Bachmann details $400 billion-plus in spending cuts

StarTribune.com ^ | 1/24/11 | Jeremy Herb

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

For weeks, Rep. Michele Bachmann has touted $450 billion in spending cuts to help get the country’s debt under wraps.

A detailed list of the cuts, which actually add up to a little more than $430 billion, reveals a conservative wish-list of federal programs to be downsized or outright eliminated.

Bachmann’s spending cuts span across the government spectrum, slashing everything from agriculture to Homeland Security to science funding. Some of her ideas, like defunding federal abortion grants, are red meat for conservatives. Others, like abolishing the Department of Education, would be considered more controversial.

The time period for the cuts is a combination of one and five years, according to her office.

Here are highlights of the cuts Bachmann is proposing:

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

And, of course, the comment section is chock-full of the regular Strib moonbats......

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Ping...

[Cicero]

Others, like abolishing the Department of Education, would be considered more controversial.

Actually, this one has been first on my list for years. Good for her.

[kingu]

Gosh, 430 billion in cuts, not 450 billion? Must not ax the department of eduction, as obviously there's a critical need for it if congresscritters can't do math. I wonder, though, how much of that 20 billion gap is a newspaper using rounded numbers, and how much is accounting for debt interest and cuts to the federal welfare, err, I mean, federal pensions that won't have to be paid?

[no-to-illegals]

The time period for the cuts is a combination of one and five years, according to her office.

I was hoping for more cuts. The time period bothers me. I'll be quiet now, something cut, out of budget, is better than nothing cut.

[blackdog]

The department of education doesn’t educate anyone. They are nothing but a bank, with auditors who loan money if you comply with social engineered laws and forms. They then audit schools to make sure they comply with social engineering rules for having taken the funding.

[marron]

Others, like abolishing the Department of Education, would be considered more controversial.

Actually, abolishing Department of Education should be the first thing they did after swearing in. We don't need it at all.

[Soothesayer]

None of this is ever going to happen so long as we have 50+ million selfish moonbats demanding unlimited free money.

[littleharbour]

Unless America breaks the mold, it will do what every other country has done in this situation: keep spending until it gets worse and external pressures (i.e. IMF, World Bank, China ...) force drastic cutbacks such as we’ve seen in Greece. There are too many people with a vested interest in government goodies for Congress to pass the type of meangingful cuts that would actually balance the books. People support cuts in theory, but not in reality.

[samtheman]

Departments of Energy and Education
The FCC

There’s three you can flush right there.

[AU72]

"Imagine there's no deficit"
"It's easy if you try"

[GeronL]

1-5 years??

Why doesn’t she just get the list from Rand Paul??

$500B in one year!!

[JPG]

Michele Bachmann is a tax attorney by training...she knows her numbers.

[SharpRightTurn]

Bump.

[Padams]

$400 billion is a start. I want to see real cuts, not just lowering future spending increases.

[RC one]

more like the dept of indoctrination anymore anyways. cut it.

[WOBBLY BOB]

That’s what I was thinking...why have every Teacritter duplicating work.

[org.whodat]

The department of education doesn’t educate anyone. They are nothing but a bank, with auditors who loan use money as blackmail to force schools to comply with social engineered laws and forms. They then audit schools to make sure they comply with social engineering rules for having taken the funding.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

We sent almost a million bucks to somewhere in Africa to teach the studs how to wash their penises off between partners. Now we’re likely to spend another million finding out if they paid attention.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

One to five years?

We need 3x $430B per year.