Thursday, January 19, 2017

Federal spending cuts could save $10.5 trillion over ten years

"The departments of Commerce and Energy would see major reductions in funding, with programs under their jurisdiction either being eliminated or transferred to other agencies. The departments of Transportation, Justice and State would see significant cuts and program eliminations.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be privatized, while the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated entirely.
Overall, the blueprint being used by Trump’s team would reduce federal spending by $10.5 trillion over 10 years.
...It’s not clear whether Trump’s first budget will include reforms to Social Security or Medicare, two major drivers of the federal deficit.
Trump vowed during the campaign not to cut Medicare and Social Security, a pledge that Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), his pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, told lawmakers in testimony Wednesday has not changed.
Yet it could be very difficult to reduce U.S. debt without tackling the entitlement programs. Conservative House budgets have repeatedly included reforms to Medicare and Social Security, arguing they are necessary to save the programs.
...The Heritage blueprint used as a basis for Trump’s proposed cuts calls for eliminating several programs that conservatives label corporate welfare programs: the Minority Business Development Agency, the Economic Development Administration, the International Trade Administration and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The total savings from cutting these four programs would amount to nearly $900 million in 2017.
At the Department of Justice, the blueprint calls for eliminating the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Violence Against Women Grants and the Legal Services Corporation and for reducing funding for its Civil Rights and its Environment and Natural Resources divisions.
At the Department of Energy, it would roll back funding for nuclear physics and advanced scientific computing research to 2008 levels, eliminate the Office of Electricity, eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and scrap the Office of Fossil Energy, which focuses on technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Under the State Department’s jurisdiction, funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are candidates for elimination."

22 comments:

The Dude said...

That's a good start, but the cuts need to be deeper. I am sure we could all list entire cabinet level departments that should be closed tomorrow.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I support these actions but we need to understand that it will mean a lot of jobs being eliminated so it won't be smooth sailing. The Wash Post will be writing stories about how Trump's fed cuts have hurt the housing market in the Imperial City area.

edutcher said...

It has to be done and Trump, the ultimate outsider, may be the only one who can do it

Sixty Grit said...

I am sure we could all list entire cabinet level departments that should be closed tomorrow.


Department of Commerce - the only Constitutional duty it does is the U.S. Census; keep that and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and ditch the rest
Department of Labor - funnels money to the unions
Department of Health and Human Services - funnels money to the welfare state
Department of Housing and Urban Development - funnels money to the big city
Department of Transportation - funnels money to construction companies
Department of Energy - funnels money to the environuts
Department of Education - funnels money to the teacher unions
Department of Veterans Affairs - go back to the old VA
Department of Homeland Security - big mistake, keep some of the necessary agencies (USCG, Border Patrol), get rid of it


Department of Defense - break it up into the old War and Navy Departments
Department of the Interior - funnels money to the environuts, keep the park service and ditch the rest
Department of Agriculture - funds the food stamp program, lose it

chickelit said...

AJ Lynch said...
I support these actions but we need to understand that it will mean a lot of jobs being eliminated so it won't be smooth sailing. The Wash Post will be writing stories about how Trump's fed cuts have hurt the housing market in the Imperial City area.

The WaPo and NYT are fake businesses run by their respective billionaire owners: Bezos and Slim respectively. The journalists serve and write for their pleasure. I read that Slim is getting more interested in Spanish language media and who knows, perhaps he'll cut his losses at the NYT?

Look for huge changes in media under Trump.

ndspinelli said...

I've heard a 20% reduction in the Federal employee work force is coming. I have worked for the govt.[Federal and County] and worked w/ Federal, State and Local govt. agencies for decades. There is not any govt. agency that could not be cut by 30% and operate just as well..maybe better. The key is getting rid of the right people.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

You can cut Medicare and Social Security without touching the benefits of those who have paid in for decades and who are current SS and Medicare recipients.

Easy. Cut down on Medicaid fraud. Stop giving benefits to ILLEGAL aliens. Stop allowing SSI benefits to ILLEGAL aliens. Cut down on the disability fraud in the Social Security program.
The programs for Medicare and Social Security have morphed from being a benefit program for those who have paid in to being a welfare give away scam to every GD dirtbag in the country.

Just those few things would save billions of dollars in a very very short time.

ricpic said...

Ooh compassion's gonna take such a beating ha ha ha ha.

deborah said...

DBQ: 'Cut down on Medicaid fraud.'

I hear you, but that's one of those politics is local thing. Usually the fraudster you are aware of is a mean, lazy sumbitch, and turning him in will affect his long-suffering family. And you hate to be the one to start that ball rolling. I know, I know...

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Usually the fraudster you are aware of is a mean, lazy sumbitch, and turning him in will affect his long-suffering family

Much of Medicaid and Medicare fraud is perpetrated by the provider. Billions of dollars every year. The dentist who submits claims for people who haven't been in his office for years. The inflated bills sent to the Medicaid reimbursement for which the patient either didn't receive or just doesn't even know about.

People who are receiving Medicaid....welfare. Don't give a shit if the claims are made fraudulently or even know about it. Unless someone complains, it just glides in under the radar.

