A detailed look at the Rand Paul spending bill

[Chris_]

A detailed look at the Rand Paul spending bill

Want to save $500 billion this year? Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has a way to do it.

Is it realistic? Maybe not every part of it, but have a look below and judge for yourself. I don't think his total removal of rental subsidies is unreasonable -- the fact that Section 8 is a total failure doesn't justify dumping its beneficiaries  into oblivion. But there's also no reason every agency has to see its budget increase every year, and a lot of these cuts really do make sense. Most of them simply represent a return to 2008 levels of spending -- remember that a 30 percent cut is less than it seems when an agency's budget been increasing by 40 percent over the last few years.

Of course, even this bill would only cut this year's record deficit by one-third. But if you can bring discretionary spending down a notch with something like it, then cut Defense further as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wind down, you've gotten to the point where you can look Americans in the eye and tell them you've done everything you can, and it's time to do something about Social Security and Medicare to save the nation from long-term financial collapse.

I've copied down the short version of what gets cut from each agency or department, and the percentage cut. Paul offers a more complete explanation of each item here.

Washington Examiner

It's a start...

[DefiantSix]

Just scrolling down the examiner's short list, I could jump on board for this kind of a budget.

A few of my favorites:

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH...............................$1,283,000,000. (23%)
Notes: The Government Printing Office is abolished. Too bad we can't close down the presses the Fed is using to print money with as well...

AGRICULTURE............................................$42,542,000,000. (30%)
The Agriculture Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Resources Conservation Service, and Foreign Agricultural Service are abolished. The Forest Service gets a $1.2 billion haircut.

HOMELAND SECURITY.................................$23,765,000,000. (43%)
Notes: Coast Guard is shifted to Defense. TSA's funds are cut by $900 million.

HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT....$53,100,000,000. (100%)
Notes: Completely eliminated. Veterans' housing programs are transferred to the VA

STATE...................................................................$20,321,000,000. (71%)
Note: Massive foreign aid cuts. All international commissions and organizations are defunded.

DEFENSE.......................................................$47,500,000,000. (6.5%)
Second smallest cut after Labor Department, and considering the Coasties are being shifted to this branch, still not too terrible.

VETERANS’ AFFAIRS..........................................No cuts 

It seems to de-fuze all of the usual progressive/communist arguments whenever proposals to cut the federal budget come up (social security is left alone, Labor department programs (unemployment) are largely left untouched, etc), and then promptly hits some of the worst of the bloated budget offenders deeply.

My only concern is that $500 billion is a large drop in the bucket compared to the ObeyWon Spending spree we need to roll back.  What is Mr. Paul going to do for an encore next year?

[DumbAss Tanker]

Second smallest cut after Labor Department, and considering the Coasties are being shifted to this branch, still not too terrible.

I'm not going to read the thing, but I think you are mistaken in that particular interpretation, shifting the Puddle Pirates to Defense appears to me to mean that their entire operation has to be funded out of what's left in Defense after DOD's 6.5% cut, it would not that the Coasties are bringing any funding over from HSA with them.

And I'm no fan of farm subsidies or price supports, but wiping out all Fed ag research money is not a real bright idea.  The one big place where Government really can invest and make a difference is funding basic research, since anything that has too big a pricetag or doesn't have a calculable ROI won't actually be touched by the private sector.  Calling a bunch of expensively-stupid make-work projects with known technology like high-speed rail an 'Investment' is ridiculous, but basic research truly is a sound investment, in fact without it we are signing our own economic death warrant in the long run. 

[Crazy Horse]

If the puddle pirates came to defense, then the only logical thing to do is make them part of the Navy.  However their entire job for the most part, port security, law enforcement, boating law enforcement, fisheries enforcement.........no longer able to be done due to existing laws.  This just shows the lack of understanding the military and what it can and can't do according to our laws.

[formerlurker]

If the puddle pirates came to defense, then the only logical thing to do is make them part of the Navy.  However their entire job for the most part, port security, law enforcement, boating law enforcement, fisheries enforcement.........no longer able to be done due to existing laws.  This just shows the lack of understanding the military and what it can and can't do according to our laws.

Great point.   H5.

[formerlurker]

Reduce Federal Government travel..............................$7,500,000,000.

That has to be defined for me, because I am in shock if that is the yearly figure for this -- WTF???????

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES..............$26,510,000,000. (26%)
Notes: FDA is cut by $230,000,000; Indian Health Service is cut by $650 million; CDC is cut by $1.17 billion; NIH by $5.8 billion.

NIH is too important to even consider messing with.

EDUCATION..................................................$78,000,000,000 (83%)
Only the Pell grant program survives.

This will never happen.   Ever.