Republican Plan: Cut The Same Spending Twice

by Stuart Shapiro

There has been much hand wringing on the left about how Republicans have pledged to cut the budget but have failed to identify programs they would actually cut.  Well, Tom Price (R-GA) has taken the bold move of identifying a program he’d like to cut.  However, Think Progress points out one problem with his idea:

…the crux of the issue is that eliminating the TANF emergency fund will not save any money because the program has already expired. It was funded at $5 billion for two years, and ended on September 30, 2010. There is no money left for Price to save.

I think, why stop here?  Why don’t we cut some New Deal programs like the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration.  That should save billions!  And surely there’s some money to be found in the pensions paid to Civil War veterans!  At this rate, we’ll have the deficit under control in no time.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.