The list also proposed eliminating the Moon-Mars initiative that NASA announced on Monday, for $44 billion in savings; ending support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $4 billion; cutting taxpayer payments for the national political conventions and the presidential election campaign fund, $600 million; and charging federal employees for parking, $1.54 billion.
"What House conservatives will demonstrate through Operation Offset is that there is more than enough room in the federal budget to provide for the needs of the families affected by Katrina without raising taxes," said a House Republican aide who is working with lawmakers on the proposals and who insisted on anonymity because the package would not be made public until Wednesday.
The suggestions are certain to draw serious opposition from other lawmakers who consider those programs essential, illustrating the difficulty faced by the majority Republicans in finding acceptable ways to offset the hurricane costs.
It makes good sense to eliminate the Mars project, unless it can be completed in time to send the Administration on the trip in the next two months. But what about the bridge to nowhere? Halliburton or Bechtel must have the latter but are not interested in the former. That is the only rationale that makes sense anymore.
While we are selling T-Bills to the rest of the world to spend like there is no tomorrow on anything and everything (is the Rapture coming?), have we put our entire economy at risk of having the loans called?
The U.S. Government, a wholly owned subsidiary of China.
And so it goes....