Thursday, July 28, 2011

Cutting Federal waste is long overdue. Here are a few Republican ideas on where to start.

It started with an email I got the other day on a plan by some Republicans to cut Federal waste. I searched for more ideas on the Internet and found these and compiled them from various sources:

3rd CD, Pennsylvania, Republican Mike Kelly’s Top 20 Ways to Cut Spending

http://kelly.house.gov/congressman-kelly%E2%80%99s-top-20-ways-cut-spending

National Review Online
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/257611/highlights-republican-spending-cuts-bill-daniel-foster

Then I added a few more of my own ideas.
  • Remove all U.S. Armed Forces from the 38th Parallel  Demilitarized Zone in Korea. We have been keeping 50,000 troops on the DMZ since the end of the Korean War - almost 59 years ago.
  • Close all U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey and any other predominantly Muslim country in the Middle East.
  • Since remaining military bases in "friendly" countries are utilized to protect those countries, we should bill those governments for twice the amount it takes the U.S. government to run them. This is the same way private security firms charge for their services.
  • Eliminate all Foreign Aid. You really can't buy your friends.
  • Withdraw membership in the United Nations and remove this organization from U.S. soil.
  • Increase Tariffs for all imports from countries that do not provide a standard of living for its factory workers equal to our own minimum wage.
  • Eliminate the entire Dept. of Education.
  • Eliminate the entire Dept. of the Interior.
Here is the big list.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy $445 million
America 's Treasures Program $25 million
International Fund for Ireland $17 million
Legal Services Corporation $420 million
National Endowment for the Arts $167.5 million
National Endowment for the Humanities $167.5 million
Hope VI Program $250 million
Amtrak Subsidies $1.565 Billion
Eliminate 68 duplicate education programs H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon $1.3 Billion
U.S. Trade Development Agency $55 million
Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy $20 million
Cut in half funds for congressional printing and binding $47 million
John C. Stennis Center Subsidy $430,000
Community Development Fund. $4.5 Billion
Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid $24 million
Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 Billion
Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million
Essential Air Service. $150 million
Technology Innovation Program. $70 million
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million
Dept of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million
Beach Replenishment. $95 million
New Starts Transit. $2 Billion
Exchange Programs for Alaska , Natives Native Hawaiians, and their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts. $9 million
Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 Billion
Title X Family Planning. $318 million
Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million
Economic Development Administration. $293 million
Programs under the National & Community Services Act. $1.15 Billion
Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 Billion
Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million
Energy Star Program. $52 million
Economic Assistance to Egypt . $250 million
U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 Billion
General Assistance to District of Columbia . $210 million
Subsidy for Washington Metro Area Transit Authority. $150 million
Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million
No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million
Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. (which sets "prevailing wages" for workers on federal projects). $1 Billion
IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 Billion
Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 Billion
Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 Billion
Sell excess federal properties the government does not use. $15 billion
Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.
Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million
Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million
Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million
USDA Sugar Program. $14 million
Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Develop. (OECD). $93 million
Eliminate the National Organic Certif. Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million
Eliminate funding for Obamacare administrative costs or legal defenses. $900 million
Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million
HUD Ph.D. Program.
Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
Eliminating all remaining "stimulus" funding. $45 billion
TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over ten years

4 comments:

  1. Excellent Plan!!!!!!!!!

    You forgot the Department of Education that has never taught a single child a darn thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I forgot:

    The EPA and the Dept. of Energy. Both are disasters.

    So we are at 3 Trillion now. Piece of cake.

    Imagine if we had this real money to pump into our economy. We would be kicking ass right now instead of taling about default.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That Tariffs idea doesn't sound very Republican.
    Sounds more like the AFL-CIO. What about Free Trade? I remember seeing Republicans on TV talking about how good Free Trade was for the economy for years.
    They just never mentioned it was the Chinese economy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous, Free Trade is a great concept to foster competition among American businesses. When a foreign government like China builds entire cities around manufacturing complexes that house the work staff and pays then pennies per hour wages, that is not Fare Trade. As far as my Tariff idea sounding more like the AFL-CIO, I have nothing against unions and manufacturing that employs union workers. There are Republicans and then there are assholes like Ron Paul who call themselves Republicans. I am posting a new blog complimenting ABC World News for their Made in America series. Last night they asked some Republican presidential candidates to explain why their campaign t-shirts were NOT made in the USA. Ron Paul, who shirts were made in El Salvador, said “No, I wasn’t aware of it… but I wouldn’t change it.” “I would argue the case that the market should determine it.”

    ReplyDelete

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