http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/09/details-bipartisan-budget-dealThe White House Blog
Details of the Bipartisan Budget Deal
Posted by Dan Pfeiffer on April 09, 2011 at 06:44 PM EDT
Last night, President Obama announced that the federal government will remain open for business because Americans from different beliefs came together, put politics aside, and met the expectations of the American people. Today, small businesses will no longer worry or have to wait on a loan to open or expand their business, families will receive the mortgages they applied for, and hundreds of thousands of government workers, including our brave men and women in uniform, will continue to receive paychecks on time.
This deal cuts spending by $78.5 billion from the President’s FY 2011 Budget request -- the largest annual spending cut in our history. These are real cuts that will save taxpayers money and have a real impact. Many will be painful, and are to programs that we support, but the fiscal situation is such that we have to act.
The two sides agreed to cut $13 billion from funding for programs at the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services as well as over $1 billion in a cut across non-defense agencies, forcing everyone to tighten their belt. There will be reductions to housing assistance programs and some health care programs along with $8 billion in cuts to our budget for State and Foreign Operations. These significant cuts to the State Department and foreign assistance will mean we will not meet some of the ambitious goals set for the nation in the President’s Budget.
Our team also went after wasteful spending and earmarked, special interest programs including $630 million in earmarked transportation projects and at least $2.5 billion in transportation funding that is ready to be earmarked. We were able to cut $35 million by ending the Crop Insurance Good Performance Rebate, which gives successful farmers, who have no claims, a rebate for insurance premiums already subsidized by the federal government. In addition to these cuts, we were able to eliminate $30 million for a job training program that was narrowly targeted at certain student loan processors. We also looked to the Defense department for savings, and were able to identify $18 billion in cuts deemed unnecessary by the Pentagon. These types of cuts are what the American people expect out of their leaders in Washington.
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Please read the full blog post for all the details.