TPM has a summary of the cuts, as provided by the House Republicans.
Here are the cuts greater than $0.5B from the original FY 2011 request or the 2010 appropriations level (or both). If the 2011 cut is greater than the 2010 cut it means Obama asked for an increase in funding, and vice-versa. This does not show proportion, so some cuts may represent 100% of total funding, while other cuts are 1% - I'd have to go do more research.
Budget item |
$M Cut from 2010 |
$M Cut from 2011 |
Department of Defense Military Construction |
6,237 |
1,298 |
Periodic Census |
6,200 |
93 |
High Speed Rail |
2,900 |
1,400 |
Highway Recission (Contract Authority) |
2,500 |
2,500 |
HIV AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention |
1,045 |
1,118 |
Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds |
997 |
797 |
Community Development Fund |
942 |
872 |
GSA Construction |
812 |
594 |
FEMA First Responders Grants |
786 |
816 |
Federal Highway Investment |
650 |
0 |
Defense Environmental Clean Up |
638 |
584 |
State Department Non-Emergency General Provisions / Recissions |
636 |
619 |
Highway Recission (Contract Authority - old earmarks) |
630 |
630 |
Community Health Care Centers |
600 |
890 |
Recissions of unobligated balances |
557 |
n/a |
Wildland Fire programs |
529 |
735 |
WIC |
504 |
855 |
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy |
438 |
550 |
LIHEAP Contingency Fund |
390 |
590 |
Economic Support Fund |
379 |
1854 |
Bureau of Health Professions |
164 |
547 |
Innovative Loan Guarantees |
0 |
860 |
Obviously, some of these are non-controversial. There isn't a census this year, so that's $6.2B that can be cut - I assume the POTUS request had some money for follow-up or data analysis which was cut. Further, all those "recissions" are, I believe, funny-money cuts: money that was appropriated last year but not actually spent.
The controversial ones are in bold. That's where the President asked for an increase over 2010, but instead there was a cut. Anyone see the pattern I see?
These controversial cuts are almost all in health care for poor people, feeding poor people, or helping poor people pay their energy bills. The exceptions are FEMA first responder grants (which presumably means the Republicans, just in the nick of time, prevented the FEMA re-education camps from being set up) and Wildland Fire program - which I am going to guess means the Republicans have decreed fewer wild fires this year.
And so many of these cuts are saving money this year that will just have to be spent in a later year. DoD and GSA construction? Uh, guys, if we need a building in 2011, we'll probably still need it in 2012.