The study committee proposed eliminating several programs outright, including the Legal Services Corporation, which provides legal help to people who can't afford a lawyer; Amtrak subsidies; community development grants popular with local officials, and economic aid to Egypt. It advocated a five-year pay freeze for federal workers, and cutting the federal work force by 15 percent through attrition.
"The pledge, the $100 billion, is simply a start," freshman Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., said. "We want more. We will be looking for ways to cut the deficit and the debt more than is in the pledge."
That first thing is a pretty easy one because you can back-load it by requiring state bar associations to come up with some pro-bono hours to cover the slack. I think Amtrak needs to be outsourced to someone that can modernize it and run it profitably if it is possible. If not then shut it down and let capitalists have a hand at nationwide train services.
From what I know about community development grants they are rife with corruption. Maybe they can get more churches and non-profits to pick up the slack. I'm sure they can paint schools or build community centers without federal matching funds.
Also economic aid needs to cut across the board not just to Egypt. Maybe they could change it to some sort of trade concession instead. Like reduce tariffs on Egyptian goods or something. Instead of writing them blank checks make the goods and services they produce worth more to us.
And finally, the pay freeze sounds about right and cutting the federal workforce should have been done years ago. I'm sure there are 15% attrition out there somewhere. Even making federal workers take furlough days should be in order to get our spending under control. In any case, Bravo GOP, for stepping in and making sure my tax money isn't being squandered on some crap going forward.
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