Why It’s Tough To Cut the Budget By Killing Programs

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It’s not easy to cut the federal budget.

On Monday, the White House released its 2011 budget. The numbers are daunting—particularly the projected $1.6 trillion deficit. But the Obama administration is doing all it can to show it’s serious about restraining government spending. With this budget, it proposed $23 billion in savings that would come from terminating, reducing, or squeezing 126 government programs.

That’s not a big amount in budget terms, though it’s a symbolic start. Yet the breakdown of those numbers suggests that President Obama is not likely to achieve any truly significant savings by eliminating whole programs. 

The budget notes that of the $23 billion in proposed savings, only $8.36 billion would come from the discretionary termination of programs. And though 47 programs have been targeted by the White House for extermination, most of the savings would result from killing two programs: the military’s C-17 cargo plane ($2.5 billion) and NASA’s Constellation Systems program, which was initiated by President George W. Bush in 2005 to return astronauts to the moon and then send them to Mars ($3.5 billion). These two programs account for almost 75 percent of the discretionary termination cuts. There’s not much of a payoff for the administration if it does end—as it proposes to do—the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, which was established in 1992 to fund research designed “to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind.” Total savings here: $1 million.

It’s a Washington cliché: every program is somebody’s baby. But the C-17 program is especially so. Worse, it is a vampire. It cannot be killed. Last year, the administration tried to end production of the plane and save $2.5 billion. It says that with the existing fleet of C-17s (and those already ordered) and C-5 cargo aircraft, the Defense Department can meet its “mobility needs, even under the most stressing scenarios.” But the Senate in October voted 68-30 against grounding the program. (The move to cancel production of more C-17s was led on Capitol Hill by Senator John McCain). This Boeing program employs more than 30,000 workers in 43 states. So lots of politicians in both parties fought for it—and will continue doing so.

The Obama administration might have an easier time deep-sixing NASA’s moon program. It notes that the troubled program has been behind schedule and cannot achieve its goals without multi-billion-dollar budget increases. The program, the budget says, “was not clearly aimed at meeting today’s national priorities.” Still, the program has its political champions. “I, for one, intend to stand up and fight for NASA, and for the thousands of people who stand to lose their jobs,” said Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.

Nelson may have a tougher time than Capitol Hill fans of the C-17. But the hardest job by far is finding whole programs to wipe out. Banking on a C-17 termination to achieve budget savings is quite a risk.

You can follow David Corn’s postings and media appearances via Twitter.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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