Congress avoids a shut down, for now

According to a CNN story, Congress passed a spending bill Feb. 2 that will keep the government open for another two weeks. That was the easy part.

 

What comes next will be much harder.

 

Republicans were able to include $4 billion in cuts in the two-week bill, something Democrats in the Senate agreed to without too much fuss. 

 

But that $4 billion in cuts was the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. House Republicans now want to return to their plan that would cut roughly $60 billion from the federal budget over the remaining seven months of the fiscal year.

 

Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics said the House Republican's proposal for spending cuts would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2 percentage points. This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012.

 

While the feds struggle to slash billions, what are you doing to cut spending? Energy audits? Alternative fuel? Reusing pots? Send your tips to krodda@gie.net.