On Feb. 14, 2010, President Barack Obama unveiled his 2012 budget proposal. In it, Obama detailed spending cuts aiming to reduce the federal deficit by $1.1 trillion within 10 years, bringing the deficit down to $627 billion by 2017.
Donald Handshy
– Staff Writer –
On Feb. 14, 2010, President Barack Obama unveiled his 2012 budget proposal. In it, Obama detailed spending cuts aiming to reduce the federal deficit by $1.1 trillion within 10 years, bringing the deficit down to $627 billion by 2017.
Both Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and Sen. Claire McCaskill have stated their opposition to the proposal.
Blunt said the long-term savings in this budget over the next decade are still less than this year’s deficit. In addition, using this budget plan, the president will have doubled the national debt from the time he took office through the end of 2012.
Some of these budget cuts include changes to the Pell Grant program which will have an impact on many students across the country.
The Pell Grant Protection Act, proposed as part of the $77.4 billion budget for the Department of Education, contains a few key changes that affect Pell Grants and Stafford loans directly.
“Not knowing what could happen makes me very disappointed in our government,” Meramec student and Pell Grant recipient Dave Sullivan said, “I think that they should make up their minds, finish the budget, and let us know what we have to live with so we can plan accordingly.”
Based on the Obama budget proposal, the Pell Grant would still award $5,550. The budget would eliminate the new “year-round Pell Grant” which awards a second Pell Grant within the same calendar year to eligible students.
Currently, this second award is granted to approximately 800,000 students across the country.
This second Pell Grant award requires students to complete 24 credit hours per year, including summer classes and maintaining half-time enrollment, for eligibility. Obama called for the Pell Grant Protection Act to go into effect immediately.
However the budget, including this act, has yet to be implemented.
McCaskill voted down both the Republican and Democratic budget proposals.
“The House’s resolution, frankly, was not smart in the way they did the cuts,” McCaskill said. “They are killing off the part of our budget that has the best chance of increasing economic activity in this country.”
McCaskill said the Senate has not gone far enough.
According to Republican budget committee members, the Republican-sponsored proposal would cut approximately $61 billion, including a reduction in the maximum Pell Grant award from $5,550 down to $4,705 for the 2011-2012 academic year.
The Democratic sponsored version cuts approximately $7 billion, with no changes to the Pell Grant system. On March 9, both budget proposals were voted down.
With neither proposal having passed, the status of the federal budget is uncertain.
Until a consensus can be reached, it is unclear what the impact on the Pell Grant program will ultimately become.
“I think it’s stupid that they’ve waited this long,” Sullivan said.
“What is a person to do if they depend on this money to stay in school?”
