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Leftists want specifics on what to cut, try these bloated money wasting programs
coachisright.com ^ | NOVEMBER 19TH, 2010 | Kevin “Coach” Collins

Posted on 11/19/2010 9:09:57 AM PST by jmaroneps37

By The snarky Left demands the new conservative Congress be specific about the defunding and cuts they want to accomplish to start cleaning up the mess the Democrats have caused. Because liberals know so little about genuine economic theory (as opposed to the feel good dribble taught in so many college classrooms), they believe that if THEY can’t think of programs to defund they don’t exist.

Here are a few programs that can be cut or completely defunded without the slightest ripple being felt by the average American.

The Western Area Power Administration was established on Dec 21, 1977 and gets 100% of its funding from federal and local governments. A check of its website indicates it hasn’t even updated its history page in almost three years because it still talks about its thirtieth anniversary. Since it is a sub-agency of the US Energy Department this program is by definition a failure. Sell this failure to private entrepreneurs and save the operating costs we are wasting on it.

We can easily defund and sell the outmoded Tennessee Valley Authority as well. This Depression era relic has become a corruption cesspool that has little relevance in today’s America. It can be sold to private operators who will turn it into a taxpaying, not tax eating entity.

The Office of Vocational and Adult Education is just another failed bureaucratic mess that makes liberals feel good, but does no good. If anything tangible came from this program there seems to be no way to find evidence to support such a claim. Defund and close this program.

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission has been “controlling” flooding in Pennsylvania New York Maryland and Delaware since 1972. It can easily be defunded and sold to private operators…. More…

(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...


TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: cuttingwaste
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There are some interesting nomonations for cutting in the rest of this piece.
1 posted on 11/19/2010 9:09:59 AM PST by jmaroneps37
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To: jmaroneps37
"...the feel good dribble taught in so many college classrooms"

'Coach', baby. If you're going to cast aspersions on others' education (even if well targeted) you should learn the difference between 'dribble' and 'drivel'.

2 posted on 11/19/2010 9:13:10 AM PST by Paine in the Neck (Napolean fries the idea powder.)
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To: jmaroneps37; Paine in the Neck

It’s gotten downright monotonous, having to sit through liberal MSM interviewer after liberal MSM interviewer aggressively, angrily assault the Republican Young Guns with demands for them to outline exactly what they intend to cut.


3 posted on 11/19/2010 9:15:47 AM PST by sinanju
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To: jmaroneps37

I would add:

1. Defund NPR

2. Defund the National Endowment for the Arts

They are not critical to the survival of our nation, and are populated by leftists who give exposure and money to other leftists.


4 posted on 11/19/2010 9:18:59 AM PST by rlmorel (TSA's new motto: "You don't get on, Until we get off.")
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To: jmaroneps37
What to cut?

How about....

EPA, OSHA, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Energy, Pelosi's botox allowance, Both 0bamas' travel budgets, ice cream, WH parties and green fees.

5 posted on 11/19/2010 9:28:48 AM PST by N. Theknow (Kennedys: Can't skipper a boat, Can't drive, Can't ski, Can't fly. But they KNOW what's best!)
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To: jmaroneps37
Bloated? Money Wasting?

Department of Energy
Department of Education
Department of Labor
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Tennessee Valley Authority
Transportation Department (DOT)
Federal Railroad Administration
Agency for International Development

and on, and on, and on...

6 posted on 11/19/2010 9:29:03 AM PST by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: rlmorel
Right. If Democrats are so attached-at-the hip to hysterically Liberal Hollywood, then why do they ALSO need a TAXPAYER FUNDED forum like these NPR/PBS stations?

Isn't it enough that they succeeded in stacking the deck against every generation in the classroom AND in the commercial MSM outlets? Do they need to pick America's pocket again to fund the hopelessly and shamefully biased drivel on NPR/PBS?

7 posted on 11/19/2010 9:34:01 AM PST by SMARTY (Conforming to non-conformity is conforming just the same.)
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To: andy58-in-nh

They could cut congressional health plans funded by the taxpayer, they should all be private plans if they aren’t already.


