Rand Paul's Budget Revisited

As details leak out about the debt ceiling negotiations one disturbing detail emerges. For all the gnashing of teeth and prattle about shared sacrifice, only $2 billion are cut from the 2012 budget. The rest of the $1.4 trillion are out year cuts, cuts that will never materialize. We've seen this show before. We didn't like it then and we don't like it now. The Republicans party's credibility is on the line but they seem to prefer to lose credibility than to make any meaningful budget cuts. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul produced a budget that would cut $500 billion in the 2012 budget and balance the budget in 5 years. When it was voted on in the Senate it lost 90-7. This is not a radical plan! Spending $500 billion of borrowed money is radical. Suppose the Paul budget was renamed and introduced in the House? Would it pass? Yes, probably if the leadership endorsed it. If it did pass the House it would be up to Obama and the Senate and they could take all of the credit of any shutdown. Here are a few highlights of the Paul budget:

• Reduce all spending to 2008 levels





• Education..................................................$78,000,000,000 (83%)
  
  Only the Pell grant program survives.





• Energy.........................................................$44,200,000,000 (100%)
  
  The Defense Department takes over all of Energy's remaining functions (nuclear waste, for example) and about $18 billion of its budget





• Housing & Urban Development...
  .$53,100,000,000.





• Eliminate:












(1) Affordable Housing Program.

(2) Commission on Fine Arts





(3) Consumer Product Safety Commission.

(4) Corporation for Public Broadcasting.







(5) National Endowment for the Arts.

(6) National Endowment for the Humanities.

(7) State Justice Institute.

There are more detailed reviews here or you can read the entire budget here. Obama can only be re-elected if the Republicans fold. The public worries more about the debt that it does about high speed rail, NPR, or the National Endowment for the Humanities. Now is not the time to give up the ship.