If the Republicans want to have a grown up discussion about the budget and real savings over a long term goal, then unfortunately their gutting of the EPA is one of the worst things we could do. In effect, they want to gut our environmental protection for the short term profit of corporations and their backers.
In short:
$49,462,119,000,000 net savings since the clean air bill went into effect in 1970
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/...
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today launched a new web feature that tracks the estimated net benefits of the Clean Air Act from when it became law in 1970. The “ticker” is based on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates of the law’s net health and economic benefits.
By preventing premature deaths and reducing the harmful effects of air pollution, the Clean Air Act has proven to be a smart investment. In 2010 alone, the law generated environmental and health benefits estimated at $1.3 trillion (in 2006 dollars), according to the EPA. The estimated cost of compliance that year was $53 billion (in 2006 dollars), making the law’s estimated net benefit $1.247 trillion and its benefit-cost ratio approximately 25 to 1.
The EPA estimates that the law’s benefit-cost ratio will be 30 to 1 by 2020, when, according to the federal agency’s projections, the law would prevent as many as 230,000 premature deaths in that year alone.
Here is the methodology behind the report:
http://www.ucsusa.org/...
So the next time Republicans claim to be being fiscally responsible by gutting our environment standards, a smart Democrat who understands messaging would break this out.
I mean, even a Republican can understand $49 trillion dollars in savings.