CONGRESS -- GOP BUDGET CUTS PROPOSE SLASHING EDUCATION FOR WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION Options

[Snuffysmith]

CONGRESS -- GOP BUDGET CUTS PROPOSE SLASHING EDUCATION FOR WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION: Yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent President Obama a list of proposed budget cuts that they claim would save taxpayers "in excess of $375 billion." In reality, their proposed cuts equate to just over $23 billion over the next five years. The AP notes that the GOP "has padded its own estimate by assuming $317 billion over the next five years from limiting non-defense agency budgets to inflation-adjusted levels that Obama is sure to reject." What's more, though Cantor and Boehner said they were cutting "wasteful and unnecessary spending," their proposed cuts go far beyond that. For example, they would terminate the Women's Educational Equity program, which "promotes education equity for women and girls through competitive grants." The GOP called the program "no longer needed." The plan also eliminates the Safe Routes to Schools program, which "pays for building sidewalks, bike paths and crossing guards" near schools. Cantor and Boehner also would eliminate the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program and the Technology Innovation Program, which supports "high-risk, high-reward, pre-competitive technology development." The GOP proposal also has plenty of political pandering to the party's base, including "a move to abolish the $4 million budget of a House panel on global wa