This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, August 1st, 2012.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Complaints about minor spending cuts on schedule for next year's federal education budget are totally overblown,

according to Neil McCluskey, Associate Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational

Freedom.

He says education spending at the federal level should be cut by exactly 100%.

Federal agencies are making a big deal out of sequestration.

The Pentagon will be taking a $55 billion hit. I believe about half of the cuts that would occur under sequestration.

You're saying that the Department of Education is also a vetching about the cuts that they'll have to deal with.

There's been great wailing and nashing of teeth, especially in the last week or so, about cuts that will

occur to many domestic agencies under sequestration.

And in particular, it's been linked mainly by Democrats,

the fact that Republicans are saying we really need to block cuts going to the

Department of Defense and this is really open things for the Democrats say well if you're

going to not cut that you definitely can't cut these really important things like

education programs. So last week a subcommittee of the Appropriations

Committee had a big hearing featuring Secretary of Education, Arnie Duncan, talking about what will

be the effects of sequestration on education if we have to go through with it.

And he essentially painted it as a doomsday scenario

for our children and our economy.

And that just isn't held up by the evidence,

either about the size of sequestration or the effect that we've

...