Hoping to force the Republican Congress to keep its
word and cut the budget, environmentalists and liberal Democrats
have targeted dozens of federally subsidized programs. The 40-page
Green Scissors Report, written by Friends of the Earth and the
National Taxpayers Union, aims to trim $33 billion in federal pork.
Colorado’s long-delayed and controversial Animas-LaPlata dam
project ranks as one of the report’s choicest cuts. Taxpayers could
save $462 million, authors say, if the Bureau of Reclamation
cancels the complex diversion project which promises to provide
virtually unaffordable water to irrigators in southwest Colorado.
Other projects on the list include royalty-free public-land mining
– $1 billion; taxpayer-subsidized logging roads in national forests
– $500 million; and dirt-cheap franchise fees for concessionaires
operating within national parks – $240 million. Hoping to push for
reform from within Congress, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., recently
introduced the Public Resources Deficit Reduction Act, which sets
its sights on many of the same subsidies. Barney Frank, D-Mass.,
calls the proposed cutbacks a “test of the attachment of our
right-wing friends to the free market.” The Green Scissors Report
costs $10 per copy and is available from Public Interest
Publications, 800/537-9359. – Ross
Freeman
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Trimming pork the green way.
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