Tally Of 2011 Conservation Cuts Are In

[Tim Smith]

National Wildlife Foundation tallies the cuts here on this site.

Too much? Not enough?

How did we do?

[3wt]

As much as I like most of the conservation programs, the cuts probably need to go deeper. One of the sad things about wasteful government spending is that we know where most of the cuts need to be, but in the sake of political correctness it has to be done across the board. Wouldn't want andybody to say "how can you take away my free stuff and still fund saving a forest in then middle of nowhere."

That being said, I think if things are forced to run leaner we can get a lot of service for a lot less money. Maybe some of these programs will learn to provide more for less.

[Tim Smith]

That being said, I think if things are forced to run leaner we can get a lot of service for a lot less money. Maybe some of these programs will learn to provide more for less.

I am sure this is true to an extent. I was interested to see that the president's budget for 2012 restored much of the funding from 2011 and even added some funds. Don't know how much of that will fly.

One major concern on the other side of the aisle is that environmental enforcement is being targeted for deeper cuts because they are seen as an impediment to business. In other words, business wants to pollute more and they want the EPA out of the way so they can do it. The EPA is already going at environmental enforcement with half measures. Cutting them back more would show up in more miles of impaired streams.

Another aspect of this was touched on by Al in another thread. For the most part, conservation funding amounts to little more than nickles and dimes compared to things like entitlements and defense.

Finishing the engagement in Afghanistan and avoiding a broad military commitment in the Arab uprisings will save more money than all the conservation funding combined.

Reducing SS benefits to people who don't need them and raising the retirement age could produce the same effect.

[3wt]

I agree that the real battle is over entitlements. It does seem silly to cut across the board, but it's the political game that you have to play to get work done. I think the federal feeding trough model of pork spending we have embraced has made our bed for us for a long time. We won't ever be able to do what it right because we know it's right. We'll have to throw somebody a bone, even if it doesn't make sense with what we're really trying to accomplish.