Democrats include “one time” massive departmental increases within Obama’s “Economic Stimulus” Plan
Massive Dept Budgetary Increases in Stimulus Plan
Republican Senators and House of Representative Members have accused Democrats of hiding long term budgetary increases for several existing departments within President Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s “Economic Stimulus” Package. Democrats have admitted that several departments will see a one time increase but have promised not to consider these increases when determining future budgets.
These increases are of concern to the Republican Congressional members for several reasons but especially because they fear it will not be easy to reduce the budget of these departments back to pre-stimulus levels next year. Any attempts to do so by Republicans next year could easily be characterized as slashing the budgets of “important and necessary departments.” On the other hand, Democratic efforts may be spun as responsible budgetary cuts (even though the new budget might be significantly higher than pre-stimulus levels in both cases).
Six of the departments listed, under the plan, to receive increases include:
$5.5 Billion more for Department of Commerce
$9.4 Billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
$5 Billion for Department of Labor
$1 Billion for US Census
$36 Billion for Department of Agriculture
$21 Billion for Department of Health and Human Services including, according to NBC News, “huge pots” of money to be handed out at “…the discretion of the HHS Secretary…”
Examples include:
$400 Million for Research
$60 Million for Environmental Health
$50 Million for Injury Prevention
When asked how these increases will affect each department, one governmental source reportedly stated that several departments may find themselves ill-equipped to handled the dramatic increases and therefore may take years to do so. However, the source continued, that once hooked all the departments are likely to find it painful to move back to pre-stimulus budgetary levels and are likely to lobby Congress to maintain them.
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Source: CBS News, NBC News, ABC News, Fox New &TabRight.com Guess Blogger Jackson
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