Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama
Republicans are out to cut the domestic budget almost 20 percent for the coming year in an effort to reduce our $1.5 trillion deficit. While they are treading too closely to some important programs that help Americans, some of the proposed cuts are necessary.
For example, foreign aid would be cut 6 percent while veteran's health care benefits would remain largely unchanged. Republicans have also agreed not to cut the minimum $5,550 Pell Grant for low-income college students. Spending at the Pentagon would also rise only $10 billion instead of the $23 billion President Barack Obama has proposed.
"Washington's spending spree is over," Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman told the AP. "The spending limits will restore sanity to a broken budget process," he said, returning "to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels."
But Republicans are missing some important areas that can be cut and are targeting areas that should be left alone or increased.
The AP writes:
The White House says the GOP effort could cause widespread furloughs of federal employees, force vulnerable people off subsidized housing, reduce services in national parks and mean less aid to schools and police and fire departments.
The hardest hit agencies would include the Food and Drug Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the departments of Commerce, Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture, according to partial details released by the House Appropriations Committee.
But here is the kicker: Congress' own budget would be barely touched, the AP reports.
If Republicans are willing to cut federal aid to school districts from the Department of Education's budget, then they should also be willing to slash the Congressional budget.
If conservative Republican budget hawks and Tea Party wannabes are so gung-ho about slashing our deficit, then the Congressional budget should be the first thing on the table.
It just makes sense. We are all Americans and we should all share the pain. If we are making cuts that affect health care for Americans then maybe we need to look at the very healthy Congressional health care plan. Millions of Americans lack a pension. Maybe the Congressional pension should be reduced. Maybe spending allowances for Congress should be cut.
Maybe the wealthy don't need more tax cuts. Maybe middle class Americans need some tax relief.
"We're not burying our heads in the sand. We recognize that we have to do something," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Obama's most powerful ally on Capitol Hill.
If that's true, Congress should look at their own house first. Both Democrats and Republicans should widen their search for places to cut in an effort to reduce our massive deficit. Republicans also must realize that millions of Americans are vulnerable because of the state of the economy. Stimulus spending and spending on unemployment benefits can actually help the economy.
A "large budget deficit is helpful in that it's supporting demand," Till Von Wachter, associate professor of economics at Columbia University, said at a Senate hearing Thursday, ABC News reported. "Having said all of that, I think I would entirely agree that we need to reduce these budget deficits moving forward when the economy is clearly off and running. ... We should engage in the kind of discipline necessary to ensure that we do not crowd out private investment."
In other words, a little sanity.