House Republicans propose $74 billion in spending cuts
How often do we here from left leaning politicians that during these tough economic times it is time for Americans to sacrifice? We hear it quite a bit, and the term “sacrifice” is almost always used as a code word for raising taxes. What these politicians are trying to say without saying it is the fact that Americans must “sacrifice” some of their hard earned money to the federal government so that it can be used for the greater good. However these very same politicians are not always willing to “sacrifice” themselves (a great example would be John Kerry docking his yacht out of state to avoid taxes), they just expect us to “sacrifice” so that they can keep their entitlement programs fully funded.
But there is another sacrifice that could be made in lieu of raising taxes and that would be a reduction in the spending of federal dollars–however, this is a sacrifice that would have to be made by the politicians in Washington and we all know that they are averse to this notion. Republicans ran on the promise that they would cut $100 billion from the federal budget and they were attacked by the left because they did not offer specifics. Well, today they offered specifics with the unveiling of an appropriations bill which would cut $74 billion from federal programs–cutting the funding for some while eliminating others.
In the crosshairs of this overhaul would be such organizations and as the EPA, Amtrak, NASA, NEA, and AmeriCorps. While this falls short of the Republican goal of cutting $100 billion it still represents a great start. Democrats like to talk about sacrifice and now it is time for them to start sacrificing a little bit themselves–in the form of cutting back on the out of control spending which got us into this problem in the first place. Make no mistake about it–this spending problem is not only a Democrat problem, the Republicans have been just as guilty over the years, but it is the Democrats who constantly tell us that the time to sacrifice is now so it will be interesting to see how they respond the sacrifice they are now being called on to make.
America's Watchtower 
I wish I could say I was pleased with a proposal to cut $74 billion but I’m not. They need to be proposing $400 or $500 billion as a starting point for negotiations. Rand Paul says we could cut $500 billion. Our boys need to man-up!
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More can be cut, that is for sure but I think we might need to do this a little (if you can call 74 billion little) at a time in order to get anything done.
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I agree with the previous comment. $74 billion will not get it done. I’m thinking more along the lines of Rand Paul’s number. We cannot nibble around the edges of this problem. We have to take real bites. Let’s “get er done”.
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Hopefully this number is just a start and they will look for more cuts when this is done.
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I know we need a starting point, but my fear is this is pocket change when you are talking about a trillion dollars in deficit spending. We really need some drastic cuts in spending to include the elimination of Departments that in my opinion are unconstitutional. I would start with the Dept of Education because they are pretty much useless, next would be to reduce the size of the IRS, and finally cut the budgets of the FCC and EPA. It’s too bad this is not going to happen because Obama is going to use his Jedi mind tricks on weak mind RINOs.
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I agree, those are all organizations which could be cut, I hope that this is just a starting point and I hope that the Republicans do not give in.
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Ditto on the Department of Stupidification, um, I mean Education.
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Entitlements are the real problem but I don’t see either party wanting to touch those. In the end, they will eat the budget alive.
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I agree, we must end all the entitlements, but I fear both parties would be afraid of the repercussions of doing it.
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I agree that entitlements are an enormous problem, but they’re a political nightmare. The wild card that really scares me is the interest expense. If QE2 leads to inflation and our creditors get nervous, higher interest rates will erase the $74 billion in cuts in a hurry.
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And that is the larger problem, the $74 billion was a starting point and will only be whittled down from there. Before this ever passes it will be even smaller than the $74 billion. Perhaps the Republicans should have aimed higher!
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$74 billion and a return of what’s left of the stimulus money and we’d be off to a good start.
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Yes, returning the unused stimulus money should be right at the top of the list.
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