After Dodging Bullet in Times Square, Obama Slashes NYC Anti-Terrorism Cash

Meredith Jessup | May 13, 2010 5:18 PM

Bipartisan outrage in NYC over security budget cuts, as reported in the NY Daily News:

WASHINGTON – Eleven days after the botched plot to bomb Times Square, the Obama administration on Wednesday slashed some $53 million from the city’s terror-fighting budget.
"For the administration to announce these cuts two weeks after the attempted Times Square bombing shows they just don’t get it and are not doing right by New York City," fumed Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
To top it off, the news arrives as President Obama comes to town today amid buzz he will meet with the very cops who helped thwart the bombing.
Obama will also be tapping the city’s deep pockets for the Democratic Party.
"The President seems more interested in raising money for political campaigns than providing New York the money it needs to defend itself against Islamic terrorism," said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.
The cuts, to be announced today, target the annual allocations for transit and port security, legislators said.
The New York City area will get $111 million for transit security in the final 2010 budget -- a 27% chop from last year's $153 million. The port security program is getting chopped from $45 million to $33.8 million -- a cut of 25%...
"Just when we thought they finally realized a war on terror is going on, they do something like this," raged City Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens), head of the Council’s Public Safety Committee.
"This leaves us more vulnerable to ‘man-caused disasters,’" he said sarcastically, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s term for terror attacks...