A department-by-department guide to cutting the government's budget.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development funds public housing, provides rental vouchers, and subsidizes homeownership.
The department will spend $61 billion in 2011, or about $520 for every U.S. household. It employs 9,700 workers and operates 118 subsidy programs.
The Department of Education provides loans and grants to college students and subsidizes elementary and secondary schools.
The department will spend $79 billion in 2011, or about $670 for every U.S. household. It employs 4,400 workers and operates 171 subsidy programs.
The Department of Labor oversees unemployment insurance, provides training programs, and imposes an array of union and workplace regulations.
The department will spend about $148 billion in fiscal 2011, or $1,250 for every U.S. household. It employs more than 17,000 workers.
Obama Is Avoiding the Tough College Course
College prices truly are ridiculous. But someone needs to tell President Obama that the root problem isn’t the colleges, which he is expected to announce today will be the targets of proposed sanctions should they raise prices too fast. No, the problem, Mr. President, is a federal government that wants to play Santa Claus by giving everybody, no matter how poorly qualified or unmotivated, money for college. Read more
Biennial Budgeting: Baloney Budget Reform
I don’t recall ever agreeing with the left-liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), but their new paper on the drawbacks of the federal government switching to biennial budgeting is a good read. Congressional Republicans, including House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL), are the chief proponents of switching to a biennial budget cycle. By providing (qualified) support to the CBPP paper, I’m hoping to demonstrate to would-be GOP naysayers that criticism of biennial budgeting isn’t confined to one area of the ideological spectrum. Read more
A Redistributive State of the Union
Shortly after President Obama was elected, NBC News interviewed a young woman from Detroit named Peggy Joseph. She explained that she was excited about Obama’s election because “I won’t have to worry about putting the gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage.” Read more
