It is Time to Look at Every Agency for Spending Cuts
January 9, 2012 at 3:00 pm in Blog by Steve Davies 22 Comments
President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced a new Defense strategy on January 5, 2012. The new strategy involves hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts. The mysteries in these cuts are the specifics. According to the Austin Business Journal, “President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave few specifics about program cuts at the U.S. Department of Defense [DOD] during a briefing Thursday on DOD’s strategy…” This is problematic because as much as the Pentagon budget needs to be cut, it should be done responsibly with the Pentagon still having the ability to meet the defense needs of the country. In addition to the Defense cuts, President Obama should also require all federal agencies to do the same and come up with target cuts.
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance has long been supportive of cutting the Pentagon’s budget. But, instead of blindly chopping the DOD, Congress needs to do it wisely by first defunding all the earmarks the Congress added in the Omnibus Bill late last year (read more here). Congress also needs to eliminate the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) which is costly and unnecessary (read previous blog postings here and here) and look into the awarding of the Light Air Support and Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance (LAS/LAAR) program to a questionable Brazilian company instead of a domestic company (read previous blog posting here).
However, DOD should not be the last place to look for spending cuts….<link to TPA Blog to read more>
This article is excerpted from a Taxpayers Protection Alliance blog dated 1/6/2012. For the full article, visit the TPA site by clicking the link directly above or by Clicking Here
You wanted cuts so you have them.
Kevin – to you and everyone else: There is a definite solution that’s been around for some time to which politicians turn a blind eye. It’s found at http://www.WianIndustries.com and solves the country’s health care problem and economic woes simultaneously
It is time to eliminate three very bad Federal Government Agencies:
1. Bureau of Land Management – They do nothing but mismanage vast portions of this country. This land all belongs to We The People. It must be immediately transferred to individual and/or corporate ownership, only then can it be put to use to benefit all Americans.
2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They do nothing but put fisherman out of business with their dumb fishing rules. Who knows more about fishing, fisherman or a bunch of dumb fishcrats? Mother Nature, with the help of God does a perfect job of providing us with plenty of fish. Fisherman know that if they catch to many fish that there will be fewer fish so they just fish less. Why can’t NOAA just leave the fisherman alone. Why do we need a bunch of fishcrats sitting behind a desk making more than $100,000 a year that wouldn’t know a fish if it bit him on the butt.
3. Federal Aviation Administration – Haven’t we had enough of plane crashes. Where in the Constitution does it say that the Federal Government has the right to regulate airspace. State and local government can provide much safer and cheaper oversight than the Feds. I am guessing that we will save more than 80% if this is done locally. Air travel is much safer when everybody kinda knows everybody else.
Albert, I agree with your first two choices. However, I’d have to disagree with eliminating the FAA. First, their main job is not to regulate the air space but to control it for safety. In their defense they do a pretty good job. Most air plane crashes are single air craft incidents due to pilot error or mechanical failure, which the Airline it’s self has authority over. The FAA is more like a traffic cop of the skies, hopefully keeping people from running into one another.
All fed depts/agencies/programs should eliminate fraud/waste/abuse, but if they cant seem to do that then they should be required to go back to their 2006 budgets…….They need to eliminate more than just huge layoffs- there are buildings/property/paying rent etc that can be eliminated first…. Permanent hiring freeze/promotion freeze/merit increase etc until they meet and keep the 2006 budget…….Congress pay increase should be only in a general election by the people during a Presidential election year!
Now our $16 trillion dollar debt equals our gross domestic product. Obumbler want another $1.2 trillion dollars. All of the so called cuts they’ve made are bogus. Any so called cuts they make this year will be bogus also. They are all crooks and should be prosecuted and sent to Guantanamo for life.
Spending cuts? Of course they will cut spending one of programs they are actually supposed to support DOD! I have to tell you guys I am real fed up with what is going on in Washington, the Democrats are socialists for the most part and the Republicans have no testicular fortitude – how about shutting down the federal government all together for about six months and no retro pay..
My take on this is we should focus our attention on enlightening elected officials to seriously look at the fat in all the Government agencies. It’s far more likely to get these agencies streamlined and far less expensive to operate than to get them eliminated.
