That would be the United States Coast Guard responding to the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 21. The caption to this photo states that "Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon's 126 person crew."

President Obama's budget, intended to confront short-term budget deficits, would freeze non-security discretionary spending, while cutting some programs and boosting others, but the Coast Guard would see some cuts. Meanwhile, House Blue Dogs are agitating for across-the-board 2 percent cut for the next three years and then freezes for another two.

The administration's original $9.6 billion request for the Coast Guard in fiscal 2011 would give the agency about $156 million less than it received in fiscal 2010. The reduction would result in the elimination of about 1,000 operational staff jobs and five counterterrorism units, as well as the decommissioning of a number of cutters, helicopters and surveillance jets used in drug interdiction and rescue missions.

Fortunately, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) has put two and two together and figured out that catastrophic oil spills require some up-front outlays.

“How can we expect them to respond to a national emergency like this with a reckless cut to their budget?” asked Frank A. LoBiondo of New Jersey, top Republican on the panel’s Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee. “I think this really should get them to turn their whole idea around about what they had in mind. I intend to hammer this home.”

How indeed?