House Republicans Slash Investments in Jobs, Security and Public Safety

DPCC Fact Sheet: House Republicans Slash Investments in Jobs, Security and Public Safety

I have to confess this is boring! To amuse myself I dropped in funny comments. Alas, after a while they are not amusing either. Read some of it...none of it is good news. Think of your favorite slasher movie. That about sums it up.

Welcome to America. Keep your luggage with you at all times. Remove your shoes, belts, and underwear. Hope you ate because there will be no eating on the aircraft.

A vacuum cleaner will be passed around by a minimum wage employee. If that person looks familiar, he was your ticket taker, luggage handler, chocks remover and air traffic controller. Be kind to him; he gets cranky after third shift.

Each passenger is expected to clean up his place before deplaning. Your area will be inspected before you receive approval to exit the plane. Have a nice day.

With all the money in our treasury safely hidden away by those richest 1%, it is time to “feed the Beast.”

Remember the two wars? Time to pay up. Seems the politicians are suffering temporary amnesia. Maybe we can put the $500 million embassy we built in Iraq on Craig’s List.

Should be able to get a few bucks for the hideous structure. It does sport some groovy spires. And it is the tallest thing on Iraq’s sand. 

As for us...we will pay the piper. Not the wealthy; they’ve already stashed theirs away...probably in Saudi Arabia..   

Slashes in Title I Education Funding, Putting 1 Million Students and 10,000 Jobs at Risk...plus, more stupid people hit the unemployment lines.

10,000 teachers and aides lose their jobs and wind up on the unemployment lines, too. A classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Or, robbing from somebody to pay somebody else. I forget exactly who robs whom.

The House plan cuts an additional $5 billion from the Department of Education, including slashing Title I education funding by nearly $700 million, meaning 2,400 schools serving 1 million disadvantaged students could lose funding, and approximately 10,000 teachers and aides could lose their jobs...not to mention how many will wind up asking, Fries with that?

Slashes Maximum Pell Grant Award By $845 Per Student. The House plan will cut the maximum Pell Grant award by $845 from $4,860 to $4,015, a 17 percent cut. Did I say this once? I’m so confused.

But the richest 1% will get theirs. And, that’s all that matters.

Slashes Head Start By 20%, Eliminating the Program for 218,000 Children and Forcing 55,000 Layoffs. The House bill funds Head Start at $6.1 billion, a cut of nearly $1.1 billion from the FY 2010 enacted level.

That House. What a bunch of softies.

At the House level, HHS would have to cut approximately 218,000 low-income children and their families, a cut of over 20 percent.  This would involve laying off an estimated 55,000 teachers and related staff. (PDF: State-by-state data for Head Start funding).

The Head Start Program is a safe one to cut. Those kids can’t read yet anyway. And, at the rate we’re going they more than likely will never learn to read.

Eliminates Race to the Top & AmeriCorps. The House plan provides no funding to key K-12 priorities, including Race to the Top (FY 12 PB: $900 million), Investing in Innovation (FY 12 PB: $300 million), the Early Learning Challenge Fund (FY 12 PB: $350 million). 

Isn’t Bush starting to look better?

The bill provides either $10 million or no funding to Promise Neighborhoods (FY 12 PB: $150 million). In addition, the House plan eliminates AmeriCorps.

Good for you, House. We don’t need no stinkin’ Promise Neighborhoods. And, or course eliminate AmeriCorps.

Slashes Food Safety Inspection Funding By $100 Million, Stopping Inspections and Costing the Economy and Businesses $11 Billion. The House plan reduces funding for the Food Safety and Inspection Service by $100 million.

Starting a whole new cottage industry: Food Tasters R Us.

This would force many meat and poultry plants to shut down for more than a month during inspector furloughs, resulting in economic losses of approximately $11 billion and potentially leading to a spike in consumer prices, causing forced dieting and a slim and sleek America!

Slashes Support for the WIC Program, Covering Fewer Women and Children Struggling to Get Back on Their Feet. The House plan reduced funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) by 10%, or nearly $750 million.

