WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama sent Congress a detailed budget Thursday boasting of cutting or killing 121 federal programs in a belt-tightening he likened to that of most Americans in difficult times. But the trims amounted to a tiny fraction of the new spending he wants, and some have already been nixed by allies on Capitol Hill.
On the other hand, some of Obama's proposed trims are recycled from George W. Bush's hit list and won't be popular with some Democrats. For instance, he proposed ending a $400 million-a-year program that pays states and counties for keeping illegal immigrants in their jails — a Bush idea rejected previously by the Democratic-controlled Congress.
Obama proposed:
Slashing almost in half a benefits program for the families of slain police and safety officers from $110 million to $60 million.
Doing away with a $142 million program to help states pay to clean up abandoned mines.
He called for a $3 increase in per-segment air fare taxes starting in 2012
New spending
Spending an additional $584 million for pandemic flu efforts, on top of the $1.5 billion in emergency money for 2009 that he asked Congress for in the wake of the swine flu outbreak. (why are they still trying to scare us when there was no epidemic)
Setting up a $1 billion program to develop or rehabilitate housing for the poor.
It's going to be interesting to see how they try to sell those cuts to the people in light of the huge spending increases.
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