Friday, June 05, 2009

GOP Budget Cuts Take Aim At Educational Opportunities For Women, Bike Paths, And Technology Innovation


Memo to The Party of No: WHERE ARE THE NUMBERS AND CHARTS FOR THIS PROPOSAL???????? And while I am on this subject: where in the hell is the GOP budgetless budget numbers for the GOP Starving for Recovery plan presented back in April?


Thinkprogress:


Yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent President Obama a proposal with budget cuts that they claim could save taxpayers “in excess of $375 billion.” From their letter to Obama:
Of course, reducing spending is never easy. … The proposed terminations and reductions your Administration released last month garnered immediate opposition from many Democrats. Likewise, the proposals we have put forward here will not be supported by all Republicans. However, if we work together, we are confident that we can come up with a common-sense package of entitlement reforms, program terminations, and spending reductions that will generate significant savings for the American taxpayer and reduce our current deficit. For example, enactment of the proposals we have outlined in the enclosed document could save taxpayers in excess of $375 billion [over the next five years].

First of all, Boehner and Cantor are inflating their cuts. Their proposal actually equates to just $23 billion in spending cuts over the next five years. As the AP points out, many of the GOP cuts “haven’t been estimated by federal scorekeepers and the party has padded its own estimate by assuming $317 billion over the next five years from limiting non-defense agency budgets to inflation-adjusted levels that Obama is sure to reject.”

Second, Republicans are planning to slash more than just “wasteful and unnecessary spending,” as Boehner and Cantor wrote in their letter to Obama.

Update: Tim Fernholz calls the proposed cuts "ridiculous."

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