Well the superheroes in the Obama Administration and Congress continue their quest to bankrupt the American economy along with reducing our ability to secure our borders and defend our interests. The cuts in the Department of Defense (DoD) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will trim Obama's proposed deficit by a whopping 0.5%.

I noticed in the article below that a lot of proposed cuts, minus DoD and ICE, were proposed by former president Bush.

It's amazing now that Dr McSocialism's in office, all that was bad with the evil W's Administration is now good.

Budget Proposes Cuts in 121 Programs


By JONATHAN WEISMAN


WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's detailed 2010 budget plan, due out Thursday, will propose to eliminate or consolidate 121 domestic and defense programs to save $17 billion, administration officials said Wednesday.

The trims, though modest, are likely to spark opposition from lawmakers and interest groups seeking to shift to someone else cuts aimed at narrowing next year's projected $1.2 trillion deficit.

"There are very few programs that don't have a constituency and someone who is willing to stand up for them in Congress. We understand that," a senior administration official said. But he added, "A lot of programs are implemented with the best of intentions. Not all of them are effective."

Compared with the total $3.6 trillion spending plan for 2010, the proposed trims amount to one-half of 1%. Half the cuts would come from defense, especially Pentagon weapons programs already spelled out by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, such as trimming back the fleet of advanced F-22 fighter planes. The other half would come from programs that have strong support among progressive activists who cheered Mr. Obama's election.

An administration official said that over 10 years, the total saved by the proposed program cuts would exceed $200 billion.

One of the biggest targets, the early childhood education program Even Start, had been on George W. Bush's target list since 2004.

Other programs slated for elimination are the Education Department's Jacob K. Javitz fellowship program and Christopher Columbus grants, the latter of which has a $1 million-a-year budget, 80% of which is overhead. Also gone would be an option to have the Earned Income Credit included in weekly or monthly paychecks, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency's Criminal Alien Program, which identified jailed criminal foreigners to ensure they are not released into the community. A White House aide also cited the Long Range Radio Navigation System, a $35 million Coast Guard system made obsolete by global positioning systems.

"Some of these have been on the books north of 40 years," said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "Inertia set in."

The defense of many targeted programs has already begun. AIDS activists are fuming that an expansion of developing-world health programs will favor other health needs over HIV/AIDS.
Liberal think tanks are worried about a proposed partnership with state governments to root out fraud in joint state-federal programs such as Medicaid and children's health insurance.

"There is a kind of 'Nixon going to China' aspect to this," said Isabel Sawhill, co-director of the Center of Children and the Family at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution. Just as only Republican President Richard Nixon could go to communist China in 1972 without being destroyed politically, only a popular Democrat could challenge liberal groups on sacrosanct programs that may have outlived their usefulness, she said.

"There's a different perspective that exists and a different sense of commitment," Mr. Emanuel said. "We bring a certain credibility."

White House officials acknowledged the similarity between Mr. Obama's 121 program cuts and consolidations and $17 billion savings and Mr. Bush's 151 programs and $18 billion savings proposed for 2009. About 40% of the programs Mr. Obama has targeted for elimination or consolidation come directly off a similar list proposed by Mr. Bush over the past two budget seasons on Capitol Hill. Congress largely ignored those proposed cuts.

—Greg Hitt contributed to this article.