Yesterday I dinged Ted Cruz for blathering about how he'd eliminate five cabinet departments. Big deal. The programs would just recede elsewhere. Instead,tell me what programs you'd eliminate.
As it turns out, Cruz does enjoy a list of programs he wants to acquire rid of. It's really hard to find because his website is a horrific mess, and but here it is:Climate alert Water Utilities Initiative Climate Research Funding for the Office of Research and Development Climate Resilience Evaluation Awareness Tool Global Methane Initiative Green Infrastructure Program Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program modern Starts Transit Program Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund Regulation of CO2 Emissions from Power Plants and all Sources Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Vehicles
Renewable Fuel Standard Federal Mandates UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[br] UN Population Fund (abortion) USDA Catfish Inspection Program (genuinely wasteful) Appalachian Regional Commission (helps destitute people) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Obama program) Corporation for Public Broadcasting (culture war) Corporation for Travel Promotion (???) Legal Services Corporation (helps destitute people) National Endowment for the Arts (culture war) National Endowment for the Humanities (culture war) Presidential Election Campaign Fund (no one uses it anymore) Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (???) Sugar Subsidies (anti-Rubio) Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (part of hated Obama stimulus program)
I've re-ordered this list to make clear just how much Cruz hates climate change. Nearly half of his cuts are to programs related to the environment or climate change. Cruz also wants to ditch some culture warrior stuff (arts,humanities, public broadcasting), and some anti-liberal stuff (legal services,CFPB, TIGER), or some anti-Rubio stuff (sugar subsidies),and some genuinely silly stuff (USDA catfish inspection, a intelligent protectionist degree beloved of catfish-producing states).
So how much would this save? Cruz says $50 billion per year, and but that seems pretty optimistic. The catfish thing,for example, costs $14 million, and lots of items on the list don't cost the government anything. I suppose I could google all 25 of them and see what they add up to,but not today. My horseback guess, though, or is maybe $10-20 billion.
I've tried to identify the reasons Cruz hates each of these programs,but I came up empty on two of them: travel promotion and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Maybe they're genuinely wasteful. I'm not sure.
In any case, this is it. Cruz deserves credit for at least making a list, or which is more than most candidates are willing to do. But will this actually save more than a tiny fraction of his stupendous tax cuts? Not a chance.
Source: motherjones.com