Congress Details Cuts in 2011 Budget Deal as Votes Near

[Bosonic]

Source: WSJ

WASHINGTON—A deal to keep the U.S. government funded for the remainder of fiscal 2011 contains large budget cuts for high-speed rail projects and the Environmental Protection Agency and leaves almost no program immune from the largest spending reductions in the country's history.

The details of a plan to reduce spending by almost $39 billion from previous levels were posted early Tuesday morning, just days before the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate take up the measure. Congress must act in order to keep the government running beyond Thursday, when the latest interim spending measure expires. The fiscal year 2011 ends Sept. 30.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703385404576258550820756980.html?mod=e2tw

[maddogesq]

1. More money for DoD to waste. Gosh, whoodathunk that?

Ike speaks from the grave:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Gt1bhKLhs

[villager]

2. Plan to reduce U.S. spending posted: Big cuts planned for high-speed rail projects, EPA

Source: WSJ

Congress Details Cuts in 2011 Budget Deal as Votes Near

By SIOBHAN HUGHES

WASHINGTON—A deal to keep the U.S. government funded for the remainder of fiscal 2011 contains large budget cuts for high-speed rail projects and the Environmental Protection Agency and leaves almost no program immune from the largest spending reductions in the country's history.

The details of a plan to reduce spending by almost $39 billion from previous levels were posted early Tuesday morning, just days before the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate take up the measure. Congress must act in order to keep the government running beyond Thursday, when the latest interim spending measure expires. The fiscal year 2011 ends Sept. 30.

"My committee went line-by-line through agency budgets this weekend to negotiate and craft deep but responsible reductions in virtually all areas of government," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R, Ky.) said in a statement. "Our bill targets wasteful and duplicative spending, makes strides to rein in out-of-control federal bureaucracies, and will help bring our nation one step closer to eliminating our job-crushing level of debt."

The main exception was the Defense Department, which wound up with a $5 billion increase from previous levels, leaving it with $513 billion. But defense contractors will still suffer. Some $354 million in funding for an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was cut. That engine was being developed in an community near the congressional distroct of House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). Another $325 million was cut for production of and modifications to Boeing Co.'s C-17 military transport plane.

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Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703385404576258550820756980.html?mod=e2tw

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"The main exception was the Defense Department, which wound up with a $5 billion increase from previous levels..."

[ProSense]

3. CBS: Budget deal details: Cuts that aren't quite cuts

CBS: Budget deal details: Cuts that aren't quite cuts

<...>

Among the cuts:

$700 million from clean and safe drinking water programs;
$390 million from heating subsidies;
$276 million from pandemic flu prevention programs; and
$1.5 billion from the president's new $8 billion initiative to spur high-speed rail development.

Many of the cuts appear to have been cuts in name only, because they came from programs that had unspent funds.

For example, $1.7 billion left over from the 2010 census; $3.5 billion in unused children's health insurance funds; $2.2 billion in subsidies for health insurance co-ops (that's something the president's new health care law is going to fund anyway); and $2.5 billion from highway programs that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation.

About $10 billion of the cuts comes from targeting appropriations accounts previously used by lawmakers for so-called earmarks - pet projects like highways, water projects, community development grants and new equipment for police and fire departments. Republicans had already engineered a ban on earmarks when taking back the House this year.

<...>

Summary of H.R.1473; FY2011 Appropriations

[Blue Owl]

4. Hey as long as Scott Walker is pleased

and the rest of the country is deprived of affordable and efficient public transportation.

:sarcasm:

[indimuse]

5. 3rd world usa...

sad.

[Initech]

6. And yet we can't cut military spending.

:nuke:

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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