The House Republican 2011 budget is even worse than that proposed last week. The Continuing Resolution on the Fiscal Year 2011 budget also seeks to block EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and to de-fund the White House energy and climate office. That’s in addition to proposing a massive $100 billion cut in President Obama’s discretionary budget request for Fiscal Year 2011. (Climate Science Watch) Some small amount of sanity prevailed in the Republican ranks and as finally passed, there were $60 billion in cuts. Some Republicans crossed over and worked with Democrats to restore funds to programs involving homeland security, community policing, economic development grants and special education, among others.
Boehner's "so be it" to Federal workers losing their jobs as a result of the cuts says it all - “If some of those jobs are lost, so be it. We’re broke.” Yeah and laying off Federal workers will really solve the unemployment problem - so much for Republican attempts at job creation. This job loss will add to the deficit - less taxes to be collected, more unemployment to be paid out, less money to be spent on goods and services in the consumer-driven US economy.
The government deficit needs to be addressed. That is clear. What's going on in the House, though, will do little to cure the problem but it will make the lives of the less well off among us more difficult.
Republicans cutting into the deficit on the backs of the middle class, decreasing services for the disadvantaged, attempting to reverse the health care act (which actually saves money according to non-partisan analyses), and gutting enforcement of environmental legislation is just plain wrong.
Reducing government spending drastically in the midst of the current high unemployment will put the brakes on the recovery for the middle class and is just plain stupid.
Discretionary domestic spending is a very small part of the Federal budget. The major expenses are in the military and entitlement programs.
Why we need a military budget more than 6 times that of China is a true mystery. Maintaining a cold-war-philosophy military budget 20 years after the end of the Cold War is a waste of all of our money. Not to mention the trillion dollars or so that have gone or will go to fund our disastrous misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As for entitlements, Social Security can probably survive through the end of this century with a few minor tweaks. Let's face it - it is being targetted by conservatives because it is the most successful government social program in US history.
Medicare and Medicaid are more problematic. Either revenues that support these programs need to be increased or unit costs for medical care need to be brought down. Fighting the Health Care Reform Act is one sure way to make sure medical costs continue to increase rapidly.
The second part of reducing the deficit is, of course, the revenues side. Revenues are available if we close corporate tax loopholes, reduce military spending, and end the tax breaks for the wealthy when they expire in 2 years. It will take political will and a coherent message to overcome the erroneous but well-financed ideas coming from the think tanks of the Right.
Here's a link to Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Krugman's NYT article on the budget "debate". Great reading.
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