Sen. Paul’s “Modest $500 Billion Proposal”

“My spending cuts would keep 85% of government funding and not touch Social Security or Medicare.” – US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).

Sen. Paul (R-KY) and The Wall Street Journal reports:

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this will be the third consecutive year in which the federal government is running a deficit near or greater than $1 trillion. The solution to the government’s fiscal crisis must begin by cutting spending in all areas, particularly in those that can be better run at the state or local level. Last month I introduced legislation to do just that. And though it seems extreme to some—containing over $500 billion in spending cuts enacted over one year—it is a necessary first step toward ending our fiscal crisis.

My proposal would first roll back almost all federal spending to 2008 levels, then initiate reductions at various levels nearly across the board. Cuts to the Departments of Agriculture and Transportation would create over $42 billion in savings each, while cuts to the Departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development would save about $50 billion each. Removing education from the federal government’s jurisdiction would create almost $80 billion in savings alone. Add to that my proposed reductions in international aid, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and other federal agencies, and we arrive at over $500 billion.

My proposal, not surprisingly, has been greeted skeptically in Washington, where serious spending cuts are a rarity. But it is a modest proposal when measured against the size of our mounting debt. It would keep 85% of our government funding in place and not touch Social Security or Medicare. But by reducing wasteful spending and shuttering departments that are beyond the constitutional role of the federal government, such as the Department of Education, we can cut nearly 40% of our projected deficit and at the same time remove thousands of big-government bureaucrats who stand in the way of efficiency.

Hey, it is a start.

The most interesting proposal in Sen. Paul’s plan is the elimination of the Department of Education. Not since President Ronald Reagan campaigned on abolishing the Department of Education had anyone seriously proposed cutting the federal government.

Now it is on to the entitlement cuts!

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Republicans Set To Unveil $2.5 Trillion In Spending Cuts

Wonder what you would find if you frisked House Republicans on the issue of government spending?

Answer: They are preparing to unveil a bill that will save taxpayers $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

2006 spending levels never sounded so good. The Daily Caller reports:

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, will unveil the bill in a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday morning.

Jordan’s bill, which will have a companion bill introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, would impose deep and broad cuts across the federal government. It includes both budget-wide cuts on non-defense discretionary spending back to 2006 levels and proposes the elimination or drastic reduction of more than 50 government programs.

Jordan’s “Spending Reduction Act” would eliminate such things as the U.S. Agency for International Development and its $1.39 billion annual budget, the $445 million annual subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the $1.5 billion annual subsidy for Amtrak, $2.5 billion in high speed rail grants, the $150 million subsidy for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and it would cut in half to $7.5 billion the federal travel budget.

But the program eliminations and reductions would account for only $330 billion of the $2.5 trillion in cuts. The bulk of the cuts would come from returning non-defense discretionary spending – which is currently $670 billion out of a $3.8 trillion budget for the 2011 fiscal year – to the 2006 level of $496.7 billion, through 2021.

Going back to 2006 levels would reduce spending by $2.3 trillion over ten years. It is a significantly more drastic cut than the one proposed by House Republican leadership in the Pledge to America last fall, which proposed moving non-defense, non-mandatory spending for the current fiscal year back to 2008 levels, which was $522.3 billion. Jordan’s proposal includes the recommendation from the Pledge for the current fiscal year, which ends in September.

The proposal would cut the federal work force by 15 percent and freeze automatic pay raises for government employees for five years.

The American people wanted Republicans to get tough on government spending. So far, this type of action (or bill) shows that a good number of true conservatives within the Republican Party have received the message loud and clear.

Unfortunately, since the Republicans only control the House of Representatives, spending cuts of this size will undoubtedly and quickly come under attack from Democrats and numerous liberal special interest groups. After all, liberals have never came across a government program they didn’t like.

Although the three monsters (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) were not addressed, this is still a giant step in the right direction. Not only that, the introduction of this bill looks to be perfect timing. After all, President Obama’s annual address to Congress is right around the corner.

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