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.
On May 11, 2011, I emailed to this above address and I got this email back from Senator Pryor’s office:
Please note, this is not a monitored email account. Due to the sheer volume of correspondence I receive, I ask that constituents please contact me via my website with any responses or additional concerns. If you would like a specific reply to your message, please visit http://pryor.senate.gov/contact. This system ensures that I will continue to keep Arkansas First by allowing me to better organize the thousands of emails I get from Arkansans each week and ensuring that I have all the information I need to respond to your particular communication in timely manner. I appreciate you writing. I always welcome your input and suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you in the future.
Here are a few more I just emailed to him myself:
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Streamline the federal government by:
- Cutting the non-security workforce by 10 percent;
- Reducing the number of consultants employed by the federal government by 150,000;
- Suspending acquisition of new federal office space;
- Trimming the federal vehicle budget by 5 percent; and
- Freezing the federal travel budget at $8 billion15 (Total annual savings: $11 billion).
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Implement some additional housekeeping items, including:
- Taking back grants to state and local governments that have not been spent within the past three years;
- Rescinding any remaining appropriated funds to promote the new $20 bill (2004 spending: up to $53 million, discretionary); and
- Consolidating the dozens of small, irrelevant education programs that divert money from more effective education programs ($200 million, discretionary).
This is how bad it is getting:
- Entitlement spending is on autopilot, with annual spending determined by benefit formulas and caseloads.
- Entitlements (excluding net interest) account for 56 percent of all federal spending and 14 percent of GDP—up from 10 percent of GDP three years ago.
- The three largest entitlements are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Their total cost is projected to leap from 8.4 percent of GDP in 2007 to 18.4 percent by 2050.
- Unless those three programs are reformed, policymakers will eventually have to choose from among:
- $12,636 per household by 2050, and further thereafter;
- Eliminating every federal program except Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; or
- Increasing the national debt to unprecedented levels that could cause an economic collapse.