Something WICked This Way Comes

So, after spending like a Disneyland tourist with a shiny new credit card for the past ten years, Congress finally thinks it's time to put the plastic back in its pocket. And where would the GOP, who now control the House, like to make billions of dollars in cuts? a) In Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid, which is ~45% of the budget and growing like kudzu? b) In Defense, which is ~30% of the budget and, oh by the way, contains a boatload of pork, including several projects the Defense Department says it doesn't want or need? or c) In domestic discretionary, which is ~12% of the budget? If you guessed C, you win. Here is the list of proposed cuts, in millions, compared to President Obama’s FY11 budget request which was never enacted (source: NationalJournal.com, groupings are mine): Arts and Humanities $12 · National Endowment for the Arts $6 · National Endowment for the Humanities $6 Energy $3,749 · Clean Coal Technology $18 · DOE Loan Guarantee Authority $1,400 · Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability $49 · Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy $899 · Energy Information Administration $34 · Fossil Energy Research $31 · Nuclear Energy $169 · Office of Science under the Energy and water spending bill - $1,100 · Power Marketing Administrations - $52 · Strategic Petroleum Reserve - $15 Agriculture $684 · Agriculture University Research - $246 · Farm Service Agency - $201 · Rural Development Programs $237 Health $3,661 · CDC - $755 · Community Health Centers - $1,300 · FDA - $220 · Food Safety and Inspection Services - (FY10) $53 · Maternal and Child Health Block Grants - $210 · NIH - $1,000 · Poison Control Centers - $27 · Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services - $96 Law Enforcement $1,149 · COPS - $600 · FBI - $74 · Juvenile Justice - $2.30 · Law Enforcement Wireless Communications - $52 · Legal Services Corporation - $75 · National Drug Intelligence Center - $11 · Office of National Drug Control Policy - $69 · State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance - $256 · US Marshals Service - $10 Revenue & Treasury $1,606 · Department of Treasury - $675 · Internal Revenue Service - $593 · Treasury Forfeiture Fund - $338 Environment & Natural Resources $2,612 . Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies - $30 · Clean Water State Revolving Fund - $700 · Drinking Water State Revolving Fund - $250 · EPA - $1,600 · EPA Brownfields - $48 · EPA Cap and Trade Technical Assistance - $5 · EPA ENERGY STAR - $7.40 · EPA GHG Reporting Registry - $9 · EPA State and Local Air Quality anagement - $25 · Fish and Wildlife Service - $72 · Forest Service - $38 · Land and Water Conservation Fund - $348 · National Ocean and Atmospheric Association - $336 · National Park Service - $51 · Natural Resource Conservation Service - $46 · US Geological Survey - $27 Social Services $1,982 · Community Services Block Grant - $405 · Economic Development Assistance - $16 · Family Planning - $327 · HUD Community Development Fund - $530 · International Food Aid grants - $544 · Job Training Programs - $2,000 · LIHEAP Contingency fund - $400 · Minority Business Development Agency - $2 · WIC - $758 Transportation $1,837 · Amtrak - $224 · FAA Next Gen - $234 · High Speed Rail - $1,000 · NASA - $379 Miscellaneous $2,145 · International Trade Administration - $93 · National Archives and Record Service - $20 · National Institute of Standards and Technology - $186 · NSF - $139 · Smithsonian - $7.30 · GSA Federal Buildings Fund - $1,700 Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winning economist and columnist for the New York Times, described the above as eating the future, but I'll go him one better. The decision to de-fund WIC, the program that pays for infant formula and nutritious food to pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and small children is more like eating our young.