Senator Pryor asks for Spending Cut Suggestions! Here are a few!(Part 9)(Randy Goodrum, Famous Arkansan Pt B)

Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:

Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Here are a few more I just emailed to him myself at 9:35 pm CST on April 11, 2011.

In my past posts I could have been accused of giving just general ideas of where to cut. Now I am starting in with specifics that are taken from the article “How to cut $343 Billion from the federal budget,” by Brian Riedl, Heritage Foundation, October 28, 2010(Spending cuts in millions of dollars:

Commerce

$500

Eliminate business subsidies from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Federal spending is on an unsustainable path that risks disaster for America. Runaway spending has increased annual federal budget deficits to unprecedented levels, adding $2.7 trillion to the national debt in the past two years alone. Each year’s huge federal deficit increases the mountain of national debt borrowed from future generations of Americans. Congress needs to cut federal spending sharply and quickly. This paper sets forth $343 billion in available spending cuts.
Over the past two years, Congress has added $2.7 trillion to the national debt, including a record $1.4 trillion deficit for fiscal year (FY) 2009 and a $1.3 trillion deficit for FY 2010.[1] If Congress does nothing and simply continues existing taxing and spending policies, federal deficits will grow, reaching a projected $2 trillion deficit in just 10 years—and even that assumes a return to peace and prosperity.[2]
America cannot live with such deficits interminably. Deficits mortgage the livelihoods of future generations of Americans and ultimately put U.S. economic growth, stability, and reliability at risk.
Soaring spending drives these dangerous deficits. By 2020, federal spending is set to soar to 26 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), after having averaged 20 percent after World War II. Revenues will likely return to their post–World War II average of 18 percent of GDP by 2020, even if the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are made permanent.[3] Thus, given current spending and taxing policies, spending is clearly the variable that drives up the deficits.[4] To reduce deficits, Congress must cut spending.
The costs of federal entitlement programs—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—and interest on the national debt will drive future deficits, and Congress must promptly and carefully decide how best to reduce those costs. However, entitlement reforms will take time, and spending cuts cannot wait. Congress needs to start cutting spending now.

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Randy Goodrum is another famous Arkansan. Wikipedia notes:

Randy Goodrum (born July 7, 1947 in Arkansas) is an American songwriter. Goodrum has written (or co-written) numerous popular songs, including Anne Murray‘s #1 hit “You Needed Me” (1978) and “Broken Hearted Me” (1979), Michael Johnson‘s “Bluer Than Blue” (1978), England Dan & John Ford Coley‘s “It’s Sad to Belong” (1977), Steve Perry‘s “Oh Sherrie” (1984), DeBarge‘s “Who’s Holding Donna Now“, cowritten with David Foster and Jay Graydon, Toto‘s “I’ll Be Over You” (1986) and Chicago‘s “If She Would Have Been Faithful…” (1987). He also co-wrote with Brent Maher a lot of Dottie West‘s hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including her No. 1 Country hit in 1980, “A Lesson in Leavin’“. He also has performed as a keyboardist on recordings by Amy Grant and other artists.

Randy Goodrum toured extensively with guitarist Chet Atkins and performed and produced cuts on many of Atkins’ albums. As a co-writer with Chet Atkins, Randy wrote “To B or not to B” and “Waltz for the Lonely” among others. Goodrum’s song “So Soft Your Goodbye” won a Grammy award for Chet Atkins, and Mark Knopfler, in 1991.

Goodrum has conducted numerous seminars for aspiring songwriters over the years and urges songwriters to be patient, noting that he had written songs for over 10 years before any were recorded by other artists. According to Goodrum, his biggest hit, “You Needed Me” was rejected at first because it did not have a chorus.

“When I took them “You Needed Me” they told me it wouldn’t work, that it needed a chorus. And I said “No, it doesn’t.” I had been writing a really long time at that point and I knew there were a lot of songs that were hits that did not have a chorus, like “When Sunny Gets Blue” for example. Now a less experienced writer might go back home and write a chorus and end up with a seven minute piece of garbage.” said Goodrum in a recent interview.

By Everette Hatcher III, on April 11, 2011 at 9:37 pm, under Cato Institute, Famous Arkansans. No Comments
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