Prime Cuts
Total Savings for Each Department/Agency
2011 Introduction
A comprehensive list of spending cuts is useful at any time; it is of particular importance when the federal government is increasing its debt at the rate of $40,000 per second, and the budget deficit is more than $1.4 trillion for the third year in a row. After the House of Representatives voted 318-97 on May 31, 2011 against a clean debt ceiling increase, there will undoubtedly be budget reforms and spending cuts tied to that legislation.
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has been publishing Prime Cuts since 1993. To date, the implementation of CAGW’s recommendations has helped save taxpayers $1.2 trillion. CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2011 provides an antidote to the spending addiction that continues to plague the federal government. The report has 691 recommendations that would save taxpayers $391.9 billion in the first year and $1.8 trillion over five years.
On February 23, 2009, President Barack Obama pledged to cut the deficit in half over four years. The President continued his tough rhetoric on November 3, 2009 when he stated that “…government is going to have to get serious about reducing our debt levels.” On August 27, 2010, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen asserted that the national debt constitutes the biggest national security threat to the United States. On March 10, 2011, the world’s largest bond company, Pimco, said it would stop buying U.S. bonds; on April 18, Standard and Poors lowered its long-term rating of U.S. debt from “stable” to “negative”; and on April 26, the International Monetary Fund’s “World Economic Output” predicted that by 2016, China will overtake the United States’ economy.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has repeatedly stated that any increase in the debt ceiling should be accompanied by spending cuts that exceed the increase in the debt. While the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, signed into law on April 15, 2011 by President Obama, includes $42 billion in non-defense cuts and a $4 billion increase in defense spending, for a net decrease of $38 billion, that is far from sufficient to slow down the rapid growth in the debt.
Elimination of wasteful and duplicative programs is a good first step in putting the nation’s financial system back on track. Prime Cuts 2011 features many vital recommendations, including elimination of the Market Access Program (MAP). The program aims to help agricultural producers promote U.S. products overseas; however, MAP is just corporate welfare that funnels millions of dollars to large corporations. Eliminating MAP would save taxpayers $1 billion over five years. Also recommended for elimination is the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC). The NDIC is an ineffective program that the Department of Justice has asked Congress to shut down and that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) described in 1993 as redundant of existing efforts to combat drugs. Taxpayers would save $220 million over five years if the NDIC was eliminated.
In addition, Prime Cuts 2011 recommends the termination of the Department of Defense’s Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), a collaborative missile defense project intended to replace the Patriot Missile system that is $2 billion over budget and 10 years behind schedule. Dropping MEADS in favor of Patriot Missile upgrades will be both cheaper and more effective.
CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2011 can serve as a blueprint to cut government spending and put the nation on a path toward fiscal sanity. Prime Cuts 2011 is essential reading for taxpayers, the media, and legislators alike.