8 posted on 11/19/2010 9:35:15 AM PST by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: Brett66

Martin Gross wrote a book in the early 90’s, I believe, titled Government Waste from A-Z. It was a great book and at the time I think the fed budget was $1 trillion and he pointed out how to cut 50% or $500 billion without anyone feeling a pinch. I’m sure that $500 billion is more like $3 trillion now.


9 posted on 11/19/2010 9:50:22 AM PST by marlon ("They talk about me like a dog" Barack Obama)
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To: sinanju
It’s gotten downright monotonous, having to sit through liberal MSM interviewer after liberal MSM interviewer aggressively, angrily assault the Republican Young Guns with demands for them to outline exactly what they intend to cut.

What is needed is a massive omnibus bill that guts most of the Federal government. Don't bother reading it, we need to pass it so you'll know what has been cut :)

See, omnibus bills cut both ways - it doesn't take 50 years to roll back 50 years of profligate spending and growth.

10 posted on 11/19/2010 9:50:44 AM PST by Spirochete (Sic transit gloria mundi)
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To: jmaroneps37

I’m sure we here at FR could supply a sizable list of budget-cutting targets. This thread might be a good place for the GOP freshmen to mine for input.

Shall we oblige?


11 posted on 11/19/2010 9:55:12 AM PST by IronJack (=)
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To: SMARTY

LOL...the liberal response would be:

1. None of your business. Shut up and give us your tax money to spend as we see fit, because we know better than rubes like you.

2. No.

3. Yes.

Of course, just mentioning defunding either of these would bring outraged, tear streaked responses such as “NPR is the only unbiased source of information out there! How dare you!” and “Sob...where will our children learn all about the arts if the NEA is taken away by ruthless, heartless neanderthals like you?”

The piece de resistance in this drama would be that they would finish up with: “Fine. Let’s close down the outlying fire stations, lay off the police officers, close down the public libraries and get rid of teachers so the students will grow up ignorant criminals if they don’t get killed in house fires because there are no firefighters.”


12 posted on 11/19/2010 9:58:07 AM PST by rlmorel (TSA's new motto: "You don't get on, Until we get off.")
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To: jmaroneps37

Couple didn’t even make the list are the most obvious:

defund zerocare completely

claw back TARP.

Return any unspent porculous funds.

Trillions saved.


13 posted on 11/19/2010 9:59:15 AM PST by Adder (Part 1 Accomplished)
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To: rlmorel

Right.

AS IF NPR/PBS is a necessity of life, like food and shelter.

Pleeease.


14 posted on 11/19/2010 10:15:14 AM PST by SMARTY (Conforming to non-conformity is conforming just the same.)
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To: andy58-in-nh
Just cut all of them by 60%, of course willie green would cry about the railroad!!!
15 posted on 11/19/2010 10:20:34 AM PST by org.whodat
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To: Adder
claw back TARP.

Bingo!!! and hang paulson while you are at it.

16 posted on 11/19/2010 10:22:09 AM PST by org.whodat
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To: jmaroneps37

Replace farm subsidies with Farmer Savings Accounts and improved crop insurance.

Eliminate the Foreign Agriculture Service.

Merge all four agriculture outreach and research agencies and cut their budget in half.

Fund the Food Safety and Inspection Service with user fees.

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

Eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program.

Eliminate the Rural Utilities Service.

Eliminate the Economic Development Administration.

Eliminate NeighborWorks America (formerly the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation).

Consolidate the Rural Housing and Development Programs and convert them into block grants.

Eliminate the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Eliminate the Denali Commission.

Eliminate the Minority Development Business Agency.

Eliminate the Delta Regional Authority.

Return Pell Grants to their 2009 funding level of $24 billion, which is still double the 2007 level.

Trim Head Start by $2 billion and convert it into vouchers.

Scale back the Education Department bureaucracy.

Eliminate dozens of small and duplicative education grants.

