The good, bad and ugly of Senate GOP stimulus trimming

First, if we really want to trim money, how about cutting, oh, $100 billion from the Defense budget? Or more?

Instead, a band of theoretically non-wingnut fiscally conservative Senate Republicans are offeriug a grab bag of cuts.

Let me comment on just a few.

We don’t need to slash the Coast Guard’s icebreaker upgrade budget to zero. With global warming and increased shipping through the Arctic, this is invaluable.

We could cut even more from NASA’s manned exploration budget than we have. Between osteoporosis likelihood and cosmic ray dangers, the idea of manned missions to Mars any time in the next 20 years, or manned missions to the Moon as a stepping stone to that, need to killed. Stone. Cold. Dead.

It’s a good political solution but a stupid bureaucratic solution, as Team Obama continues to make ad hoc decisions, often forced on it by failure to fully do original homework.

And, it’s another think, like Obama’s “czars,” that muddies bureaucratic lines of control.

Nearly zeroing out more Heath and Human Services wellness program money is penny-wise and pound-foolish, pun intended on that.

And, from down here in Texas, zeroing out more money for the U.S-Mexico International Boundary and Water Commission just won’t fly.