Sunday, March 13, 2011
Budget 2011: The deadlock in congress.
The current short-term spending bill which resulted from the inability of Congress to approve a budget for the next fiscal year is planned to expire in 5 days, March 18. The spending cuts from both sides of the isle are radically different and are becoming more so. Republicans have proposed nearly $62 billion in spending cuts whereas Democrats have offered a meager $7 billion in cuts. Among some proposed cuts are a $400 million cut for NPR and PBS funding, $687 million cut in USAID For Peace programs, $450 million cut in F-35 (fighter jet) engine replacements spending, $303 million cut in NASA funding, $5.125 billion for public transportation (specifically targeted at Amtrak and high-speed rail). Other proposals on the table include raising taxes, and in some cases lowering taxes for certain products/services. This deadlock cannot last forever, so we'll just have to see how this plays out on the economy and the public sector workers.
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6 comments:
It appears to me that the republicans are using the budget power to target liberally-biased programs, as far as NPR and PBS go. .. I'm a bit surpised that they're cutting F-35 fighter jet engine replacement spending though. Isn't that cutting into military spending?
Personally, I think that cutting from programs like NASA and public transportation is the wrong thing to do. These are programs that will greatly benefit our country in the long term. For example, if we invest more in our Amtrak and high-speed rail programs, and improve our public transportation, the benefits we reap will be enormous. First of all, if people have better access to public transportation in this country, then maybe our major reliance on cars will decrease; this will maybe decrease our need for so much oil, and we won't have to depend so much on other countries for oil. Also, it's good for the environment to cut down the number of cars on our roads. Cutting programs like this will not help propel the U.S. into the future- it will hold us back from the progress that we need. We need to cut other things that are really burdening our budget- not things like this.
Although I agree with Rashmi that funding in these programs may help in the long term, I believe these cuts are beneficial overall because it helps with issues in the present. Although it's nice to think about the future, it may be necessary to have these cuts now so that we can get by.
@Rashmi:
I see what you're saying, but in my point of view, we need to invest in better technology (read: alternate energy sources), not public transportation. What other large scale things do you propose cutting that will have nearly as large of an impact as the proposed NASA/public transportation cuts will have?
@Ryan:
I would suggest cutting things like our exorbitant defense budget (which I believe is more than the defense budgets of the next 20 highest defense budgets combined), reforming Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and raising taxes. I agree with Ryan that we should be investing in technology, research, and development for the future (like alternate energy sources), but we also need to modernize our infrastructure and high-speed rail and Amtrak are good first steps toward that goal. Thinking in the long-term will greatly serve to alleviate our budget issues, and will improve the state of our country as a whole. We cannot keep making excuses for putting off these kinds of programs. I believe that if we keep taking actions that are beneficial in the short term, without thinking about what would be best for the future, we will never be able to fix our problems.
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