Help Cut the Budget

Blogs for Bush ^ | September 18, 2005 | Matt Margolis

[Mark Noonan]

Last week, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said that "there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget." A couple days later, Bush declared that the federal government "must slash unnecessary spending to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction."

What do B4B readers recommend be cut from the budget? What programs, projects, subsidies, pork would you like to see the federal government wash its hands of?

We are asking bloggers and B4B readers to volunteer for a portion of the budget (i.e. a specific, department, agency, appropriation bill, etc.) to help select what to cut... We hope to compile all recommended cuts, explanations for these cuts, in a report to send to the leadership of both parties in Congress.

[Brilliant]

Eliminate the $289 billion highway bill, eliminate NPR and PBS. Eliminate another $50 or so billion in pork.

End the criminalization of marijuana...

We could pay for Katrina and balance the entire budget in one year.

[flashbunny]

Corporation for public broadcasting: $400 million
NEA: $139.4 million
NEH: $162 million

HUD: $31.3 BILLION (most of it wasted anyway)

That's in less than a minute.

[Prime Choice]

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said that "there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget."

So long as there are social programs for illegal aliens in the Federal budget, there is plenty of fat left to cut.

Start cutting the fat, DeLay...or your position may well be cut in the next round.

[Fog Nozzle]

Eliminating the Bureau of Indian Affairs would save several billion dollars that currently provide no measurable benefit to anyone.

[taxed2death]

We would actually SAVE billions by ENFORCING our immigration laws already on the books.

Delay is a glue-sniffer.

[Glenn]

Fire 50% of Federal workers. Seriously.

[taxed2death]

We would actually SAVE billions by ENFORCING our immigration laws already on the books.

Delay is a glue-sniffer.

[ExcursionGuy84]

End the criminalization of marijuana...

Do You know what the Consequence of that would be?

[joebuck]

Cut all proposed aid to the Palestinians and stop that $15 billion in aids money going to africa. We have problems of our own to deal with.

[freelancer]

"Fire 50% of Federal workers. Seriously."

...and cut the pay of the remaining 50%

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Unfund the Big Dig.
Reduce "foreign aid" to zero.
Eliminate the DEA, fold the remaining activity to Treasury.

[Phsstpok]

Delay is a glue-sniffer.

Delay was being sarcastic, but he assumed a minimal level of intelligence in his audience. Obviously he was wrong.

[Doe Eyes]

Reduce "foreign aid" to zero.

You support cutting off all aid to Afganistan, Iraq and Israel?

[golas1964]

DeLay was 'demonstrating absurdity by being absurd'.

As for things I'd cut, I'd do away with the Commerce Department.

[dufekin]

Don't eliminate NPR and PBS. Privatize and deregulate them. Same expenses cut.

Repeal the highway bill and the federal fuels taxes. It's probably a zero-sum game, but that would give the American people more money to spend on fuels (or state fuel taxes, which won't run away to pay for a remote bridge to some 50-person island in Alaska).

Harness federal prisoners (except traitors, murderers, terrorists, and other seriously dangerous criminals) into infrastructure-building chain gangs. This will serve two purposes: (1) giving prisoners work experience and work ethic to help them prosper upon release; and (2) save money otherwise appropriated to construction unions under Davis-Bacon

ELIMINATE ALL FEDERAL PORK. Call CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE. Implement at least 80% of their waste-reduction proposals and justify any rejections.

And yes, cut Democrat-style failure-subsidizing welfare benefits. It may sound harsh, but quit rewarding teenagers with apartments and lifetime salaries if they engage in extramarital sex. And quit encouraging fathers to leave their wives and children to improve the financial outlook of the family.

Instead of subsidizing Section 8 rental apartments, consider paying some percentage of poor families' property taxes, enabling them to own homes. Better yet, prevail upon state and local authorities to reduce property tax rates to create truly affordable housing.

That's just for starters.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

Uncle Sam has his snoot in so many aspects of our life that it is difficult to say where to start,e.g., two years ago I wanted to buy a gallon of orchard spray (the same that I have used for many years) The clerk said that she could not sell me a gallon, (which was on the shelf) but she would sell me 4 quarts at the same price. I asked why. I said that I liked the gallon containers better because I did a lot of spraying. She replied that she could not sell me the gallon container "because the EPA had not approved the label".

The guidance that I would give to initial budget cutters is that any program or project that could not be traced directly back to a provision of the Constitution should be eliminated within 5 years. This would start to get us back on track.

All laws and agencies would have to be justified by enabling legislation every 8 years. All laws would have sunset provisions built in to prevent what we have now. Take a look at a copy of the Tax code and you will see why laws have to be eliminated. This was one of the direct reasons why the Roman empire went down.

etc.

I am available for duty and I have a red pen.

[Wheee The People]

When we make ELECTION DAY April 15th...then we will see some changes.

[stockpixx]

Put the drugs for the elderly off for several years...The program is confusing many of the elderly anyway..This will save 40B a year

[GOPGuide]

Cutting HUD and the DEA will save 97 billion right off the bat.