At this rate, the program would need to dip into contingency funds or turn families away to cover the 9.3 million participants in 2011.

Eliminates the COPS Hiring Program, Keeping Up To 3,000 Officers Off the Streets. By eliminating the COPS Hiring program, the House plan would keep up to 3,000 police officers off our streets.

Slashes EPA Funding By Nearly 30% From Current Levels. The House plan cuts funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 29% from the FY10 enacted level.

Slashes Funding for Renewable Energy By $787 Million. The House bill provides $787 million below the current level for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Furthermore, the bill appears to provide no new funds for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), which falls within this account. The bill would significantly delay needed investments in Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy R&D, demonstration and deployment programs critical to the transition to a Clean Energy Economy. 

Slashes Funding for the SEC & CFTC, Hindering Wall Street Enforcement and Consumer Protections. The House bill provides $188 million less for the Securities and Exchange Commission than the Obama Administration requested for FY11 and $149 million less for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission than the FY11 request, severely impairing SEC’s ability to implement the Dodd-Frank Act.

Slashes Funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Rolling Back Critical Investments in Innovation.  The House bill reduces funding for NIST by $223 million below the Obama Administration’s FY11 request and $162 million below FY 2010.  This steep reduction could lead to construction halts and damage the Administration’s innovation initiatives.

Slashes Investment in Science Research, Hurting More Than 5,000 Researchers, Teachers and Students. The House bill slashes funding for the National Science Foundation by more than $300 million below current levels.

The likely impacts of these cuts are 1,800 fewer research and education grants supporting over 5,000 researchers, teachers, and students, and significant cost and schedule growth for one or more of the major facility construction projects.

Slashes Funding for State and Local FEMA Programs, Impacting First Responders and Homeland Security. The House bill reduces funding for FEMA State and Local Programs by $1.4 billion.   This level significantly reduces funding to hire firefighters and other first responders and cuts funding to support port and transit security.

Slashes Funding for Border Technology Initiatives. The House bill reduces funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s border technology initiative by $243 million (including rescissions of prior year amounts).  This will result in a slow-down in the deployment of new and much needed border surveillance technologies.

Slashes Investment in Job Training When Workers Need it Most. The House bill cuts funding available to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Worker formula grant programs in FY11 by $1.5 billion from the FY10 enacted level.

For Program Year 2011, which begins in July. There is no new funding provided for the Adult or Dislocated Worker programs, which would mean termination of these programs and likely closure of a significant number of the nation’s 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers.

Slashes Economic Development Administration Grants. The House bill cuts funding for Economic Development Administration grant programs by $80 million below the FY10 level, hindering EDA’s ability to promote competitiveness and prepare American regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy.

Slashes More Than $1 Billion from NIH. The House bill slashes $1.3 billion from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which would force NIH to reduce support for more than 25,000 existing research grants and scale back clinical trials and research projects.

Slashes Investment in FAA NextGen, Leading to More Flight Delays and Hurting the Economy. The House bill provides $340 million less funding for the FAA’s NextGen program than the Obama Administration requested for FY11. 

This funding level will significantly slow efforts to modernize FAA’s air traffic control system, including initiatives to develop satellite-based surveillance of air traffic, data communications capabilities, and efforts to improve aviation weather observations and forecasting. 

This level will likely jeopardize FAA’s 2018 goals of reducing total flight delays by 21 percent and saving 1.4 billion gallons of fuel.

Zeroes Out Funding for High Speed Rail. The House bill zeroes out funding for High Speed Rail Corridors and Intercity Passenger Rail Service.

Slashes Funding for Social Security Administration, Meaning Delays for Seniors and Disabled Americans Awaiting Benefits. The House bill cut funding for the Social Security Administration, meaning 130,000 Americans who are legally entitled to disability benefits and would otherwise have received them will instead be waiting for them on September 30.

I have to ‘fess up here. My eyes started glazing over about half thru this muck. I haven’t the foggiest what I did/didn’t do. If you don’t get this far, I don’t blame you. I promise to do a more thoughtful post next time. For now, have a nice day. Please visit again....it can’t be much worse than this.