After months of debate, an eleventh-hour deal on the 2011 federal budget was brokered, and the federal government will remain open for business.
House Republicans and Senate Democrats agreed to cut $38.5 billion from the federal budget for the rest of fiscal year 2011.
While $38.5 billion in cuts is a historic amount, it does not come close to putting a dent in the deficit problem that the United States has; which is just over $14 trillion.
Let’s put those figures in perspective: saving $38.5 billion when you are already $14 trillion in debt is like saving $3.85 when you are $1,400 in debt. It really is not that much. In fact, it is almost comical.
What is even more comical is what Republicans and Democrats were fighting over that threatened to shut down the federal government: funding for Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The funding amounts for these two programs were known as riders. Riders are add-on amendments that usually have nothing to do with the original bill. This tactic is used to sweeten the deal for some bills or to make policy amendments pass more easily by attaching them to popular bills.
Planned Parenthood, a group that focuses on women’s health, offers women vaccines, blood screenings, physicals, birth control and abortions. According to The New York Times, the proposed cuts would have eliminated $75 million in funding to Planned Parenthood.
As an organization that provides products and services, why can Planned Parenthood not raise money privately by continuing to sell products and services along with receiving private donations?
The EPA budget cuts would have made it so that the EPA would not be able to fully enforce regulations regarding climate change, an issue scientists continue to debate about the causes of.
Was funding for these two programs worth a government shutdown?
In this time of vast government spending and a $14 trillion debt, programs are going to either need to be cut or have their funding reduced.
The federal government cannot simply afford these programs right now.
Cutting funding for an organization that can raise its own money privately and for an agency that enforces regulations on an issue that not every scientist can come to agreement on are nothing compared to the cuts that are going to need to happen to put a dent in the federal debt.
If the paychecks of our military personnel overseas and over a million federal workers were held hostage for these two programs, it is hard to imagine what is going to happen down the road. Serious debates need to happen regarding reforms and cuts to America’s big-spending entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Brain can be reached at bjutting@asu.edu
