Foxx Hunt: Which Way Will She Leap?

According to this a.m.'s NYTimes, "conservative House Republicans" (which ones? didn't say) are drawing up a list of potential budget cuts amounting to $500 billion to offset the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. That list is highly secretive, but the Times reporter did manage to squeeze out these details from an unnamed House Republican aide:

*Delay the start of the new Medicare prescription drug coverage for one year to save $31 billion

*Eliminate $25 billion in projects from the newly enacted transportation measure

*Eliminate the Moon-Mars initiative that NASA announced on Monday, for $44 billion in savings

*End support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $4 billion

*Cut taxpayer payments for the national political conventions and the presidential election campaign fund, $600 million (WE PAY FOR POLITICAL CONVENTIONS!?)

*Charge federal employees for parking, $1.54 billion.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. And by our calculations, so far they're barely over one/fifth of the way to their $500 billion target, even assuming that they'll be able to make these changes. Where's the other $400 billion coming from? Agricultural subsidies? Corporate welfare?

We're all pins & needles, waiting to see the complete list and to hear, also, Madame Virginia Foxx's explanations, rationalizations, and continuing hypocrisies.