About that budget deal...
One of the hardest hit institutions is the Environmental Protection Agency, whose power Republicans have sought to curtail in recent years through a variety of legislative means. The agency will receive $1.6 billion less in funding than current levels, a 16 percent drop....
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In addition to programs protecting the environment, programs aimed at boosting energy efficiency for power plants and transportation also were major targets.
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Health care funding was a heavy target for the GOP, who secured just over $1 billion in cuts to programs preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, $600 million cuts to community health care centers, and $78 million to research on health care costs. Funding for health co-ops created under the Democrats' health care law was zeroed out.
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Nonetheless, spending on education and other social programs made up a large portion of cuts -- Labor, Health, Education and related agencies were slashed by $5.5 billion with 55 programs eliminated.
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Science research, which President Obama has touted as crucial to American competitiveness, was on the chopping block: National Science Foundation saw a $43 million cut in its research funding from its current levels but a major $444 million cut from the President's initial request.
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Defense was not cut from current levels, instead increasing by $5 billion. FEMA first responder funding was cut by $786 million. Contributions to the U.N. and international organizations were cut by $377 million.
Read the rest and weep. We see what their priorities are.
Just the other day I received in the mail requests for contributions from President Obama for the kick-off of his 2012 campaign for president and from the Democratic National Committee. Hey, guys, I don't think so.
The agency will receive $1.6 billion less in funding than current levels, a 16 percent drop....
ReplyDeleteThat's a severe cut. Pretty much a year to the day from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this comes across as particularly wrong.
It's horrible, horrible, horrible, Cathy. And defense gets an increase!
ReplyDeleteI filled out my DNC questionnaire with very pointed responses (not among the options offered) and returned it with no stamp and no money. My hands trembled as I wrote I was so irate.
ReplyDeleteOh Paul! I should have done that, too! I do it each time the National Rifle Association dares to send us mail. Next time! And I know there will be a next time.
ReplyDeleteI think I graded Obama with a C, not that he is mediocre but because I give him everything from As to Fs. On their questions about what the Republicans were up to, I crossed it out with a huge X and said, "Who cares? They should not be setting our agenda."
ReplyDeleteObama is center-right at heart, and that's why he falls so easily into the policies of the center-right. He's not playing a role. He's playing himself.
ReplyDeleteI've been getting dispatches from the Democrats about funding and I just want to grab every one of them and shake 'em until their brains fall out. (That actually shouldn't take too long.)
ReplyDeleteWhat bothers me is who might be the Republican nominee. There are some really scary prospects there.
BooCat, I'm hearing Palin-Bachman, but I believe that's a joke. I can't see the Republicans nominating two women, anyway. I'm also hearing Romney-Paul, which seems far likelier.
ReplyDeleteThe campaign launch so reminds me of the George Herbert Walker Bush re-election campaign. Bush senior also came across as indifferent to the American people, and it's clear now he was concerned about other things (his cozy relationship with the Saudi royal family and the Carlyle Group and his off-the-books intelligence network).
ReplyDeleteWe know even less about Obama's past than Bush senior's, especially with Obama's signing of Executive Order 13489 (the day after he took office), effectively sealing his pre-presidential past. I blog about this at "The President with No Past" at www.stuartbramhall.com.