OT: Trump wants to kill these 17 agencies: Here's what they cost
Papi_Chulo
Miami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)
A host of planned funding cuts to federal agencies, reported last week by The Hill, are part of the Trump administration's desire to eliminate roughly $10.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years - nearly all of the federal government's discretionary spending.
Yet Trump has vowed not to cut entitlements, such as Medicare and Social Security, and promised to beef up military spending, which represents the lion's share of federal spending - making it hard for him to do more than chip away at the margins of the nearly $20 trillion national debt.
What, then, would the reported cuts accomplish? The answer appears to be defunding a number of projects seen as liberal darlings - including groups aimed at preserving and supporting the environment, civil rights protections, the arts, minority-owned businesses, and public broadcasting.
To put this in context: The total cost, per American, of the following 17 programs said to be on the chopping block is $22.36 - of which more than a third comes from a single clean-energy program. By contrast, housing subsidies, like the mortgage interest deduction, which are disproportionately used by the wealthy, cost $296.29 per American.
Here's a list of the various federal agencies reportedly on the chopping block, along with some of their key initiatives - and some of the jobs supported.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
- Budget: $445 million
- Cost per American: $1.37
Republicans have long been known to want to kill government funding for Big Bird. But the CPB is much more than Sesame Street, and taking away public funding may imperil important stories that need to be told.
For instance, the CPB is backing a program through Wisconsin Public Television called Veterans Coming Home - which includes a series depicting what some of the 2.5 million veterans endure as they reenter society, but also funds services, such as job fairs, for returning vets.
National Endowment for the Arts
- Budget: $150 million
- Cost per American: $0.46
The NEA supports art, and those who make it, across the country. Eliminating funding would kill hundreds of programs, like Art 365, which grants five Oklahoma artists $12,000 to support their work. Past grantees photographed remote portions of our National Parks and wilderness areas, and used aerial photography to look at churchgoing demographics in Oklahoma.
National Endowment for the Humanities
- Budget: $150 million
- Cost per American: $0.46
The NEH offers research funding to institutions like museums, colleges, and libraries. The agency has backed 16 Pulitzer winners and Ken Burns' The Civil War series, among other notable endeavors. One recent grantee is Michael Bernath, an associate professor at the University of Miami, who received $6,000 for his project In a Land of Strangers: Northern Teachers in the Old South and the Emergence of American
Minority Business Development Agency
- Budget: $36 million
- Cost per American: $0.11
This federal agency helps minority-owned businesses with the capital, contracts, and markets they need to grow, according to its website. The agency also advocates and promotes minority-owned business with elected officials, policy makers, and business leaders.
The MBDA says it helped a minority-owned construction company in Phoenix, for instance, secure $60 million in loans - which allowed the company to expand operations and hire more employees.
Economic Development Administration
- Budget: $215 million
- Cost per American: $0.66
The EDA supports distressed communities with their infrastructure needs that will help drive regional growth, promotes economic development projects that spur entrepreneurship and innovation at the regional level, and provides direct technical assistance to firms negatively impacted by global trade.
What does this mean? Seven years ago, the EDA gave a $2 million grant to the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Institute to buy new scientific equipment, in turn providing lab space that would support other high-tech companies in the area. The EDA says the grant ended up creating 184 jobs, saving another 110, and attracting another $500,000 in private investment.
International Trade Administration
- Budget: $521 million
- Cost per American: $1.60
The ITA helps American businesses sell more products to overseas markets. One beneficiary was the Iron Fist Brewing Company, located in Vista, California. A representative of the San Diego U.S. Export Assistance Center connected with the brewery at a convention in 2013, and helped them export to Australia, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, among others. Iron Fist hired two more employees thanks to new export revenue, the ITA reports.
Manufacturing Extension Partnership
- Budget: $142 million
- Cost per American: $0.43
This is a so-called public-private partnership that helps small to medium-size manufacturers become more efficient, build new products, and improve sales and marketing techniques. Missoula, Mont.-based organic soap wholesaler Botanie used their local MEP affiliate to help keep pace with their growing business - by, for instance, using more sophisticated technologies to track inventory. The MEP says it helped Botanie save $280,000 and retain six jobs.
