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Though Republicans like to think of themselves as the party that cuts waste, fraud, and abuse, Democrats, too, propose putting the ax to programs that they'd like to see go away.
Barack Obama's fiscal year 2017 budget proposal is no exception. Though it generally offers higher levels of government spending than Republicans favor, that doesn't mean Obama loves every program the government runs. In fact, he's proposing to entirely eliminate dozens of initiatives — often small grant programs — that his team has identified as superfluous or unnecessary.
The one that's likely to get the most political attention is eliminating a $10 million-a-year grant program for abstinence-only education run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The biggest proposed elimination is the Department of Justice's $210 million State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which reimburses state and local law enforcement agencies for costs incurred detaining immigrants.
The cut most likely to provoke backlash from liberals is probably the proposed elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency's $13 million grant program for water quality research, which sounds pretty useful in light of the situation in Flint, Michigan.
Here's the complete list of programs Obama wants to eliminate:
- Area Health Education Centers, HHS
- Beaches Grants Program, EPA
- Broadband Loans, Agriculture
- Delta Regional Authority Grants, Agriculture
- Education Research Centers and Agricultural Research, HHS
- Grants for Abstinence-Only Education, HHS
- Economic Impact Grants, Agriculture
- Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation
- Health Care Services Grant Program, Agriculture
- High Energy Cost Grants, Agriculture
- Impact Aid, Payments for Federal Property, Education
- INSPIRE grants, National Science Foundation
- National Priorities Research, EPA
- Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant, HHS
- PRIME Technical Assistance, Small Business Administration
- Rural Community Facilities, HHS
- Rural Energy Savings Program, Agriculture
- Rural Multifamily Housing Preservation Grants, Agriculture
- State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, Justice
- State Indoor Radon Grant Program, EPA
- Targeted Air Shed Grants, EPA
- Water and Wastewater and Community Facilities Loan Guarantees, Agriculture
- Water Quality Research and Support Grants, EPA
- Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations, Labor
In addition, Obama is proposing to kill a long series of small-bore research, education, and extension grants from the Department of Agriculture covering everything from alfalfa foliage to potato breeding.
