House GOP Lists $2.5 Trillion in Spending Cuts

[frigidmagi]

US News

Moving aggressively to make good on election promises to slash the federal budget, the House GOP today unveiled an eye-popping plan to eliminate $2.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years. Gone would be Amtrak subsidies, fat checks to the Legal Services Corporation and National Endowment for the Arts, and some $900 million to run President Obama's healthcare reform program. [See a gallery of political caricatures.]


What's more, the "Spending Reduction Act of 2011" proposed by members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, chaired by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, would reduce current spending for non-defense, non-homeland security and non-veterans programs to 2008 levels, eliminate federal control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cut the federal workforce by 15 percent through attrition, and cut some $80 billion by blocking implementation of Obamacare. [See a slide show of the top Congressional travel destinations.]

Some of the proposed reductions will surely draw Democratic attack, such as cutting the Ready to Learn TV Program, repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, the elimination of the Energy Star Program, and cutting subsidies to the Woodrow Wilson Center. [See editorial cartoons about the GOP.]

Here is the overview provided by the Republican Study Committee:

FY 2011 CR Amendment: Replace the spending levels in the FY 2011 continuing resolution (CR) with non-defense, non-homeland security, non-veterans spending at FY 2008 levels. The legislation will further prohibit any FY 2011 funding from being used to carry out any provision of the Democrat government takeover of health care, or to defend the health care law against any lawsuit challenging any provision of the act. $80 billion savings.

Discretionary Spending Limit, FY 2012-2021: Eliminate automatic increases for inflation from CBO baseline projections for future discretionary appropriations. Further, impose discretionary spending limits through 2021 at 2006 levels on the non-defense portion of the discretionary budget. $2.29 trillion savings over ten years.

Federal Workforce Reforms: Eliminate automatic pay increases for civilian federal workers for five years. Additionally, cut the civilian workforce by a total of 15 percent through attrition. Allow the hiring of only one new worker for every two workers who leave federal employment until the reduction target has been met. (Savings included in above discretionary savings figure).

"Stimulus" Repeal: Eliminate all remaining "stimulus" funding. $45 billion total savings.

Eliminate federal control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. $30 billion total savings.

Repeal the Medicaid FMAP increase in the "State Bailout" (Senate amendments to S. 1586). $16.1 billion total savings.

More than 100 specific program eliminations and spending reductions listed below: $330 billion savings over ten years (included in above discretionary savings figure).

Here is the full list of cuts:

Additional Program Eliminations/Spending Reforms

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 duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 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.

FreedomCAR 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.

Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.

Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings.

Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.

USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.

Subsidy to Organisation 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

Well that's more cuts then I expected them to suggest. There is some definite sabotage Obama stuff going on especially with the don't fund the healthcare bit going on there. Some of this stuff... I'm okay with cutting. Do we really need to keep 17 million dollars on hand for Ireland for example? And in tough times, we should ask if we can afford to subsidised various centers and think tanks. On the flip side I don't know what alot of this stuff is, but I'm gonna find out. Watch here for more info.

[General Havoc]

Well at the very least, one can't accuse them of thinking small...

I'm actually somewhat impressed by this plan. Not that I think we should cut all of these things, certainly, but a plan this ambitious might get some discussion moving on just how much of it we can really do without. I rather assumed they would just gesticulate wildly at the idea of cuts without getting into specific details, just so that they could continue to pretend that they had a viable plan in place, but this seems like a surprisingly good place to start work.

[Derek Thunder]

Excuse me whilst I take this opportunity to combine the aloof sarcasm of a yawn with a hearty shudder.

Are a few of these good ideas? Possibly. Are many of these ideas taken out of the hides of middle and lower-class civil servants? Yes. Do many of these ideas scourge any funding from programs that make us smarter (corporation for public broadcasting), more cultured (endowments for the arts/humanities), or more mobile (high speed rail grants)? Yes.

Do they at all address the big three (defense, medicare, medicaid) or the issue of revenue? No.

Honestly I think this is simply another line of evidence for the notion that no one actually cares about the deficit in any meaningful way, and the hack-y partisan slapfight over the issue simply distracts from actual problems.

[SirNitram]

This must be the Republican Study Committee's malarky.

Let's see.. Remove the federal support for public defenders, not to mention the effect cutting the Legal Services Corp. would hit low-income women affected by domestic abuse, custody cases, and in the recent fraud-o-thon, mortgage challenges.

US Trade Development Agency? Well, if you are in a business and need help exporting(Say, Japan just went full Kawaii on your new action figure or art), they help with all the processes.

Pell Grants: About $14.9 billion in cuts

National Park Service: $600 million

Immigration and Customs Enforcement: $2.9 billion

Secret Service: $300 million

Coast Guard: $2.6 billion.

National Institutes of Health: $5 billion

Federal Prison System: $1.5 billion.

Foreign aid, family planning, promoting energy efficiency, even congress' own death benefits. And this just scratches the surface.

This has amount as much impact as the 'recommendations' put out by the deficit group(Which was literally what two people decided on, and relied on everyone else forgetting they needed 14 votes from the group by a certain date to have recommendations anyone would hear).

But let us get directly to the main event of this comedy of errors!

CAVUTO: I don’t want to pick it apart too much, because you always appreciate the efforts at spending cuts, but a lot of these eliminations and reductions, Congressman, realistically come to $330 billion of the $2.5 trillion of proposed cuts. So, in other words, the real meat, up-front cuts, while still substantial, about $330 billion, ain’t the $2.5 trillion. So what is the more realistic figure?

CAMPBELL: The more realistic figure than the two, oh, you mean other than what’s listed on here?

That sound like a ridiculous flailing by the guy from the study commitee to anyone else?

But don't fret too much Link to TPM. Boehner isn't too keen to slash his secret service protection, death benefits, and travel funds. Nor make the GOP the bad guy in all these cuts.

[The Minx]

Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.

Surprise!

Many of these cuts seem to be chump change being slashed from grants to scientific research centers. I don't know how much they depend on that money, but I'm willing to bet that some may face serious problems.