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
- Budget: $286 million
- Cost per American: $0.88
The majority of COPS' annual budget is dedicated to hiring more police personnel to help local communities improve their policing. Last October, the Justice Department announced $119 million in grant funding for 184 law enforcement agencies across the country - resulting in 900 created or saved jobs, the office reports. Among the recipients was the Dallas Police Department, which had lost five officers in an ambush a few months earlier; it got $3.1 million to hire 25 officers.
Office of Violence Against Women
- Budget: $480 million
- Cost per American: $1.48
The OVW runs 25 grant programs created through the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, in an effort to reduce domestic violence, sexual assault and dating violence. The police department and city government of Andalusia, Ala., for instance, received a $450,000 grant over three years that will cover domestic violence training for officers as well as the hiring of three additional police officers.
Legal Services Corporation
Budget: $503 million
- Cost per American: $1.55
The LSC helps poor Americans afford legal services, currently funding 134 independent legal aid organizations with more than 800 offices in the U.S. For instance, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society - which served nearly 33,000 people in 2015, including about 15,000 children - received $3.8 million last year, supporting 109 positions. Two-thirds of clients served were African-Americans.
Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department
- Budget: $156 million
- Cost per American: $0.48
The Civil Rights Division, a part of the Justice Department that employs 750 positions, works to fight discrimination and protect Americans' voting rights. Recently a Civil Rights Division investigation of the Chicago Police Department found that CPD officers' practices unnecessarily endanger themselves and result in unnecessary and avoidable uses of force. The city of Chicago and the Justice Department reached an agreement to improve the city's policing practices.
Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department
- Budget: $123 million
- Cost per American: $0.38
The ENRD brings cases against those who break pollution-related laws. In one recent case, the division levied a $160,000 penalty against Iowa's Meadowvale Dairy for violating the Clean Water Act.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
- Budget: Self-sustaining
- Cost per American: $0
Using both loans and loan guarantees, OPIC works to help businesses with annual revenues below $400 million invest in large scale operations, such as airports and water systems. Over the past five years, 71 percent of OPIC projects were in partnership with U.S. small businesses, accounting for over $600 million annually in U.S. exports, according to the State Department. One recent OPIC effort, for instance, provided an $87 million, 17-year loan, to a U.S. company, Al Tamweel Al Saree, to extend loans to micro and small-sized Iraqi businesses.
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- U.S. Funding: Estimated $10 million
- Cost per American: $0.03
The IPCC issues reports from the world's leading climate scientists on the state of global warming, and its impact on human populations. According to NASA, 2016 was the hottest year on record.
Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability
- Budget: $262 million
- Cost per American: $0.81
Created after the 2003 blackout left nearly 50 million Americans and Canadians without power, the OE invests in the electric grid to make it more modern, reliable and secure. The agency recently released a comprehensive report on how America can improve energy allocation.
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Budget: $2.9 billion
- Cost per American: $8.95
The EERE works to create and sustain American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy. What does that look like? In one recent demonstration project, the EERE helped a South Carolina-based BMW plant use bio-methane gas from a nearby landfill to power some forklifts.
Office of Fossil Energy
- Budget: $878 million
- Cost per American: $2.71
With projects like the development of clean coal technology, this office works to reduce the carbon footprint of fossil fuels. Its Petra Nova project, based in Thompsons, Texas, is now the world's largest post-combustion carbon-capture system. Petra Nova received $190 million from the Department of Energy, and has the potential to capture 1.6 million tons of CO2 per year from an existing coal-fired power plant.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/t…
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Smoke and mirrors, Bait and switch take your pick.
The mortgage interest thing is a great example of what is wrong with America. First, the Realtor's association of America isn't out lobbying for it because it's good for Joe the plumber. It makes Joe the plumber more willing to buy a little bit more house which means a little bit more commission. Second, a lot if not most people think they are beating the system by getting their mortgage deduction. Except the rich are beating the system 10 or 100 time more over per house and then they repeat with multiple houses. Who's making out there.. not the folks living pay check to paycheck.
Same thing with state tax deductions. Why should federal tax code help subsidize resident of high tax states?
Like Donald Trump. for example.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.
* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.
* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.
* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.
* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”
* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.
* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.
* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.
* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.
* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is of the 2009 inauguration of 44th President Barack Obama, and is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.
* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.
* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.
* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.”
* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.
* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.
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Are we talking about Obama? Or my real hero, @JohnSmith?
