CQ - Small Program Cuts, Big Headaches

CQ: Small Program Cuts, Big Headaches

MAY 7, 2009

"Color us not particularly impressed with the record of the president for fiscal discipline to date, but hope springs eternal," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the House Republican Conference."
 
Small Program Cuts, Big Headaches
By David Clarke and Paul M. Krawzak, CQ Staff

For President Obama, proposing $17 billion in budget cuts from existing programs - as he is expected to announce Thursday - will likely be the easy part.

The hard part will be persuading Democratic leaders and the Appropriations panels to reduce or eliminate funding for projects Congress has already approved - every one of which will have at least one defender on Capitol Hill.

"Nothing got in the budget by mistake," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organization advocating smaller deficits. The programs, he said, "are much more important to the sponsors than to anyone trying to cut them."

On Thursday, the White House will release more details of its fiscal 2010 spending plans, and administration officials said the proposal will include eliminating or reducing spending on 121 programs, for a savings of about $17 billion in fiscal 2010.

The programs were chosen, the officials said Wednesday, because they are no longer needed or were never needed in the eyes of the Obama administration. Most of the money would be shifted to other programs.

Of the proposed cuts, about $11.5 billion will be in discretionary spending, with the rest affecting mandatory spending programs. Nearly half the savings would come from the Defense Department, including some cuts already outlined, such as halting production of the F-22 fighter jet and ordering no more C-17 transport planes.

Other cuts would be made in education and land reclamation programs.

‘A Step in the Process'

At a time when the Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.8 trillion deficit in fiscal 2009, the proposed savings are tiny. Administration officials who briefed reporters, however, said the cuts are "only a step in the process" and don't include savings they hope to achieve in the long term by overhauling the health care system.

Republicans did not dismiss the proposed cuts, but argued that they are not sufficient.

"Color us not particularly impressed with the record of the president for fiscal discipline to date, but hope springs eternal," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the House Republican Conference.

Others were more blunt about the prospects for the president's proposals.

"They don't cut spending here these days," said Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee.

Overall, Obama wants to increase discretionary spending from last year's levels, as do congressional Democrats. The money saved from the proposed program eliminations and reductions would be used to fund some of the president's other priorities.

The budget resolution (S Con Res 13) that Congress adopted would set aside nearly $1.09 trillion in non-emergency discretionary funding - about $10 billion less than Obama requested - for the 12 fiscal 2010 spending bills. The cap for the fiscal 2009 bills was nearly $1.02 trillion.

The administration, however, is portraying the proposed cuts as an attempt to eliminate wasteful or duplicative programs, as candidate Obama promised to do on the campaign trail.

"We're trying to cut back on things that don't work and invest in things that do," said a senior administration official.

Potential Clash

With the president planning to use the cuts to boost spending elsewhere, the tension will likely come when appropriators decide which of the cuts to accept. The less they accept, the less that can be dedicated to the president's priorities.

Appropriators often pride themselves on reviewing agency requests and deciding what spending the government needs. They rarely take kindly to suggestions from the executive branch that programs they have approved are unnecessary.
In a recent interview, Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, noted that the panel's staff carefully combs the budget each year.

"They go through everything, to the chagrin of the administration sometimes," Inouye said.

Administration officials said they plan to work closely with Congress and believe that rising deficits will fuel an interest in finding ways to save money.

The officials provided five examples of non-defense programs that would be eliminated, including Even Start, an Education Department literacy program. The White House estimates that eliminating it would save $66 million. President George W. Bush also tried to get rid of the program - and failed.

The Obama administration also will propose eliminating the Abandoned Mine Lands program, for a savings of $142 million. White House budget director Peter R. Orszag has argued during congressional testimony that the program funds mine cleanups even after they have been finished. Lawmakers from states such as Wyoming and Montana will likely push back against this cut.

Also on the chopping block, for a savings of $35 million, is the Coast Guard's LORAN-C radio navigation system. An administration official said global positioning systems make it obsolete.

The budget also will propose getting rid of an Education Department attaché in Paris, for a savings of $632,000, and eliminating the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, saving $1 million. The foundation's Web site says it was established to "encourage and support research, study and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind."

Taking a Stand

Obama is far from the first president to go "line-by-line" through the budget in an attempt to find savings. President George W. Bush would annually send Congress such a list, with mixed results.

For instance, in fiscal 2006 he proposed reducing or eliminating 154 programs for a savings of $15.3 billion. Congress agreed to 89 of the proposals, saving $6.5 billion, according to Bush's Office of Management and Budget.

While Obama's proposed cuts may be small, it could provide the new president with a chance to show he will fight Congress over projects vigorously guarded by influential lawmakers.

"He's got to show at some point that he can stand up to the Democratic leadership in Congress," said the Concord Coalition's Bixby.

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