House GOP Unveils Plan To Cut NPR, Job Training And Education Programs

If the Republicans really do cut out funding for NPR, it wouldn't change NPR's slant in favor of big business, because their corporate donations greatly outmatch their government funding. But this effort, which they know was doomed to fail, helps camouflage the corporate slant of NPR.

And the Republicans have blocked cuts in subsidies for big business. Same old, same old.

www.huffingtonpost.com

By ANDREW TAYLOR 09/29/11 03:04 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- Setting a collision course with Democrats that could drag out for months, House Republicans on Thursday unveiled plans to cut federal money for job training, heating subsidies and grants to better-performing schools.

The draft measure for labor, health and education programs also seeks to block implementation of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, cut off federal funds for National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood, and reduce eligibility for grants for low-income college students.

Democrats and tea party Republicans opposed the bill, blocking it from advancing through even the easy initial steps of the appropriations process on Capitol Hill. Instead of moving through the Appropriations Committee and the House as a whole, the $153 billion measure is instead expected to be wrapped into a larger omnibus spending bill this fall or winter that would fund the day-to-day operating budgets of Cabinet agencies.

Negotiations between Republicans controlling the House, the Democratic Senate and the White House are sure to be arduous. The measure is laced with conservative policy "riders" opposed by Democrats that would affect worker protections under federal labor laws and block the Education Department from enforcing rules on for-profit colleges that are often criticized for pushing students to take on too much debt.

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The measure would cut heating subsidies for the poor by $1.3 billion, or 28 percent, despite demand elevated by the weak economy and high heating oil prices. And a plan to "zero out" the Title X family planning program, while pleasing to conservatives, is a dead letter with Democrats.

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