Inside The Budget Deal: Vulnerable Populations Targeted, But Family Planning Saved

WASHINGTON –- Congressional leaders unveiled their final budget deal early Tuesday, a $1.049 trillion spending plan that axes billions of dollars for some of the most vulnerable populations while preserving a handful of priorities for both parties.

The budget, which will keep the government funded through the end of September, includes an across-the-board cut of 0.25 percent to every domestic agency.

Key highlights include:

• $600 million in cuts to community health centers.
• $414 million in cuts to grants for state and local police departments.
• A whopping $1.6 billion cut in the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, of which nearly $1 billion comes from grants for clean water and other projects by local governments and Indian tribes.
• Cuts to homeland security programs for the first time ever, though much of the agency's two percent decrease stems from a $786 million cut in first responder grants to state and local governments.
• A $7 million cut to the Bureau of Public Debt, which accounts for and provides reports on the debt.
• A $1 billion cut to HIV and disease-prevention funds.
• A $3 billion cut to agriculture programs, the biggest portion of which comes from the Women Infants and Children fund, which loses $504 million.
• A $390 million cut to low-income heating assistance; Community Development Funds are cut by $942 million.
• Contributions to the United Nations and other international institutions are cut by $377 million.
• $45 million pulled from nuclear nonproliferation funds.
• A $650 million cut to federal highway investments.
• A rider tucked in by lawmakers from Western states that allows states to remove wolves from the endangered species list.

Democrats were able to preserve some of their education priorities, including keeping Pell Grant awards at $5,550 and giving a slight boost to funds for Head Start. They also prevented Republicans from slashing funds for the National Institutes of Health: The agency will absorb a $260 million cut, rather than the $1.6 billion cut sought by House Republicans.

Democrats also rescued family planning programs from elimination; instead, they will face a five percent cut. But the budget does restore the D.C. abortion ban, which prohibits the city from using federal or local funds for abortions, for five months.

Republicans can claim victory in defunding two programs under health care reform: the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan and Free Choice Voucher programs. They also succeeded in eliminating several of the Obama administration’s “czars” for healthcare, climate change, autos and urban affairs.

Read the details here.

Quick Poll

What do you think about the final spending plan?

The cuts were made fairly; lawmakers did what they had to do.

Some programs should have been spared, others were targeted appropriately.

I disagree with most, or all, of the decisions made.

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[xiaohuang]

02:24 AM on 05/27/2011

Daytona watches Bvlgari watches http://www.watches2outlet.com

[xiaohuang]

02:23 AM on 05/27/2011

[url=http://www.watches2outlet.com/Jubilee-DateJust-Gents-list-21-1]Jubilee DateJust Gents watches[/url] [url=http://www.watches2outlet.com/Panerai-list-72-1]Panerai watches[/url]

[xiaohuang]

02:22 AM on 05/27/2011

Navitimer watches The third category is the use of a variety of handicrafts, such as enamel (cloisonne enamel, Cloisonne enamel, etc.), sculptures and other crafts watch, the more difficult craft of technology, watch the hedge, the greater the value of space, because the watch has been more more condensed masterpiece of art masters, high enamel technology to watch have turned into works of art, and so it is worth collecting. Others watches Explorer watches

[beGrown beSexy]

08:14 PM on 05/26/2011

I just LOVE this headline... we have a serious spending and debt problem. You can "save" all the programs you want to save, you are still putting people in trouble. The government is making every dollar the poor and the middle class earns worth LESS every single day they keep spending money they don't have.

And I'm very tired of the people who say we do have the money... NO WE DON'T. Take 100% of the earners 200K and over and it only pays for 9 months of the budget for the year. 9 freakin months.

Even if it could pay for the entire year, you just ate up a one time pool of money because the rich aren't rich because of what they earn but what they have in the stash. So whatever they earn the next year will be LESS then what you got the first year.

Not to mention the FACT that most people will not work if you take 100% of their wealth.

So now what? What do you do now?

You are NOT HELPING anymore. Target the poor my a$$. Destroying the economy so that the poor can't get work, destroying the dollar so that even if they are, it buys LESS. Middle class shrinking because of the same reasons.

[Drmhp]

11:59 PM on 04/17/2011

.25% are you kidding me? Wait till the real cuts happen. We are broke and borrow 41% of our budget from the Federal Reserve. They are getting richer off of our unfunded programs. People you just don't get it. Real pain is coming.

[Puzzlr]

07:36 AM on 04/15/2011

Whew! Thank goodness the rich don't have to breathe the same air as the poor. Otherwise, they'd be just as screwed as everyone else.

[Damian Yates]

07:19 AM on 04/15/2011

Most people state that these cuts affect minorities, I propose the following statement: This is and has always been about class. Not color, ethnicity, or immigration status but who you are, who you know and what circles you travel in. This nation has always, since the founders landed and ripped the land from the hands of the hard working American Indians that toiled and tended this great land, about benefiting the elite while oppressing the common folk, those of us that make their wealth and comfort possible. The middle and lower class today are still the middle and lower class of 200 years ago. Until the stingy, that be those that hoard the reaping of those that work for them, begin compensate those individuals that make their life styles possible, the United States will always be a slave nation. The Biggest lie out there has been with us for many generations, "Its a race thing...." I say to that BS. "Its a matter of class!!"

