Gary, Lyn and Dee start discussing the Appropriations Bills put out by Congress so far this year. Total savings for the eight bills equals $19.7 Billion. This sounds like a lot of money, but we haven’t gotten any figures on final bills for Defense or Entitlements. The Agricultural Appropriations bill would cut $876 Million dollars from its budget. Most of this savings would come from cutting WIC and SNAP programs. The Commerce, Justice and Science Funding bill cuts funding by $2.6 Billion. It is hard to see where the savings will come from other than this little footnote, “Terminates 39 programs and freezes or reduces more than 40 other appropriation accounts.” Financial Services Appropriations bill cuts $1.28 Billion. One of the stupidest parts of this bill is the cutting of funding for the IRS. For every $1 invested in the IRS, you get a $6 return. So, by cutting $149M from the IRS budget, they are decreasing income to the federal government of nearly $900 Million. The Homeland Security Funding bill is the first one that has an increase, $1.9 Billion. Most of this money goes to ‘physical barrier construction,’ at $1.6 Billion. There will be more border control agents, more immigration and customs enforcement agents, and more detention beds.
#AppropriationsBills #AgricultureAppropriations #CommerceJusticeScienceFunding #FinancialServicesAppropriations #HomelandSecurityFunding
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: RSS