Gutting the Future--The House Budget Cuts

Hal Rogers, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, unveiled today a plan to cut $32 billion from the budget, which would make it the largest cut in the federal budget in history. The budget calls for 15% spending cuts in all discretionary funding, except with slight increases in military spending. None of the entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare are touched. It is rumored that teabaggers are demanding an additional $26 billion in cuts.

Naturally almost all the targets of the heaviest cuts are President Obama's priorities. Subsidies for alternative energy sources are eliminated. Over 60 programs are completely extingished. The Americorps Volunteer Program, all family planning programs,public broadcasting,community policing programs,the weatherization of homes and office buildings,aid to education, and food and safety inspection are all curtailed. The cuts affect heating and housing subsidies to the poor, Indian health care,the Women,Infant and Children program to provide food for low-income pregnant women, mothers and roung children are all cut drastically.

Only yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden outlined a $54 billion high-speed rail program to rennovate our transportation system. All high-speed rail projects are not funded in this House budget. Also, all road construction and transportation subsidies are eliminated, once a program with enormous bipartisan support.

Aid to education, another priority of the administration, has been severely cut. Pell Grants to disadvantaged students will be cut dramatically. Aid for special education is also cut.

Not only is scientific research cut but , most importantly, health research necessary to lower health costs in the future. The EPA will have its budget cut 18% because it was to start monitoring carbon emissions this year. The war against regulatory agencies continued with slashes to food safety and inspections under the new food safety program created last year.

And the House Republicans, who have insisted from Day 1 that the health reform bill will require massive new IRS hires,(Not True) slashed the IRS budget.

From a political point of view, the aim of these cuts is meant to sabotage all the gains of the last two years on domestic legislation. FYI--President Obama's proposed cuts to military alone double the amount of funds "saved" by these cuts. However, the military actually is increased by the Republicans.

The second targets of the cuts are all the boogeymen the Right have created. For example, Americorps, first created under Bill Clinton and expanded through George W and President Obama, is Glenn Beck's infamous private army for Obama. NPR deserves to die because it fired Juan Williams. There can be no alternative transportation to automobiles and those who consumed Koch Oil. The EPA created by Richard Nixon is a believer in Global Warming and must be stopped. The slash to the IRS is really a pay back to very wealthy donors that are afraid that Obama will use the IRS for political purposes to audit their wealth. All the cuts to education are aimed at penalizing minority communities.

All the budget cuts linked to a more efficient use of energy and the development of alternative energies should be understood in the light of the Wikileaks revelation this morning that American diplomats are convinced that Saudi Arabia deliberately over-estimated their oil reserves by 40%. The consequence is that Saudi Arabia can not flood the market anymore to keep prices down. It also means that other countries will be competing more intensely for oil supplies. Only the truly stupid do not invest in the development of alternative energy sources and invest in other energy efficient modes of transportation.

From President Obama's call to become more competitive, this GOP budget is a recipe for disaster. There is nothing here for the future of the country. There is no sense of the public good and certainly no sense of the needs for the future. It is fascinating that so little money--budget-wise--can actually foreclose the nation's future.

The early newspaper accounts of this are that the Senate and the President won't let it stand and this is all to satisfy the GOP base. Rubbish. This is amateur politics that is playing with fire. The House GOP with little vindictive Ricky Cantor at the helm is trying to Mau-Mau President Obama. If this were sincere politics, you would have seen more give on the military budget since both Gates and Obama wanted it cut. Instead,you have an ideological budget drawn in to gut America's prospects for the future.

Yes, we know that the GOP only care about power and taking back the Presidency in 2012. But we have already lost a decade in our development. Simply blocking any positive steps now to score political points could lead to another lost decade in the United States. it's not like you can put everything on hold until you win in two years and then start up the engines. Life and economics don't work that way.