Modbert
Daydream Believer
- Sep 2, 2008
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House Republicans' Spending Bill Would Cut Pell Grant by 15 Percent - Government - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Meanwhile:
GOP Won't Cut Defense Without Deal | The National Interest Blog
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have unveiled a spending bill for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year that would slash $100-billion from the president's budget request.
The measure, which the House is expected to take up this week, would cut millions of dollars from federal support for research and student financial aid.
The student-aid reductions would trim the maximum Pell Grant by 15 percent, or $845, from the $5,550 available to the neediest students now, and make 1.7 million students ineligible for Pell Grants, according to Mark Kantrowitz, who publishes FinAid, a Web site that gives financial-aid advice. If enacted, the reductions would be the largest cut in student-aid funds in the history of the Pell Grant program.
In his proposal, the president is expected to call for maintaining the maximum Pell Grant at $5,550, and pay for it by seeking cuts of $100-billion elsewhere in the federal student-aid programs over the next decade.
The savings proposals reportedly will include ending a "year round" provision that allows Pell Grant recipients to collect two grants in a single award year, with the second grant used for summer classes, and cutting the interest subsidies that the government now pays for graduate and professional students while they are still in college. Both of those changes would require Congressional approval.
Meanwhile:
GOP Won't Cut Defense Without Deal | The National Interest Blog
On Thursday, House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) announced spending levels for the remainder of the 2011 Fiscal Year. Under the plan, discretionary spending would be cut by $74 billion, and security spending—defense, homeland security, and other related agencies—would be cut by $16 billion.
At first glance, this seems like a minor victory for deficit hawks. While the amount of security spending cut is still not close to the reductions Christopher Preble, Benjamin Friedman, and others propose, or anywhere near the $100 billion in discretionary spending cuts the GOP proposed in its “Pledge to America,” it is a start. But let’s be clear: the Federal deficit is projected to be $1.5 trillion this year. In no way does $74 billion dollars in cuts address this problem.
And in fact, it’s not even $74 billion. As multiple outlets have correctly reported—reports Ryan’s office continue to deny—the amount of discretionary spending cuts, based on current spending levels, is only $32 billion and security spending will receive an $8 billion increase, not including funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.