The Daily Hatch

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 7:43am CST on May 4, 2011.

Senator Rand Paul on Feb 7, 2011 wrote the article “A Modest $500 Billion Proposal: My spending cuts would keep 85% of government funding and not touch Social Security,” Wall Street Journal and he observed:

A real discussion about the budget must begin now—our economy cannot wait any longer. For 19 months, unemployment has hovered over 9%. After a nearly $1 trillion government stimulus and $2 trillion in Federal Reserve stimulus, the Washington establishment still believes that we can solve this problem with more federal spending and the printing of more money.

That’s ridiculous, and the American people have had enough.

Here are some of his specific suggestions:

Agency/Program Funding Level Savings % Decrease

Military $673.500 B $47.581 B 6.5%

National defense is the primary constitutional function of the federal government. However, that does not mean that the Department of Defense should receive a blank check without serious oversight. In order to supply our troops with the tools they need, it makes sense to prioritize spending where it is needed most—rather than to keep borrowing from other countries, many of which we pay to defend. (The United States’ Top 10 creditors: China, Japan, Caribbean Banking Centers, Oil Exporters, Russia, United Kingdom, Brazil, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Taiwan)

Since 2001, military expenditure has increased by nearly 120 percent; when you subtract the cost of the two conflicts we are currently fighting that still puts military spending at a 67 percent increase. National defense remains the nation’s No. 1 priority. However, the levels of defense spending are no longer justifiable to securing our country, especially given that our defense spending has surpassed the defense budgets of all other countries combined. 

Proposing cuts to the Defense budget is no longer an eccentric idea; recently Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, typically the guardian of Defense budgets and often arguing the need for more money, has recently proposed spending cuts totaling $100 billion. That said, even though Secretary Gates’ proposals are genuine, they still allow the DoD to grow into a $1 trillion military by 2030 – nearly the amount we spent on all discretionary spending in 2008.

Many of Secretary Gates’ proposals will be included in the $48 billion in Defense spending cuts proposed, but the proposal will also include reduction in spending from programs like realigning the 750 overseas bases in 63 different countries (including the sale of buildings and assets at unused/vacant overseas bases), turning over responsibility for security in Iraq and Afghanistan to local forces, reducing the size of military personnel through natural attrition, reducing the size of the civilian employment, and focusing on waste, fraud, and abuse.

– The savings proposed are reductions based on FY2011 estimates (Defense is not further reduced to FY2008 levels)

– Relative to FY2010 levels, this proposal reflects a 2.7 percent decrease of all military spending. 

Additional:  

War funding from 2001 to 2010 has cost the taxpayer $1.109 trillion. That amount doesn’t include the $159  billion that will likely be spent funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for FY2011. The proposal seeks to reduce war funding for FY2011 by $16 billion, in other words to provide $144 billion (President Obama has requested $117 billion for FY2012, $27 billion dollars below our proposed level). 

The proposal includes transferring the primary functions of the Department of Energy to DoD, including  nuclear weapon procurement and disposal of nuclear waste. 

The proposal includes shifting the United States Coast Guard to the DoD, a transfer that will promote  uniformity, administrative savings, and reduce duplicative functions. 

The United States Coast Guard has long been considered an essential part of our military reediness throughout its long history. Title 14 of the United States Code states “The Coast Guard was established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times.” Upon the declaration of war or when the President directs, the Coast Guard operates under the authority of the Department of the Navy. 

In 2003, the Coast Guard was transferred from the Department of Transportation to the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. Currently, the Coast Guard has been working with the Navy in Operation Iraqi Freedom, anti-piracy operations, and anti-terrorist smuggling organizations.

With all this work for the DoD, common sense would suggest a move from the Department of Homeland Security to the DoD.