Quadrupld? First off, you have to leave out 2008 when we had that vast, and much needed, government stimulus. Right? Then you need to measure the deficit as a percentage of GDP. No the deficit did not "QuadRruid."
I would donate more money to the arts IF! i had it to give. The problem is that for every government dollar designated for the Arts 75% of that money get chewed up paying the asshole bureaucrats that administer the funds.
Block grant designated for arts could got to states and cities where you would get more for less cost.
Do you remember when the federal government "shut down" and no one noticed. 1 out of every 2 federal employees are superfluous. You could balance the budget by 2018 by simply getting rid of all the extra federal employees that do absolutely nothing. Most of the operating expenses of every en-devour is wages and benefits. The problem with that strategy is that it would increase the welfare roles because most federal employees are unemployable in the private sector because of "flex-time"(the ability to work what ever hours you want when you want 2 - 20 hour days for your 40 week is ok), a warped pay scale based in a non-reality, zero work accountability, and general incompetence.
I have met with and dealt with government employees all my life going back to college and 8 times out of 10 the laziest, least competent, self serving and self important arrogant people work for the government.
The DOE. I argue that we keep the Department of Energy solely on the basis of Nuclear research. Chiefly for Nuc power. Nuc has the potential to be very carbon neutral as an energy source. Nuc has been a quagmire for the private market. Waste disposal locations, waste disposal costs, radiation, fuel, environmental issues, cooling, maintenance – all of it. It’s a huge undertaking and might not be easily done. It does not matter if you are building huge power plants or little tiny efficient ones. I don’t think that we’ll every get to the false promise of “electricity that is too cheap to meter” but if we get a viable carbon neutral energy source out of it and with knowledge that later build competitive free enterprise, I say we allocate our precious tax resources are at least let’s talk debate. I think it holds promise. Let’s talk about the DOE and Nuc.
The EPA. I want to live in a world with clean air and clean water. Does it need to be pristine? No. Should we live like pig fuckers? No. Greenpeace and Robber Barons, listen up. We need to have a serious talk. Are the environmental regulations in this country holding back our productive and economic output? Are these regulations the reason we don’t make anything anymore? Is this the reason why iPhones would be $1500 instead of $750? Looking for balance is the wrong word. We need congruence – like similar sized triangles. See balance assumes equal weight. But not everything gets equal importance. We need productive and economic output. So let’s side enough with industry to give them what they need. Now, will this give more money in the pockets of Robber Barons? I think so. But we need jobs for people. Let’s thing about some congruence. I don’t think zero pollution, zero emissions, zero spills are a practical goal. Nor should we leave it entirely up to free enterprise as the robber barons will just re-prove the tragedy of the commons and would likely rape and pillage the Earth. So let’s keep the right congruence of environmental protections to help the most people. Let’s have a serious talk are these regulations killing our shared goals?
As for NEA, PBS, et al. Those can all realistically be done with private donations or charities. Sorry to say, but the conservatives and libertarians are right about this.
As for common core education and testing. This does not work. At worst it is just a hand out to Pearson Publishing and the cronies. Let’s put education back in local hands. That’s where the funding is. And yes we do spend enough. I am not against unions and I am not going to micromanage how you spend it. If you want $36K or $60K or even $80K teacher salaries, that is fine with me. Just don’t ask for more money for the schools. It is the same with business. Make it work with your budget. But if you need money for capital equipment or supplies then you might have to budget on salaries or find some compromise. Maybe change tuition. Sorry Marxists. Although you “ought” to have an education. There is no reason why it needs to be free. But it shouldn’t be $20K a year either. Parents need to realize I’m not here to subsidize their of offspring. I’ll pay it forward a little with my taxes since I benefited from it when I grew up but parents decided to have these children so they need to think it through how they are going to pay for them or at least pay their share.
The rest of the line items can be slashed. This isn’t the role of government to redistribute resources in this matter. But let’s talk about keeping the DOE and EPA.
I was talking about fluff and sometimes the right puts the DOE and the EPA in with the NEA bucket of stuff instead of the military and public service bucket of stuff, if that makes sense.
I'm just saying there are some things the government might do better than free enterprise and we should focus there.
I'm actually trying to create a comprise of government entities where the left pisses of the right a little but less. For the record, I don't agree with the Atheist who took the Ten Commandments and Prayer out of schools. I think a lot of this fighting started there (but not all). You guys got screwed there.
