one because, to my knowledge, most of that goes to corn anyway. If they put a subsidy in for local farmers to get Organic certified though I wouldn't be adverse to it.
 
[quote name='Sarang01']What things I think should be cut and what shouldn't be.

Should be cut:
$15,000 Replace farm subsidies with Farmer Savings Accounts and improved crop insurance.

I picked the farmer subsidy one because, to my knowledge, most of that goes to corn anyway. If they put a subsidy in for local farmers to get Organic certified though I wouldn't be adverse to it.[/QUOTE]
But that makes me wonder how the Farmer Savings Accounts and improved crop insurance would work.. or be better? Wouldn't federal crop insurance be a pretty egregious (by the Heritage's standards) intervention in the market?

On a few of these, they suggest alternatives that to me seem to bring with it a pretty significant cost of its own.
$1,500 Merge all four agriculture outreach and research agencies and cut their budget in half.
$2,000 Trim Head Start by $2 billion and convert it into vouchers.
$1,000 Fund the Food Safety and Inspection Service with user fees.
$44,000 Halve federal program payment errors by 2012, especially by reducing Medicare errors and earned income tax credit errors. Tighten oversight by spending $5 billion on new resources, such as updated computer systems, and then recover $49 billion in payment errors.
$100 Tighten controls on federal employee credit cards and cut down on delinquencies.
$68 Eliminate the International Trade Commission and transfer oversight of intellectual property rights to the Treasury Department.
Click to expand...
Don't each of these things require significant capital expenditures and/or new bureaucracies? I wonder if these are savings above the costs associated or not.
$2,000 Ban project labor agreements on all federally funded construction projects.
Click to expand...
Gimme a fuckin break. They can't even help themselves sometimes.
$1,000 Eliminate the Small Business Administration, which unnecessarily intervenes in free markets.(What is the point of this org. truly? I see what the line by Heritage is but can anyone elighten me?)
Click to expand...
I started a business once. I wrote up a proposal and took it to a few banks. They laughed me out of the room (wearing a red beanie probably didn't help). I took it to the SBA and asked if I was crazy. I thought my idea was brilliant. The SBA has retired business executives that you can meet with for free and will go over your business, whether an idea like mine was or a full fledged business looking for ways to reduce costs, look for new revenue sources, etc.

Anyway, I met with a guy who basically said my idea was good and if I was willing to cut my grand idea down to a basic starting point, I should be able to finance it out of my own pocket and use revenue to build up. He also suggested additional customers to target that I never would have thought of. Those suggestions ended up being by far my biggest clients. I found two friends as investors, built it up, and sold my share to the investors two years later. Used the money to live on a beach in Hawaii for a year. The advisor also demanded that I get an accountant instead of trying to Quickbooks it and the accountant I hired saw things I didn't and pretty much saved my business in its first six months (I was pushing to build my client base by taking on low margin customers at the expense of my few quality clients and got myself into a turf war with a down market competitor to boot. There was much ramen those months.).

tldr: SBA is good.
 
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There are bits and pieces in there I could get behind, but it's stuff I think most anyone could agree with, like making federal employees fly coach. Other stuff like eliminating funding for rural health outreach programs is ridiculous.
 
[quote name='Clak']There are bits and pieces in there I could get behind, but it's stuff I think most anyone could agree with, like making federal employees fly coach. Other stuff like eliminating funding for rural health outreach programs is ridiculous.[/QUOTE]

Well, see, that really depends on how effective some of those programs are. That's why I won't get behind much of it, because I can admit I just don't know.

So much stuff in the government is complete and total waste. Just ask anyone that works for the government, in just about any capacity.

I am sure many programs on that list, if cut, would have radically bad cascading effects down the road that weren't expecting. Conversely, I am sure there are many programs in that list that might seem really important that really cost more than they are worth or at the very least need to be highly stripped down.

It's a pretty complicated matter. Which is why most of the time most politicians are too afraid to get behind cutting stuff. Which is why every time you grow government, it's likely a permanent growth.
 
Well if they aren't effective then find a way to increase effectiveness. The rural health program I noted may not be effective, I don't know, but I do know theat many rural areas don't have access to good health care.

In fact there is an rural area about an hour north of here that probably has easier access to methamphetamine than good health care.
 
Thanks for the info speed.

I had skepticism of the Heritage Foundation's assessment when they said "unnecessarily intervenes in free markets". I know they're a Right Wing think tank but apparently from what you're saying about the SBA Heritage is also pushing more for Corporations NOT business in general.

The problem I see with keeping farm subsidies is most of the people who see the benefit I hear about are Corporations. Also a lot of it seems to end up with Corn being heavily subsidized.
If we'd at least kill the Corn subsidy maybe we'd end up seeing those farmers diversify their crop with more vegetables, soy, etc. In the process perhaps we might see the price drop, especially for the former.
edit: One of the best ways I think we could fix that rural program is just to completely subsidize people becoming doctors. That's one of the reasons some of these doctors don't want to bother starting up a practice out there, what with the horrendous student loans. It's also the same reason for why most doctors don't work at smaller clinics or have private practices nowadays. Some are just trying to stay afloat.
If you had Medical Schooling subsidized(A's or B's) then we'd see more doctors do this I'm sure. Just starting it now for the students that have 4 years to 1 year left would help tremendously. I'm betting the 4 years would especially be amenable.
 
Pull a Northern Exposure, pay for their schooling then send them to some far out place for a few years as repayment.:)
 
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