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From an article in yesterday's Politico.com:

Popular energy and environmental programs should prepare for a decade of spending cuts under the debt deal reached late Sunday between the White House and congressional leaders.

Constituencies fighting in the trenches for every dollar insist that their programs are small relative to other big-ticket items in the annual appropriations process. But there's still plenty of concern that everything from wastewater grants to air pollution monitoring and biofuels research and development will face the scalpel as lawmakers start cutting about $2.7 trillion in spending over the next decade.

It goes on to list just a few of the programs slated to be gutted by this Republican-led extortion, sanctioned by the moderate conservative in the White House:

James Walsh, a former New York Republican congressman and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that handled the EPA's budget, predicted spending cuts for Energy Department programs dealing with fuel cells, biofuels, synthetic fuels, wind and nuclear power, as well as Army Corps of Engineers's dredging, sea wall barriers and flood mitigation. The EPA's regulatory arm probably will "take a whack" while across-the-board cuts in agency salaries would "shrink the overall footprint of the department," he added.

Another clear target will be EPA grants that go out to wastewater, drinking water and pollution monitoring programs. "With infrastructure, we're already in a big hole," Walsh said. "But this isn't going to help."

The article continues:

"Considering what they're doing to the environment and water-related issues now, even before this deal was struck, it can't be good," said Ken Kirk, executive director of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said state air pollution officials will be bracing for spending cuts despite already operating at their lowest level in more than a decade.

"Almost without exception, agencies across the country are laying off staff in their air programs," he said. "To the extent these additional cuts carve further into the air program, we can predict with certainty that we will be unable to perform many of these important tasks and public health and welfare will be adversely affected."

So, big hits coming on infrastructure projects and clean air and water agencies. All because the minority Republican party and the moderate conservative in the White House wouldn't raise taxes on the wealthy or eliminate tax breaks for the multi-billion dollar petroleum industry:

A summary from House Speaker John Boehner to fellow House Republicans emphasizes that the deal won't increase taxes.

The deal "requires baseline to be current law, effectively making it impossible for Joint Committee to increase taxes," according to a section in the GOP leader's document that trumpets "No Tax Hikes."

Welcome to the future of America, where a rich minority keep their tax breaks and the rest of us suffer from deteriorating air and water quality. All because we have a Concilator-in-Chief at the White House who refuses to stand up for policies that two-thirds of Americans support -- mainly a "balanced" approach to deficit reduction whereby the rich pay their fair share.

This is only the beginning of this pathetic story.

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