Options: Where can the money come from? | ||||
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On the heels of comments by House Majority Leader Tom Delay that there is not a great deal of fat to cut from the federal budget, the Republican Study Committee released a 23-page report recommending 100 specific budget offsets that total nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. By reducing federal spending, more funds would be available to use for reconstruction of hurricane-damaged areas and other natural disasters. In an Oct. 7 op-ed chart, The New York Times listed $125 billion in savings that could be cut from defense, Medicare and prescription drugs, space exploration, corporate welfare, poorly directed programs, and “pork” from the transportation and other budgets. A consensus on the need to cut federal spending does not mean there would be a consensus on which programs or agencies would be cut: Republicans (and the Bush administration) tend to support cuts in social programs, health services, and education; Democrats tend to favor cuts in defense, corporate subsidies, and selected “pork” projects. At the same time, even conservative columnist Cal Thomas encourages cuts that target the rich and ineffective, wasteful government programs over cuts in programs that serve the poor.
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