Will you kindly read this…Romney, corporate welfare king
Ron Paul
What confuses the hell out of me is why more people don’t listen to Dr. Paul… He has said all of these things for years, for my entire life in fact. Why is it going to take the collapse of the global economy before someone listens? If any true American can argue the case against Ron Paul and for ANY of the other candidates please be my guest. But I have a feeling not a single person in this country has that ability. And now we have Gingrich winning South Carolina… Sad sad days ahead my friends…
@KTBN Gingrich agrees with Dr. Paul on fiscal responsibility, as do many Americans. Gingrich even praised Dr. Paul recently, saying, “Dr. Ron Paul, who, on the issue of money and the Federal Reserve, has been right for 25 years. There’s no doubt that alot of his critique of inflation, of fiat money, and of the federal reserve has been in the right direction and is something I can support Strongly.” But our constitution also calls for a strong national defense, and that’s where Dr. Paul loses support. His stance on Iran and their development of nuclear technology is passive, very passive. Iran is an Islamic Theocracy where martyrdom is not only embraced, but celebrated. They do not believe in Israel’s right to exist, and they support and harbor terrorists who are willing to blow themselves up to kill as many infidels (non-Muslims) as possible. Left unfettered to develop a nuclear capability, they may not hesitate use it in the cause of Jihad.
Government Spending Cuts
Cutting entire agencies is an exceptionally difficult challenge, especially in a bad economy. For example, there are over 4.4 million workers at the federal level, and if we send 10% home, when jobs are scarce, that adds 440,000 more Americans to the unemployment lines.
However, if all government agencies were reduced through attrition at a rate of 2 percent a year over the course of 10 years, we could cut 1/5th of government by 2022.
Next, determine is the amount of discretionary outlays in each government agency’s budget.
For example, the Department of Agriculture has total outlays of 144.014 billion in 2012.
Of that amount, 27.58 billion or 19.15% is discretionary. So, we could achieve about a 20% savings if we cut that from the Department of Agriculture’s budget.
A strategy of cutting all, or large chunks of discretionary outlays within each agency keeps the workers, but trims quite a bit of fat.
Naturally, there are a number of other areas that could be evaluated for cuts. As an example, earlier this month, U.S. Senator Rand Paul returned $500,000 (1/2 million) dollars of his office budget back to the U.S. Treasury. If every U.S. Senator and Representative followed his lead, that would trim the budget by $250,000,000 a year.
A couple of examples of smaller cuts could include:
-Eliminating/reducing the government vehicle fleet.
-Using video teleconferencing and other technology for unclassified meetings and conferences, instead of flying across the nation.
I will put together some data and those of you that are interested, can help develop a strategy to move the ball forward.
My oh my, what a mess.
Hello David and welcome. We look forward to any informative or constructive ideas you may have to offer.
Rather than cutting out entire agencies.. how does everyone feel about the following types of expenditure?
If we’re insistant on paying for resuscitation of pets, I don’t think the Tea Party Express is spinning it’s wheels.
http://my.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/889755:BlogPost:500727
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/pdf/efop/efo41970.pdf
http://www.ems1.com/ems-products/breathing-apparatus/articles/596501-Dog-resuscitated-after-Utah-house-fire/
edit: I think the Tea PArty Express IS spinning its wheels.
the problem we have as ALL americans is that we have become lazy… what i mean by this is that we have turned over our kids to the public education system. most of us know nothing about the people that teach out kids. instead we would rather ask…. “hey did you do your home work”… then wait for the child to lie and say… “YES im done.. ” then go back to watching whatever stupid tv show we have. as a result we have a generation of stupid people that will have a HARD time making it without gov. hold downs… I mean gov. hand outs… unless we are willing to LOSE one generation .. as in know that at least one generation will do poorly these cuts wont happen…. everyone is ok with cutting someone else program. but when it comes to them….. most people say go some place else…. IE the baby boomers.. the most greedy of any generation ever
John Pistone for Congress.
http://www.pistoneforcongress.org
If you are worried about the debt:
http://web.gbtv.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=20152897&topic_id=24584158
Cut every agency but Small Business and get them off there butt and actually make it possible to loan money.
Check out website http://www.thelastwillbook.com
The only way out of this depression is jobs and small business are the only ones that create them.
As a former fed and county emplyee. I say cut 20 percent of all government manager and half of there support staff. Do not cut service providers, corrects, law officers or court staff. Just manager and manager suppport staff.