JRoberts said...

I'm really tired of politicians (usually Democrats) who measure "compassion" with dollar amounts. A sampling of the recent confirmation hearings only reinforces my opinion.

Reality has shown us that larger budgets to do NOT get better results. Instead, the politicians, public employee unions and lobbyists get fat out of the tax payers wallets. I saw too much of this while I grew up in Chicago under the first Mayor Daly.

Washington needs new metrics to determine effectiveness. I'm really hoping a new administration will get better results with less government intrusion and smaller budgets.

Trooper York said...

I think chasing fraud and waste is a good thing but not something you can count on to reduce spending. Make hard cuts to actual programs and anything you do with fraud and waste will be gravy.

The way to do it is to just cut out entire parts of the budget. Whole departments. PBS. The endowments. Whatever. Let them scream. They are not interested in compromise. Comity. Coexistence. Let Meryl Streep and Bruce Springstein pay for it.

The Arts should get the same subsidy as football and MMA.

Trooper York said...

Then go through the foreign aid budget with an ax. Defund the UN and ship it out of the USA. To Somalia or Nigeria. Sell the grounds for condos.

Sell oil leases to drill baby drill. Sell grazing rights with higher rates but long term leases.

There are billions that can be saved if Trump turns his eye to it.

ricpic said...

So far the evidence is pretty strong that Trump has enough self-confidence that he doesn't feel a need to be loved by the inside the beltway dreck. If he just sticks to realizing his campaign promises he'll have a great presidency, more important, America will be dramatically stronger at the end of his first term. All he has to do is NOT "grow."

Methadras said...

The redundancies in government are as numerous as they are wasteful. I think Trump is going to hack and slash where he can. Buffoons on the left and right will bemoan his efforts as unrealistic. Years ago, I heard that milquetoast wimp Michael Medved lament that no president could cut government by such large amounts. Watch it happen, you pussy. Watch it happen.

Methadras said...

Oh, if you want to see how utterly fucking bloated and obese your government is, then take a look at the A-Z index of all government departments and offices.

https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/a

Have a good time at how you are being fucked to the tune of $4 trillion a year.

ndspinelli said...

SS disability and Food Stamp fraud has grown exponentially under Obama. But, as has been suggested, the best way to cut fraud is to eliminate programs. No program. No fraud.

Rabel said...

Trump will cut the federal government. Excellent. However, the 10.4 trillion figure quoted in the headline is horse-hockey. That could only be obtained by significant cuts to SS, Medicare and Medicaid, not by simply eliminating government departments and employees and fraud and abuse. The "blueprint" cited does claim to reach that level of reduction but only by making severe cuts to those entitlement programs I listed. Trump has said he will not do that and it seems to me to be politically impossible. So why push the 10.4 trillion number?

Leland said...

I agree with ed's list except I could argue to keep Transportation (FAA primarily) and Energy (if it focused on maintaining and improving the power grid, which for every state but Alaska, Hawaii, and Texas, is integrated with other states thus a reasonable federal concern. But anybody that is anti-nuclear or fossil fuel on principle should be fired as incompetent. And all the keeper departments from Homeland could be put under DoJ.

Methadras said...

Rabel said...

Trump will cut the federal government. Excellent. However, the 10.4 trillion figure quoted in the headline is horse-hockey. That could only be obtained by significant cuts to SS, Medicare and Medicaid, not by simply eliminating government departments and employees and fraud and abuse. The "blueprint" cited does claim to reach that level of reduction but only by making severe cuts to those entitlement programs I listed. Trump has said he will not do that and it seems to me to be politically impossible. So why push the 10.4 trillion number?


Rabel, if you don't include entitlements like SS/Medicaid/Medicare, then you eliminate 2/3rds of what you can cut. On a $4 trillion dollar a year budget, 2/3rds of that is $2.64 trillion. So that leaves you with the remaining 1/3rd which is $1.36 trillion. Over 10 years that equates to $13.6 trillion, so in effect if Trump is going to run government slashing what he needs to, then the federal budget is going to be around $2.64 trillion for entitlements alone + another $360 billion per budget year on top of that to run everything else which comes out to a total of a $3 billion yearly budget and then you can get your $10 trillion over a 10 year period.

Now is that realistic? Doubtful. If Trump decides he will wade into the impossible waters of touching the entitlements, then I guess we'll see if piles of the elderly dead start piling up based on the apocalyptic predictions of leftists. If however, you factor in his 3 tier tax cuts with the marginal top rate being at 25%, then that would be or could be considered an entitlement increase on the taxes that are paid on those benefits. Shit, it'll effectively be a pay raise for working people just on that alone.

Rabel said...

Meth, I think you left out 600 billion annually in defense spending. My point is that there's just not 10 trillion or anything near it available for cutting without seriously reducing entitlement spending and that while Trump has never committed to the 10 trillion number the article tries to attach it to his plans.

deborah said...

Excellent distinction, DBQ.

Methadras said...

Rabel,

Shit, I may have miscalculated that portion. How silly of me.