Eliminate state grants for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities.

Reduce energy subsidies for commercialization and some research activities.

Block grant and devolve Environmental Protection Agency grant programs.

Restructure the Power Marketing Administrations to charge market-based rates.

Eliminate the Science to Achieve Results Program.

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.

Halve the $25 billion spent to maintain vacant federal properties.

Cut the federal employee travel budget to $4 billion (half of FY 2000 spending).

Freeze federal pay until it can be reformed.

Suspend acquisition of federal office space.

Trim the federal vehicle fleet by 20 percent (a reduction of 100,000 vehicles).

Cut the House and Senate budgets back to the 2008 level of $2.2 billion.

Eliminate the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.

Tighten controls on federal employee credit cards and cut down on delinquencies.

Require federal employees to fly coach on domestic flights.

Reform Medigap.

Repeal Obamacare (larger savings in later years).

Require Medicare home health co-payments.

Eliminate the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant.

Eliminate Health Professions grants.

Eliminate Title X Family Planning.

Eliminate the National Health Service Corps.

Repeal Rural Health Outreach and Flexibility grants.

Eliminate most homeland security grants to states and allow states to finance their own programs.

Better enforce eligibility requirements for food stamps.

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.)

Suspend federal land purchases.

Eliminate the Development Assistance Program.

Eliminate the State Department’s education and cultural exchange programs.

Eliminate the International Trade Administration’s trade promotion activities or charge the beneficiaries.

Eliminate the Democracy Fund.

Eliminate the International Trade Commission and transfer oversight of intellectual property rights to the Treasury Department.

Eliminate the Trade and Development Agency.

Eliminate the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Eliminate the East–West Center.

Eliminate the United States Institute of Peace.

Eliminate the Japan–United States Friendship Commission.

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.

Eliminate the Legal Services Corporation.

Eliminate the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service.

Eliminate the duplicative Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Reduce funding for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division by 20 percent
because of its policy against race-neutral enforcement of the law.

Eliminate the State Justice Institute.

Eliminate failed federal job training programs.

Eliminate the ineffective Job Corps.

Eliminate the Senior Community Service Employment Program.

Reduce National Science Foundation funding to 2008 levels.

Eliminate National Science Foundation spending on elementary and secondary education.

Devolve the federal highway program and most transit spending to the states.

Privatize Amtrak.

Eliminate grants to large and medium-sized hub airports.

Eliminate the Maritime Administration.

Eliminate the Essential Air Service Program.

Eliminate the additional child refundable credit.

Eliminate the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

Repeal unspent stimulus spending.

Switch to using the “Superlative CPI” in funding calculations.

Repeal the Davis–Bacon Act.

Eliminate Federal Communications Commission funding for school Internet service.

Ban project labor agreements on all federally funded construction projects.

Eliminate the Small Business Administration, which unnecessarily intervenes in free markets.

Eliminate the National Community Service programs, such as AmeriCorps.

Eliminate the Institute of Museum Services and Library Services.

Eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts.

Eliminate Army Corps of Engineers funding for beach replenishment projects.

Eliminate the Commission of Fine Arts.

Eliminate the National Capital Planning Commission.

Eliminate the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.


17 posted on 11/19/2010 10:28:52 AM PST by mirkwood (Palin-Bolton 2012)
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To: jmaroneps37
Every cut mentioned is the first start, then widdle it further down the line.

Stop the excessive bloating of our money to countries who Want to Destroy America and use that money to fight against us or bloat their own CZARS.

NO NEED TO TOUCH SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE. THERE is enough money if all the other cuts are made. Pay Americans first.

18 posted on 11/19/2010 10:33:10 AM PST by annieokie
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To: mirkwood

that’s a good start!


19 posted on 11/19/2010 10:50:09 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: rlmorel

Rubbish! The Third Reich Germany funded the ‘Arts’ and made a wonderful job of it. /sarc


20 posted on 11/19/2010 10:53:22 AM PST by I am Richard Brandon
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