Backlash Spending da biofuels 1NC

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Bio-Power is key to the Navy

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Biofuels Don’t Worksauce

The terrible legacy of biofuels

As the Rio+20 earth summit gets underway, the world is looking for a magic solution to our environmental problems and to meanwhile reduce poverty – but it won’t be biofuels. Once, biofuels were seen as a miraculous, sustainable solution to climate change. But growing evidence shows that the EU’s insatiable demand for biofuels to run their cars has led to increased greenhouse gas emissions, rising world food prices, increasing hunger and ruined lives. As foreign-owned biofuel plantations multiply, more poor people are being pushed off land they have farmed sustainably for years. 8000 hectares of common land has been taken from a community in the Kisarawe region of Tanzania. A saga of land grabbing and lost livelihoods is being replicated across Africa and elsewhere in the false name of ‘sustainable’ energy.

Other Things On Chopping Block

Billions in agriculture subsidies could face the chopping block

Erika Johnsen 6-4-12 http://hotair.com/archives/2012/06/04/yes-billions-in-agriculture-subsidies-could-face-the-chopping-block/ (Erika Johnsen is a Web Editor for Townhall.com and Townhall Magazine)

The Senate is expected to begin debate this week on a five-year farm and food aid bill that would save $9.3 billion by ending direct payments to farmers and replacing them with subsidized insurance programs for when the weather turns bad or prices go south. The details are still to be worked out. But there’s rare agreement that fixed annual subsidies of $5 billion a year for farmers are no longer feasible in this age of tight budgets and when farmers in general are enjoying record prosperity. About 80 percent of the bill’s half-trillion-dollar cost over the next five years represents nutrition programs, primarily food stamps now going to some 46 million people. About $100 billion would be devoted to crop subsidies and other farm programs. The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee last month approved a bill that would save $23 billion over the next decade by ending direct payments and consolidating other programs. The bill would strengthen the subsidized crop insurance program and create a program to compensate farmers for smaller, or “shallow,” revenue losses, based on a five-year average, for acres actually planted. The Agriculture Department says that in 2011 the government paid farmers about $10.6 billion, including about $3.6 billion for conservation programs, some 10 percent of the farm sector’s record-high net cash income of $108.7 billion.

Postal Service on the chopping block

Jennifer Liberto 2-24-12 http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/23/news/economy/postal_service__plant_closings/index.htm

(Jennifer Liberto is an author of CNN political ticker blog website employment experience in the field of journalist for Upstanding Publications)

The U.S. Postal Service announced on Thursday new plans to consolidate or close 223 mail processing plants, putting 35,000 jobs at stake starting in late May or June. The move would save $2.1 billion and is part of the agency's broader effort to save $20 billion in the next three years. The Postal Service is in debt due to declining first-class mail volumes and a congressional mandate to prefund retirement health care benefits. The agency was reaching out to employees on Wednesday, officials said. Not all of the workers affected by the plant closings will lose their jobs. Many will be offered posts at other processing plants miles away or even in other states. Some will be urged to retire. "This is an important part of the network consolidation," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in an interview with CNNMoney. "Some employees will retire. A mail clerk may want to become a letter carrier. We know how to move people and find landing spots." The plant consolidations are the latest in an array of controversial cost-cutting measures under consideration at the Postal Service. Also on the table are slashing Saturday service, delaying delivery of some first-class mail, closing post offices and hiking the price of a first-class stamp by a nickel to 50 cents. The Postal Service says that it faces $18 billion in losses by 2015 if nothing is done. Postal Service pleads for help. The agency can't close any facilities until May 15, after the moratorium on closures ends. The Postal Service originally agreed to the moratorium to give lawmakers time to pass legislation to save the agency. But so far, those efforts have been slow-going. Donahoe said he would like to complete most of the consolidations, including job cuts and changes to 30,000 full-time positions and 5,000 non-career employees, by Oct. 1. Under the plan, nearly every state would lose a mail processing plant, according to the Postal Service list, which includes 14 in California, 12 in New York and 9 in Illinois. Mail processing plant closures can yield a particularly devastating toll on communities. A plant in Tulsa, Okla., slated to be consolidated employs nearly 600 employees.

Funding for Safe Routes To School is on the chopping block

Jenn Savedge 5-29-12 (Jenn Savedge is a full-time mom, environmentalist, and author who researches and writes about the two topics that are closest to her heart: children and the environment. As a former park ranger for the National Park Service, Jenn traveled the U.S., learning about the environment in some this country’s most breath-taking wild places. She currently resides with her husband and daughters in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.) http://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/funding-for-safe-routes-to-school-is-on-the-chopping-block

Safe Routes To School (SRTS) is a federally funded national program that aims to make biking and walking to school safer and easier for kids. Despite the program's success, its funding is now on the Congressional chopping block — not in a move to save money, but to redirect those funds to more car-centric projects and activities. Congress established the nation-wide SRTS program in 2005. Under the law, the Federal Highway Administration administers the program funds and provides guidance and regulations about SRTS programs. Federal money is distributed to states for SRTS programs based on student enrollment, with no state receiving less than $1 million per year. These SRTS funds are used to coordinate infrastructure improvements that make walking and biking to school safer and more practical for kids. Testifying to Congress about a pilot project, Director Deb Hubsmith said, “In only two years, we documented a 64 percent increase in the number of children walking, a 114 percent increase in the number of students biking, a 91 percent increase in the number of students carpooling, and a 39 percent decrease in the number of children arriving by private car carrying only one student.” Still, despite the program's success, Congress is now considering moving SRTS funds to a shared pot labeled "additional activities" that could be used on road construction projects and other priorities that have nothing to do with helping kids find safer routes to bike or walk to school. It has also been suggested that this funding be eliminated altogether. SRTS funds fall under the Senate Transportation Bill which was passed with bipartisan support last month. It is now under the consideration of a House-Senate committee that has been tasked with determining how the money will be allocated.

