Dec 11, 2007

More budget info

From today's Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/10/AR2007121001615.html

[...]
Obey would not specify where the remaining billions would come from to reach Bush's bottom line, beyond saying the money would be shaved from the president's priorities. One possibility would be funding for abstinence education. Other targets could be nuclear weapons research and development in the Energy Department, NASA programs and high-technology border security efforts that have come under criticism for being wasteful and ineffective, said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
[...]

14 comments:

Frank Young said...

I guess you should not dis Obey.

Gussie Fink-Nottle said...

That was terrible, Pinky!

I'm proud of you.

-Gus

Frank Young said...

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Anonymous said...

Vote Democratic and help complete the shutdown of the nuclear weapons labs. That's the message I'm hearing in all this.

Anonymous said...

..."There are a lot of people who were very disappointed last year when nobody got any earmarks. If they do it again for the second year in a row, it will be a very bitter pill to swallow," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), an appropriator who complained that he could lose $400,000 he needs for the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial celebration, slated to begin Feb. 12."

Hell, that's about one LANS direct TSM FTE.

Anonymous said...

Check out what is on your 'earmark' plate!!

House http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/PressReleases/2007/approps/heandw.xls

Senate
http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/PressReleases/2007/approps/seandw.xls

Eric said...

At the moment, see the New York Times, the Republican Senate, in support of President Bush, seem intent on vetoing all spending bills and shutting down the government.

Merry Christmas.

Anonymous said...

"Other targets could be nuclear weapons research and development in the Energy Department, NASA programs and high-technology border security efforts that have come under criticism"


Let's see where these needed cuts might come...

Not NASA, because they've already been taking cuts for years and the Dems have a soft spot in their hearts for non-defense spending. Besides, the Orion spacecraft project would have to be delayed past 2015 if there are more NASA cuts and the last Space shuttle flight comes in 2010. Five years without US manned spaceflights is bad enough. Congress won't let this window grow larger. NASA has a pressing need for more funding to complete the Orion project and NASA has contractors (and voters) in lots of states that will benefit.

Not high-tech border security. The Dems don't want to take a political hit on the illegal immigration issue and the GOP seems dead set on using it against them in the coming elections. Both parties must look tough on immigration, so no cuts in high tech border security.

That leaves us with only nuclear weapons. Yep, that's the one. The budget here has been growing over the last 10 years and the US has been busy lecturing other countries not to built nukes. NNSA hasn't given Congress any compelling reason to keep their budget fully loaded. In fact, they have recently been telling Congress they plan to downsize by 30%. Congress will suggest they start right away. Political support for weapons research has also been destroyed over this last year with the demise of St. Pete. The cuts will come here and they will be deep.

Anonymous said...

Eric, 7:51 pm: "Republican Senate, in support of President Bush, seem intent on vetoing all spending bills and shutting down the government."

"That government is best that governs least" - Thomas Paine (also arguably attributed to Thomas Jefferson)

Anonymous said...

> Not NASA, because they've already
> been taking cuts for years and the
> Dems have a soft spot in their
> hearts for non-defense spending.

Wrong-o. Dem's have a penchant for throwing money at social programs, which NASA ain't. They'll gladly take the funding from that, as well as from weapons and border security in order to have more funding for social engineering experiments.

Anonymous said...

"Hell, that's about one LANS direct TSM FTE." 12:13 PM

Kind of sad when you think about it, huh? A single FTE at LANL would buy-off Rep. LaHood's earmark request of $400K.

OK, who wants to be a patriotic volunteer and leave LANL so that Rep. LaHood can get his Lincoln bicentennial celebration? It could allow us to get that one extra vote that helps pass a successful LANL's FY08 budget.

Do it for the Gipper! Do it for the Fuzzy Ewok! Do it for your buddies working hard back at the lab!

Anonymous said...

12/12/07 12:28 AM, didn't we already sacrifice one LANS FTE for those hot dogs at Sullivan Field?

Anonymous said...

Well, 7:03 AM, we probably sacrificed 1 FTE for the hotdogs, 1 FTE for the sodas and chips, 1 FTE for the kid's trampoline playground, and 1 FTE for the cleanup.

Remember, KSL was probably catering this affair, so it wasn't cheap!

Anonymous said...

12/12/07 1:56 PM

In addition we should make a new managment posistion of "Hot Dog Czar" with a couple of new support people to go with it so to insure that we do not pay to much for the hot dogs and that they are safe.