It does suck that a teenager in Texas might have to drive 10 hours to get a morning after pill or get an abortion but she and her family chose to live there. I like your compromise where were can have liberal states and conservative states. Maybe a liberal would choose to live in a conservative state for job opportunities and vice versa. but it would be a choice. It's hard to imagine one set of social mores that would satisfy California, Florida, Texas, New York, as well as all of the flyover states. So maybe we shouldn't try? I like it.
Having said this; w/ all his faults; at least one thing is a positive in that he's not a career politician and calls out the political bullshit even in the Republican party - he's willing to do what most if not all politicians don't have the balls to do; whether that turns out to be a catastrophe or a good-thing history will say.
One thing I like about him is that he notoriously hates waste and inefficiency - supposedly his father Fred Trump was just like Donald or worse and supposedly Donald idolized his father and his father had a big influence on him. In watching a PBS documentary on Trump it was said his father was a notorious workaholic and worked 7 days a week (although he was rich) and would take his kids to his construction sites on the weekends and pick up all discarded nails so they would not go to waste.
I recall in an interview of Trump about 20 years ago where he said he loved getting things at a low-price - he described how he wanted to buy the West Palm Beach, FL mansion Mar-a-lago but for the right price - per Wikipedia he originally offered $15-million for the mansion and his offer was rejected (I think the asking price at the time was $20-million) - subsequently he got-it for $8-milliom - below is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
"... After unsuccessfully trying to purchase and combine two apartments in Palm Beach for his family, Donald Trump learned about the estate and offered $15 million. After the Post family rejected the offer, Trump threatened to block Mar-a-Lago's beach view, forcing the Post family to accept his last offer of less than $8 million in December 1985 ..."
Interesting things about the estate:
"... Mar-a-Lago (English pronunciation: /mɑɹ.ə.lɑ.goʊ/) is an estate and National Historic Landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, built from 1924 to 1927 by heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. Post envisioned the house as a future winter retreat for American presidents and foreign dignitaries, and following her death in 1973 it was bequeathed to the nation. However, successive presidents declined to use the mansion, which was returned to Post's estate in 1980 and eventually purchased by Donald Trump in 1985.[4] With Trump's election to the Presidency in November 2016, Marjorie Post's vision for Mar-a-Lago has come full circle.
The 126-room, 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2)[5] house contains the Mar-a-Lago Club, a members-only club with guest rooms, a spa, and other hotel-style amenities. The Trump family maintains private quarters in a separate, closed-off area of the house and grounds ..."
"... Marjorie Merriweather Post built the house with her then-husband Edward F. Hutton ... Edward Francis Hutton (September 7, 1875 – July 11, 1962) was an American financier and co-founder of E. F. Hutton & Co., one of the most respected financial firms in the United States ..."
"... In the early 1990s Trump faced financial difficulties. While negotiating with his bankers, he promised to divide Mar-a-Lago into smaller properties, alarming Palm Beach residents; the city council rejected his plan to do so. Trump instead turned the estate into a private club that—unlike other Palm Beach old money resorts like the Bath and Tennis Club and Everglades Club—accepted Jews, blacks, and (as one Everglades member said) "people who try to call attention to themselves" like Trump himself—as members. The new club hosted concerts by Céline Dion and Billy Joel, had beauty-pageant contestants as guests, and violated local noise ordinances. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley spent their honeymoon at Mar-a-Lago, and Sean Combs and Jennifer Lopez reportedly had public sex in front of the windows at the Bath and Tennis Club ..."
"... Membership at the Mar-a-lago Club required a $100,000 initiation fee up to January 2017, when it was raised to $200,000;[20] plus $14,000 annual dues.[21] Overnight guests pay up to $2,000 a night.[12] According to financial disclosure forms filed by Donald Trump, the Mar-a-Lago Club realized $29.7 million in gross revenues in the period June 2015 to May 2016 ..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar-a-Lago
I think you are onto something here Che
Letitia James
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/26/t…
If only everyone thought like her. We all have so much to learn.
SJG
My organization will be loaded with Bad Girls, and all the men get drained dry by them each day.
https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Babalon-B…
^^^ Thanks, That was what I was trying to articulate but failed. You put it so much better. I am only beginning to understand all of these regulations. Ideological overreach is the way to put it.