About That $17 Billion in Cuts Touted By President Obama

Anyone want to take a closer look at the $17 billion in cuts to the budget that President Obama himself proposed? That bloated monstrosity should never have been proposed in the first place as it is grossly fiscally irresponsible, but the programs he's looking to cut are even more irresponsible.

Jammie notes that the President is looking to cut benefits to fallen emergency responders, which may never come to pass if more law enforcement and emergency responders die in the line of duty than expect.

Then, there's the cuts to various Defense Department programs that would provide a technological edge to US forces for years to come.

Now, we learn that the President is cutting funding for a NYPD nuclear threat anti-terror program.

The budget released Thursday proposes pulling funding in 2010 for the "Securing the Cities" program that the NYPD is using to develop a system to detect and repel radiological or nuclear terror threats.

The NYPD has already received more than $53 million in Homeland Security Department grants for the effort, including $20 million this year.

It has used the money to arm officers and vehicles with radiation detectors and to recruit other law enforcement agencies to form a protective ring around the city.

"It's disappointing, to say the least, after so much has been invested in a program with so much promise," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

That comes at a time when Iran is busy spinning its centrifuges furiously to obtain nuclear materials sufficient to build nuclear weapons, and the situation in Pakistan is unstable to the point of having observers worried that the government might fall, which might allow the Pakistani nuclear arsenal to fall into the wrong hands.

The NYPD program is designed to pick up on terror threats before they become actionable and before they can be carried out with deadly consequences. Who in their right mind thinks that cutting this kind of program is a responsible thing to do? It isn't responsible on a national security ground, and it certainly falls into the penny-wise and pound foolish category as a nuclear strike against New York City would affect the global economy and result in trillions of dollars in damage.

Now, expect that this cut will be restored in short order by Congress, but that too points out the idiocy of these supposed cuts in the first place. Many of the cuts will be restored by Congress, and the size of the budget will continue growing. The show Obama has made of the cuts is a smoke and mirrors trick to make it look like he's being responsible when that is absolutely not the case.