One man’s list of $343 billion in federal spending cuts
As I’ve noted before, newly empowered Republicans will have no choice but to act fast in slashing federal spending to balance the budget. In the long run, that will require them to reform entitlements. But what about next year’s budget?
Brian Riedl at the Heritage Foundation has come up with a list to get them started: 90 specific cuts exceeding $343 billion.
He describes the principles guiding the cuts as:
- Empowering state and local governments. Congress should focus the federal government on performing a few duties well and allow the state and local governments, which are closer to the people, to creatively address local needs in areas such as transportation, justice, job training, and economic development.
- Consolidating duplicative programs. Past Congresses have repeatedly piled duplicative programs on top of preexisting programs, increasing administrative costs and creating a bureaucratic maze that confuses people seeking assistance.
- Privatization. Many current government functions could be performed more efficiently by the private sector.
- Targeting programs more precisely. Corporate welfare programs benefit those who do not need assistance in the American free enterprise system. Other programs often fail to enforce their own eligibility requirements.
- Eliminating outdated and ineffective programs. Congress often allows the federal government to run the same programs for decades, despite many studies showing their ineffectiveness.
- Eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. Taxpayers will never trust the federal government to reform major entitlements if they believe that the savings will go toward “bridges to nowhere,” vacant government buildings, and Grateful Dead archives.
Some of the major cuts are:
- $60 billion by repealing the unspent economic stimulus spending
- $45 billion by devolving the federal highway program and most transit spending to the states
- $20 billion by rescinding unobligated balances after 36 months
- $15 billion by replacing farm subsidies with Farmer Savings Accounts and improved crop insurance
- $10 billion by cutting the federal employee travel budget to $4 billion
The full list is here.
Some of these cuts seem pretty painless and, given the times we’re in, like no-brainers — making federal employees fly coach, for instance. Others will cause some shrieks from the people who were accustomed to feeding at the federal trough.
The message of the side that’s going to win this election is that, shrieks be damned, the cuts have to be made. I don’t think the voters will let them get away with backpedaling from that message.
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62 comments Add your comment
Not So Casual Observer
October 29th, 2010
5:09 pm
LW @ 4:58,
Your point on government investment is generally invalid. For the railroads and other major infrastructure development perhaps, but the major breakthroughs in other areas are as a result of private investment.
Your argument on the internet is classically false. The internet developed, over time, from educational institutions need for information sharing into a massive industry fueled by private investment, as in Microsoft, Dell, and others. The vast majority of development comes in the private sector as needs are discovered and entrepreneurs seek to meet the need.
Not So Casual Observer
October 29th, 2010
5:23 pm
LW,
Your “straw man” is absurd.
Seeking government intervention in every aspect of our lives is the essential element to the loss of freedom and private enterprise is the best use of funds when compared to a transfer to the government and then into industry.
Do not confuse robber barons, supported by their friends in government, with private enterprise. The ugly truth about the firms such as Goldman Sachs, a private firm dependent on government largesse, should not condemn all private business, although there is much negative about the most recent events on Wall Street.
The simple fact is that subtle changes over the last century have altered the landscape and one of those was the election of the Senate. When the Senate was elected by the state legislatures there was a balance in Congress but once that changed the Senate became subject to the whims of public election just as the House and reason was replaced with political consideration.
We are approaching the point in this country where those paying no tax will outnumber those who pay and then the country is lost.
booger
October 29th, 2010
5:33 pm
There was an article by a Harvard economist recently which said if all federal budjets were rolled back to 2008 levels, the deficit would go away in four years.
Left wing management
October 29th, 2010
5:50 pm
NSCO:
I’m not sure exactly what you’re talking about. The Internet was initially developed in the 1960s by the military, long before Tim Berners Lee or Bill Gates got into the act.
Also, I’m not sure what you mean by “Do not confuse robber barons, supported by their friends in government, with private enterprise.” If not with private enterprise, what should I associate them with then? The government? Since you bring it up though, doesn’t it bother you that major capitalists – and in our own day, financial capitalists – are so adept at finding ways to play the system, only to be bailed out by that system when they crash and burn? To you these are just incidentals of the capitalist system. To me, they signal that something is deeply wrong with that capital system itself.
catlady
October 29th, 2010
7:00 pm
It’s”corporate welfare” until it is a business that YOU have stock in!
catlady
October 29th, 2010
7:06 pm
Not so casual @ 5:01: Are you talking about Nathan Deal?
Curious
October 30th, 2010
7:27 am
What are you willing to scarifice personally to reduce the deficit? If you aren’t willing to step up to the plate, then be quiet.
Southern Comfort
October 30th, 2010
7:39 am
Limit the job of U.S. Customs to ports of entry.
LOL!!! There’s two different groups of customs officers. One,CBP, is already limited at the border due to border search authority. The other group is ICE, which is enforcement. If you limit ICE to the border, you have nobody to protect against IPR violations as well as other Customs related issues.
DEWSTARPATH
October 30th, 2010
12:33 pm
Southern Comfort – October 30th, 2010
7:39 am
“If you limit ICE to the border, you have nobody to protect against IPR violations as well as other Customs related issues.”
– LOL ? Aren’t ‘LOCAL’ police departments around the country
(especially in certain Georgia counties such as Cobb) trying out
new programs to screen for immigrant status ? Whatever happened
to ‘ states rights’ to control their own enforcement initiatives ?
‘LOCAL’ cops can’t perform ICE raids ? Or could it be that various
‘wars’ on drugs have pushed up the prison population so much that
there’s no ‘room at the inn’ for all of the suspected ‘illegals’ that
would be arrested by ICE sweeps ? Think about it.
Lil' Barry Bailout
October 30th, 2010
2:42 pm
Nothing gets the libbtards more hacked off than a discussion of having the government spend less money. Hell, what do they care, most of them don’t pay any federal income tax. All they see is their gravy train grinding to a halt.
Not So Casual Observer
October 30th, 2010
3:04 pm
LW,
There are thousands of private businesses, run by middle class Americans, for every thief on Wall Street and in Washington. Liberals would kill off the thousands to eliminate the scum who steal and all in the name of government control. The constant plea of Liberals; Protect me, feed me, give me money, etc., etc.
At no point did I state the theft and fraud were “incidentals”, that is simply the Lib manner of discussion. You read into a comment a meaning there were no words present to convey.
Your party was at the forefront in the bailouts, whichever party you support. Your mindset seems to be to kill the system to solve a problem rather than protect the grandest economic system and government in the history of the world. I KNOW Obama is intent on destroying the United States, he has openly said so, but what is your motivation?
No More Progressives!
October 31st, 2010
7:08 am
NoWayNoHow
October 29th, 2010
4:47 pm
Ain’t gonna happen, no way no how. Republicans talk the talk and never walk the walk. The only thing they know how to do is cut taxes and that takes no courage.
Well then, enlighten us, Oh Great Sage. What is courage in your world? Wasting trillions of dollars of other peoples money? 52 rounds of golf in 20 months? Exorbitant vacations every few weeks? Waiting 50 days to engage in the oil spill?
He’s got courage, all right. The Country needs Howlin’ Mad Smith or Iron Mike O’Daniel, and we get Winnie the Pooh.