WHAT A TEA PARTY BUDGET LOOKS LIKEThe numbers in their proposals are staggering. Paul wants to slash $500 billion in fiscal year 2011, which only has eight remaining months. Bachmann lists more than $400 billion in cuts.
The proposals are not likely to go very far as legislation. But at a time when lawmakers on both sides of the aisle acknowledge the need for fiscal restraint, the Paul and Bachman proposals clearly stake out one extreme.
Among Paul's proposals: gut the Department of Energy and the Department of Education and sharply curtail discretionary spending.
The cuts:
legislative branch -- 23%
federal courts -- 32%
Agriculture Department -- 30%
Commerce Department -- 54%
Health and Human Services -- 26%
Homeland Security -- 43%
Interior Department -- 78%
The legislation also lists programs for elimination. How about ... the Affordable Housing Program, the Commission on Fine Arts, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State Justice Institute.
Meanwhile, Bachmann's budget proposal, released on Tuesday, lists more than $400 billion in potential cuts.
Bachmann would replace farm subsidies with farmer savings accounts, eliminate or dramatically scale back the Department of Education (save $29 billion or $31 billion) and slash programs at the Department of Justice ($7.8 billion).
She would also cap Veterans Affairs health care spending, privatize the Transportation Safety Administration, Federal Aviation Administration and Amtrak, repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to leasing.
