CBO: GOP’s $38.50 billion spending cut really cut only $0.35 billion

How do $38.5 billion in spending cuts turn out to be a lie? Consider this:

* We start with President Obama and the Democrats’ $3.7 trillion budget plan for fiscal year 2011. ($3.7 trillion is $3,700 billion.)

* Note that, operating on that budget, the federal government had a $223 billion deficit in February alone. (In all 12 months of 2007, the deficit was only $161 billion.)

* In the revised 2011 budget the Democrats and Republicans agreed to one week ago, the Republicans said they had cut $38.5 billion.

* When the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reviewed the numbers, it found that the Republicans had cut only $352 million. ($352 million is $00.352 billion.)

Signifying nothing. In other words, from the biggest budget the world has ever seen, the Republicans cut less than one-hundredth of what they claimed to have cut.

The $38.5 billion the Republicans said they cut would have been just over 1 percent of the budget. But according to the CBO, the $00.352 billion the Republicans really cut in FY2011 was less than one-hundredth of 1 percent of the budget.

After all that posturing, the Republicans managed to trim a $3.7 trillion budget by .0095 percent. They might as well have done nothing at all.

Full speed ahead. The Republicans took the helm the Titanic, iceberg 20 yards ahead, and ordered the ship’s speed altered from 22 knots to 21.998 knots. Instead of a $3.700 trillion budget, we have a $3.699 trillion budget. That’s pretty much saying full speed ahead!

Frank Warner

Comments

[George]

Obama is addicted to spending. He is like a crack whore with a stolen credit card. You didn't think he would allow any real spending cuts, did you?

[Kevin]

I have to say, I'm almost as embarrassed to be a Republican as I would be were I a Democrat. They really DO both kind of suck.

"...from 22 knots to 21.998 knots."

heh

[jj mollo]

We have to balance the budget long-term. In order to do that, we have to stop using the budget and the deficit for populist political posturing. Everybody knew that the recent spending cuts were window dressing. It reminded me of a married couple arguing strenuously over who spends the most at Starbucks when they both know that the real problem is their $10,000 credit card debt. It's a way to avoid the real issue.

The real issue is long-term entitlement spending. Repeat that three times. I can forgive people for talking about military spending, because that is a legitimate minor issue, but anybody who burdens the public mind-space with anything else is deliberately distracting us. I commend Ryan and Obama for recently addressing themselves to the real issues. The differences are real and contentious, but at least we're now focused in the right direction.

As to 2007, we were living in a fool's paradise then -- low taxes and huge new spending on two wars (off-budget) and government-paid prescriptions. The deficit spending was fueling the debt, exacerbating the already insane real-estate boom and pulling the teeth from any possible fiscal response to a recession. The laxity of the Federal Reserve at that time was also a problem. As a result of the financial crash, Bush and Obama had only one choice. Spend more money. The Fed was zeroed out and the impending recession could only be addressed fiscally. Now, we need to try to get back to the pre-war normalcy. Taxes should be gradually increased as the recession recedes. The gas tax would be the most economically effective approach, reducing our balance-of-trade deficit, but it would not be enough. Why is nobody talking about the Debt Commission any more? Why do we need new commissions?

[Neo]

So then you're telling us that the Democrats really didn't come up with $33 billion in spending cuts. The liars.

[CJW]

Obama pulled the old okey doke on the Republicans and bamboozled all of America. He thinks we're all stupid. He is a damn disgrace.

[CJW]

Even as the liar-in-chief gives nothing to Republicans in a "deal" that supposedly gives them something, he goes on to demonize them for forcing him to "deal." Incredible hyocrisy, as he spends the US into oblivion.

Obama to Supporters: I Understand Your Frustration Over Compromise With GOP

Obama tells his supporters that he understands their frustration over his compromises with Republicans, but prepares backers for more deals to come.

[Neo]

OMG, I can't believe that they actually have a web page for this

http://www.paymentaccuracy.gov/high-priority-programs