Posted on 02/19/2011 2:44:40 AM PST by sunmars
In a rare early morning weekend vote, the House approved an aggressive plan Saturday to eliminate dozens of federal programs and offices while slashing agency budgets by as much as 40 percent, drawing out more than $60 billion in deficit savings.
Setting up a showdown early next month with President Obama and Senate Democrats, House Republicans pushed the legislation through after a marathon debate capped off by an all-night session Friday that spilled into Saturday morning. During the bleary-eyed final roll call at 4:35 a.m., 235 Republicans were joined by no Democrats in support of dramatic spending reductions that they said were needed to address a soaring annual deficit of $1.6 trillion; 189 Democrats -- as well as three Republicans -- opposed it, accusing Republicans of writing the bill with a "double meat ax."
For Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), it marked an early political victory as his newly empowered GOP troops lived up to a 2010 campaign pledge to trim spending levels to those before the 2008 financial crisis caused an unprecedented level of government spending and intervention into the private economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/19/gop-controlled-house-passes-spending-cut/
I'm so confused! Did they cut $60 billion or $100 billion?
Me too.
60 billion out of 1,600 billions. 3.75% cut from the one year budget deficit leaves 96.25% of it still there, and it's characterized as "double meat axe".
No way in he’ll would I accept Mr Tarp Cantors word on anything, he even lies about his support of TARP.
What a joke. They “SLASHED” 60 Billion. That does it. WTF! We are wasting our time with Republicans. I am not going to be like the Black base of the Democrat Party. Ferget it!
I am going back to Libertarian and being a Ron Paul Kook.
Also things are not going to happen overnight folks. We got to get the Senate and the White House..
The debt is now increasing at a rate of almost $5 billion per hour.
We went further in the hole while they were talking about it.
I would just go all 10th Amendment and delete the unconstitutional Dept of Ed. altogether.
The Department of Energy is the most misunderstood department in the country and the third most incompetent (DHS gets 1st place and Education 2nd place with bonus points for irrelevancy).
What folks don't understand is that 1/3 to 1/2 of Energy is for nuclear weapons [ and the cleanup of the (very real) nuclear mess some overagressive and irresponsible adolescent generals caused in the early years of the cold war.] A lot of folks might argue for turning the nuclear weapons part over to DoD, however, we, as most countries, have always believe that nuclear policy must be in civilian hands separate from the DoD. So that argues for recreating the AEC to deal with those issues.
Another part of Energy that is actually pretty good is the office of science and they fund a lot of good basic science work in chemistry, physics and material science and operate a lot of our key scientific user facilities. You could argue that these and their budget should go to the National Science Foundation.
I am not arguing for the continuation of the Department of Energy which was a mess ever since Jimmy Carter said shale oil is good and Amy Carter said anything nuclear was bad. But there are some important parts that must be appropriately dealt with as you sow under with salt that which never should have lived in the first place.
This crap is not attached to a continuing resolution, so it is total one hundred percent, spin for the fools in fly over land.
I have no confidence things are going to happen ever. If the pittiance of cuts we are talking here engenders this much controvery WITHIN the party, what chance do we have of getting to the point where we are seriously debating the type of cuts we really need to have any vestige of hope of pulling this thing out. None methinks.
This bill is for current year spending only, not the FY 2012 budget. This is a good start. The real cuts must come next year, though.
The Senate and the WH cannot pass a bill on their own. Spending bills originate in the House, under the constitution. If they want to cut, they can cut. If they go weak in the knees, well, they went weak in the knees, and it is on them and no one else.
Sounds like the tea party needs to start manufacturing laundry starch.
Dramatic? Hardly. These cuts represent only 4% of the deficit. What about the remaining 96%? That needs to be cut as well.
To all......this is a step, and there will be more.
This behemouth wasn't built overnight, and it won't be dissembled overnight.
These guys are doing what they were hired to do. Voted to defund PP, voted to defund Obamacare, and now this step to cut the budget.
I say BRAVO! We House Republicans with guts, and with our help, they'll keep them.
We've done the impossible, next time it will be a little easier.
To those who aren’t familiar with the budgeting process...
This is 60 Billion from the Fiscal 2011 Budget which there is only about 7 months left and is currently running on a CR Continuing Resolution.
The real action will be on the Fiscal 2012 Budget which Obama just submitted.
That is where the GOP has a full Budget process, hearings etc to make Big Cuts.
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