Medicare on the chopping block again

Eric Griego 3-6-12 (http://griegoforcongress.com/medicare-on-the-chopping-block-again/ Eric Griego is a Democratic member of the New Mexico Senate. He sought the Democratic nomination in the 2012 Congressional election.)

Later this month, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan will release his budget plan calling for replacing Medicare with private vouchers. My Republican opponent Dan Lewis supports this plan which would end Medicare as we know it. So I’m taking a pre-emptive stance ahead of the budget talks in Washington. I am renewing my petition to Dan Lewis asking him to choose between cuts to Medicare and Social Security, or tax giveaways to the wealthiest 1%. Seniors shouldn’t have to endure cuts to their hard-earned benefits when we aren’t asking the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share. The current Medicare program is more efficient and less costly than privatizing it. The Republican push to privatize Medicare is nothing more than a handout to the health insurance lobby.

Mars gets the chopping block by NASA

William Atkins 2-11-12 http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.itwire.com%2Fscience-news%2Fspace%2F52710-mars-gets-the-irrational-chopping-block-by-nasa&ei=QxP_T-DLOenh0gGOib3_Bg&usg=AFQjCNFVic_M5Qt5r1a-0JiJjRlqTmZWWw (William Atkins completed educational degrees in science (bachelor’s in physics and mathematics) from Illinois State University (Normal, United States) and business (master’s in entrepreneurship and bachelor’s in industrial relations) from Western Illinois University)

It is expected to be announced that NASA will cut funding for the exploration of the planet Mars after Congress cut its 2013 budget. However, a former high ranking NASA official calls the move 'irrational and unjustified. Based on unidentified sources inside of NASA, the U.S. space agency will have its budget cut for 2013. Consequently,it is being reported that it has decided to concentrate on the exploration of the far reaches of the universe, that is, space outside of the solar system, rather than on the exploration of the solar system itself. So, it will maintain the current amount of money it will spend outside of the solar system, but will cut money is will use to explore our solar system. Included within these expected cuts are two missions to Mars, one originally scheduled to lift-off in 2016 (Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will deliver the ExoMars EDM lander to Mars) and a second one in 2018 (ExoMars rover to Mars, where ExoMars is short for Exobiology on Mars). However, these cuts do not mean that NASA will NOT be exploring the solar system, only that it will have less money dedicated to such neighborhood explorations. According to the Fox News article Scientists say NASA cutting missions to Mars, The two scientists, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the budget, said the cuts to the Mars missions are part of a proposed reduction of about $300 million in NASA's $1.5 billion planetary science budget. More than $200 million in those cuts are in the Mars program, they said. The current Mars budget is $581.7 million. Edward Weiler is the former NASA associate administrator for science. Weiler responds to the announcement with: "To me, it's totally irrational and unjustified. We are the only country on this planet that has the demonstrated ability to land on another planet, namely Mars. It is a national prestige issue."

Defense spending cuts

Molly Line 4-13-12 (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/13/defense-spending-cuts-worrisome-for-local-military-communities/ Molly Line joined FOX News Channel as a Boston-based correspondent in January 2006. Prior to joining FNC she worked as an anchor/reporter for WFXT (FOX-25), the Channel's Boston affiliate.)

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan draw to a close, the Department of Defense plans to trim more than $480 billion from the budget in the coming decade. Tough choices will be made, and communities that rely on military spending are on edge. On Massachusetts' Cape Cod, 170 positions have been cut from the Otis Air National Guard Base, mostly jobs in the Air Operations group.

Illegal Foreigners Chopping Block

JACK MARTIN 7-10-12 (http://immigrationreform.com/2012/07/10/obama-administration-launches-new-end-run-around-congress/ Jack Martin trained in the prosaic fields of economics and law, and earning his living in the corporate bowels of an enormous aerospace company)

Yet another program designed to identify deportable aliens appears to be on the Obama administration’s chopping block. In its latest move, the administration is again acting unilaterally to slash funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), a $400 million a year program that compensates local jurisdictions around the country for the costs of jailing illegal aliens. The administration has tried to stop the compensation program all together by cutting it out of the budget sent to Congress, but Congress has resisted and has continued to fund the program. Now, the administration has decided that if Congress will not eliminate the SCAAP, it will act on its own to eliminate the largest segment of the compensation. Local jurisdictions receive SCAAP funds – which reimburse them for only a fraction of the cost of incarcerating foreign criminals – by providing information on prisoners who are foreign born and the period of time they are imprisoned. The federal government apportions funds based on the number of aliens recognized as deportable aliens and a share of those aliens who are “unknown” to the immigration authorities. The latter category – the unknown aliens – is the largest group, accounting for 58 percent of the prisoners. The administration claims the cuts are due to budget pressures, but the real reason probably has more to do with furthering its policy of non-enforcement. The SCAAP program alerts the federal authorities of aliens who should be deported when released from prison, and the unknown aliens identified by the program provide a lead for the immigration authorities to investigate to establish their deportability. The administration appears to be trying to suppress this source of information coming from local law enforcement officials about jailed aliens in addition to those already scheduled for deportation.

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