Tea Party Budget Would Cut Federal Employees' Pay by 10%
By Ian Smith
The Tea Party has released its own budget plan that aims to reduce federal spending by $9.7 trillion over the next ten years.
Dubbed the Tea Party Budget, the plan is an effort led by
FreedomWorks and comes in response to critics who say the tea party has no formal plan for cutting government. It aims to cut, cap and balance federal spending, all without raising taxes. "Go bold or go home," the plan bluntly tells Washington.
The cuts proposed are indeed bold. Some of the budget's highlights include:
Balancing the budget in four years
- Shrinking the federal government from 24% of GDP to 16%
- Stops debt growth and begins paying it down with the goal of eliminating it completely within this generation
The plan would also eliminate four Cabinet agencies: Energy, Education, Commerce, and HUD.
Federal employees are included in the budget's proposed cuts as well. Specifically, it would:
- Reduce the number of federal workers to the 2008 level (estimated savings of $35 billion over ten years)
- Cut the federal employee travel budget to $4 billion (estimated savings of $100 billion over ten years)
- Cut federal employee pay by 10% (estimated savings of $200 billion over ten years)
Other significant cuts proposed include:
- Privatizing air traffic control (estimated savings of $38 billion over ten years)
- Close the Small Business Administration (estimated savings of $14 billion over ten years)
- Privatizing the TSA (estimated savings of $80 billion over ten years)
- Reducing the Bureau of Land Management by 50% from FY 2010 level (estimated savings of $5.7 billion over ten years)
- Eliminating the Bureau of Reclamation (estimated savings of $11 billion over ten years)
- Break up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (estimated savings of $300 billion over ten years)