[Chrystal Ji Davey]

11:54 PM on 04/14/2011

- No health treatment for the poor
- Less police (more military?)
- No clean water
- No helping struggling minorities
- No helping the poor with debt
- No stopping HIV
- Less agriculture
- Less promoting the role of women
- Letting the poor freeze to death
- Slowly becoming a less influential country in positive international interventions
- Faith in the power of nuclears (coughcough-warfare-cough-Japan-cough-Chernobyl)
- Crappy roads
- Not giving a hoot about a beautiful endangered species
.
Nice.
Not really.

I'm moving.

[Marcospinelli]

06:55 PM on 04/14/2011

Included in this legislation:

$600 million in cuts to community health centers.
 
$414 million in cuts to grants for state and local police departments.
 
 
A whopping $1.6 billion cut in the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, of which nearly $1 billion comes from grants for clean water and other projects by local governments and Indian tribes.
 
 
Cuts to homeland security programs for the first time ever, though much of the agency's two percent decrease stems from a $786 million cut in first responder grants to state and local governments.
 
 
A $7 million cut to the Bureau of Public Debt, which accounts for and provides reports on the debt.
 
A $1 billion cut to HIV and disease-prevention funds.
 
 
A $3 billion cut to agriculture programs, the biggest portion of which comes from the Women Infants and Children fund, which loses $504 million.
 
 
A $390 million cut to low-income heating assistance; Community Development Funds are cut by $942 million.
 
 
Contributions to the United Nations and other international institutions are cut by $377 million.
 
 
$45 million pulled from nuclear nonproliferation funds.
 
 
A $650 million cut to federal highway investments.
 
 
A rider tucked in by lawmakers from Western states that allows states to remove wolves from the endangered species list.

 
Why would Democratic voters support any of this?

[Chrystal Ji Davey]

11:57 PM on 04/14/2011

Because our President, as well as many of his "pals", is no longer a left-wing president.
There are virtually no true left-wing individuals left in the highest positions of the government.
Everything they're doing is strictly centre-right! What are we afraid of? Democrats need more b@ll$

[Damian Yates]

07:21 AM on 04/15/2011

Democrats dont need the balls, the middle and lower class of this nation need the balls. We need leaders not from the left or right, but from the middle and bottom to step up and stand up for the rights of those who are not represented in this broken government.

[Puzzlr]

07:37 AM on 04/15/2011

Did you get a look at the alternative? Seems we had 8 years of the alternative and it didn't work out so well.

[Liberty or Death]

12:27 PM on 04/14/2011

The Wiket Witch Ain't Dead

[jasongrundy]

08:14 PM on 04/13/2011

Difference between repub and dems

Dems have no spine, but tries to protect the majority. Repub don't care about the majority and will admit it.

[Damian Yates]

07:33 AM on 04/15/2011

I challenge that statement with this, There is no difference between dems and repub. They are both elitist casts of the upper class in this nation. They are both out of touch with middle and lower class. (Just because the pay a visit under armed guard to a community center here and there dont mean squat). Think about this. If our govt deficit is so great, why did they waste all that time debating on what middle and lower class programs to cut, when they could have just suspended the salaries of every congressman/woman and senator as well as allocate all of the under the table monies handed down by companies to the deficit. Make the positions of senate and congress truly a public service. Currently, if these public officials were paid based on their performance, like us lower and middle class, they would not receive a cent. I say do away with elections, put a system in place that puts the power into the hands of the people of each state and every district that is represented. Give us the power to fire and hire as needed. Instead of voting, we provide performance reviews and in those reviews we determine if raises or disciplinary actions are needed. I guarantee 75% of the BS would stop on the hill and true transparency into the goings on in the government would be available to the people.

[Catherine Lynch Monks]

05:53 PM on 04/13/2011

The sad thing is that many of the newly poor wouldn't be in the positions they're in if their jobs hadn't been moved overseas, their pensions been r@p ed, and their investments Hoovered dry.
Why do I think the wealthy should contribute to their care?
Because they put them in that position in the first place.

[MaryfromIL]

11:10 AM on 04/14/2011

f & f!

[allengoldchain]

05:23 PM on 04/13/2011

why does anybody believe that any of Harry Reid's grandchildren would be impacted by any government shutdown? This guy is a millionaire! Serious why wouldn't he use his OWN money to help his own grandchildren? So selfish but he expects other people to take care of them.. Liberal mentality of entitlements.

[MaryfromIL]

11:12 AM on 04/14/2011

no idea what you are talking about, nothing in the article about reids grandkids.

It's the liberal mentality of cooperation and taking care of each other. As opposed to republican mentality of I've got mine, screw you.

[Aesthete]

05:12 PM on 04/13/2011

I've got nothing in particular against the rich---I just don't understand why they are so unwilling to shoulder more of the burden of reducing the deficit. Why is a greater sacrifice asked of society's most vulnerable and the middle class (assuming there's one left). How about a salary cut for members of Congress if they want to show some real solidarity with the American people..