On February 9th, President Obama sent off the last budget proposal of his presidency to be approved by congress. The White House said the 2017 budget is primarily focused on future savings; however, the president also listed some projects that he wants to fund next year.
In his budget, the president proposed 10-year savings via 117 spending cuts. The figures include several discretionary cuts and consolidations which would save around $14 billion next year. Mandatory cuts expect to incur $8.2 billion savings in 2017 and a further $670 billion over the next decade.
These cuts aim to help the deficit, which will increase this year from $438 billion up to $616 billion. Check out some of the biggest cuts in this chart:
The top 10 cuts the president is proposing include:
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Low Priority Studies and Construction - $808 million
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FEMA Preparedness Grants - $460 million
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Grants-in-Aid for Airports - $450 million
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Operation and Maintenance Work - $432 million
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LIHEAP -$390 million
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ICE Immigration Detention Beds - $319 million
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Foreign Military Financing - $312 million
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Clean Water and Drinking Water - $257 million
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State Criminal Alien Assistance - $210 million
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Littoral Combat Ships - $206 million
The president also focused on the small government programs that are costly to run. The budget offers a suggestion to trim $10 million here and $100 million there to try to make ends meet.
Here are some of the program Obama proposed to eliminate, listed by department:
- Health and Human Services
- Area Health Education Centers
- Education Research Centers and Agricultural Research
- Grants for Abstinence-Only Education
- Preventative Health and Health Services Block Grant
- Rural Community Facilities
- EPA
- Beaches Grants Program
- National Priorities Research
- State Indoor Radon Grant Program
- Targeted Air Shed Grants
- Water Quality Research and Support Grants
- Agriculture
- Broadband Loans
- Delta Regional Authority Grants
- Economic Impact Grants
- Health Care Services Grant Program
- High Energy Cost Grants
- Rural Energy Savings Program
- Rural Multifamily Housing Preservation Grants
- Water and Wastewater and Community Facilities Loan Guarantees
- State Criminal Alien Assistance Program
- Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations
The White House also listed number of Department of Agriculture grants to be cut. These grants include funding for supplemental and alternative crops, potato breeding research and aquaculture research.
Obama’s elimination of federal funding for abstinence-only education programs is not expected to play well in a Republican controlled congress.The proposed cuts to water quality programs might also sting in light of the situation in Flint, Michigan.
The president is also proposing a $460 million cut in FEMA preparedness grants. It sounds controversial, but the program has been cut previously. It received a boost in 2010 but was cut by $74.5 million only two years later. Regardless of funding history, the American Association of Port Authorities called the new budget cuts “grossly imbalanced.”
The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program is another hot button issue. This is the program that reimburses states for the law enforcement costs associated with detaining immigrants. Cutting this program saves the federal government $210 million. It is also aligned with the president’s ongoing battle with the states to stop deportations of illegal immigrants.
Alongside these cuts, the budget also includes a $319 million cut in ICE immigration detention beds. Basically, the president is proposing to make it more expensive for states to detain and deport illegal immigrants.
A full list of savings, cuts and consolidations is available from the White House website.
What do you think about President Obama’s proposed cuts? Do they seem well-thought out or ill-advised? How likely do you think these are cuts to make it to the budget deadline on October 1st?
Visualising Obama's Budget Cuts pic.twitter.com/Nl1thJouxy https://t.co/GNCajiu7zi via @howmuch_net #dataviz #USA #Obama
— How Much (@howmuch_net) March 8, 2016
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Source: Government Spending Cuts