Congress Details Cuts in 2011 Budget Deal as Votes Nears

[Better Believe It]

Congress Details Cuts in 2011 Budget Deal as Votes Nears
By SIOBHAN HUGHES
April 12, 2011


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 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.

The EPA budget will be cut by $1.6 billion. Funding for high-speed rail projects will be reduced by $2.9 billion, wiping out funding for all such new projects and taking back money that remained unspent.

Still, the budget deal eliminates funding for a White House position advising President Barack Obama on climate change, reflecting Republican displeasure for the administration's efforts to regulate greenhouse gases. The deal also cuts $438 million from a Energy Department's energy-efficiency and renewable-energy program.

Read the full article at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703385404576258550820756980.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[davidthegnome]

1. One line really stood out for me

"Still, the budget deal eliminates funding for a White House position advising President Barack Obama on climate change, reflecting Republican displeasure for the administration's efforts to regulate greenhouse gases."

Not surprising, but still disturbing.

[Lasher]

2. Defense cuts! Defense cuts!

Ever notice how we're often seeing in the news, how Gates is cutting this military program or somebody else says we're cutting that one - but the defense budget keeps going up every single year? Defense cuts! Defense cuts! It's a shell game. Money never gets cut from defense. It just gets shuffled around while we continue to spend as much on our military as the entire rest of the world combined.

What a corrupt nation we've become, extending the Bush tax cuts and increasing military spending, while we gut domestic programs that help the most unfortunate among us.

[inna]

3. military budget increased by 5 billion from last year, while the rich got hundreds of billions

in tax cuts and corporate welfare. what a country, indeed.

[Lasher]

5. Did you see this article in January this year?

US Military Spending is No Longer A Sacred Cow

No longer a sacred cow? Gates announced he's cutting defense spending - in 2015, after he's gone. And while being cheered for kicking that can down the road, he sort of mentioned that we'll be spending $5 billion more in 2012 than in 2011. That amounts to $97B more next year than we'd been planning, since a predecessor (Rummy I guess) had decided years ago that the 2012 defense budget would be cut by somebody else after they were gone.

[Bandit]

4. And Obama is parading around saying America got a good deal..

I believe he is the ONLY "Democrat" doing so...He is beginning to look the fool.