Who is really serious about cutting spending?

[jgaffney]

Well, not Harry Reid. This is from the SFExaminer:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is so upset about Republican spending cuts that he's brought out the big guns: Accusing the GOP of being so heartless they would de-fund the National Endowment for the Humanities, which underwrites a cowboy poetry festival in his state:

“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1, eliminates National Public Broadcasting," said Reid in a floor speech. "It eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts. These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”

OH NO. Here's the video.

As the Daily Caller's Mary Katharine Ham puts it, "John Boehner's America is a land in which cowboys would be forced into back-alley poetry recitations."

With a $3.5 trillion budget, to propose $60 billion in cuts, as President Obama has, is a slap in the face to Americans. For those of you who are mathematically challenged, that's a 1.7% cut. Dastardly!!

Edited to add: The video link didn't work, but it's available on YouTube:

[danceswithdogs]

I spent my entire life around cowboys and sheep men, but never met one that called himself a poet. Most were pretty quiet. One thing for sure, not one expected the taxpayers (which included themselves) to foot the bill for anything they might have aspired to, whether poetry or other frilly "talents". If the "tens of thousands" of people that attend these events pay for their tickets, then what's left to fund? Interesting how all those "tens of thousands of people would disappear if this funding is cut off"....that's downright scary.

[Joe Cocker]

Cut the funds on several programs, on how to shut down the government the Republicans will have to shut down or shut up. Take three or four really bad programs and un- fund them. Start with seven month moratorium of no funding of highway construction but keep maintenance going this would be 30 billion, TSA 11 billion, 11 billion on subsidized bonds interest rates on bond construction. 5 billion in-structure inter cities and PBS, arts and humanities. Do way with the FCC, no money to try to shut down talk radio, no money on secrete ballot for labor relation board. Defund rider IRS for Obama Care can't use this on Cap and Trade. Until you remove the money to the IRS shut it's door and turn off the lights.

This until everyone comes on board

[jgaffney]

Mar 13, 2011 1:36:24 GMT -5 Joe Cocker said:

Cut the funds on several programs, on how to shut down the government the Republicans will have to shut down or shut up. Take three or four really bad programs and un- fund them. Start with seven month moratorium of no funding of highway construction but keep maintenance going this would be 30 billion

The gas taxes you pay go directly into the Highway Trust Fund, which funds highway and other transit construction. Very little of the Trust Fund goes to operations, including maintenance.

Under your plan, those gas taxes would be turned into General Fund revenue, a backdoor tax increase. If you want to halt highway construction, then cancel federal gasoline taxes.