Fox news keeps changing the underlying story, but the stark truth is we’ve been had by Obama and the GOP leadership over this budget deal. Consider the following:
To a fair degree, the lack of immediate budget-cutting is because the budget year is more than half over and cuts in new spending authority typically are slow to register on deficit tallies. About $8 billion in immediate cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid are offset by nearly equal increases in defense spending. When war funding is factored in the legislation would actually increase total federal outlays by $3.3 billion relative to current levels.
In addition, cuts to mandatory benefit programs, while producing no deficit savings, can be claimed under budget rules to pay for spending increases elsewhere in the legislation. All told, $17.8 billion in such savings is claimed but just a tiny portion of it would actually reduce the deficit.
That is right. Spending went up, It gets worse. CBS News reports this:
When President Obama and congressional leaders brokered a deal last week to keep the government funded for another six months, they hailed the “historic” spending cuts the deal included — $38.5 billion in cuts from this year’s budget alone.
A study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that the legislation does indeed cut that much from what federal agencies are authorized to spend this year — but the study reveals that it will only amount to a reduction of $352 million in non-war government spending for the rest of this fiscal year. That’s in part because a significant portion of the cuts come from authorized funds that won’t be spent immediately, such as water-and-sewer grants.
$352 million of actual cuts. And the Democrats call this draconian? The Democrats want to bankrupt America. Make no mistake about that. They are anti-American, and have always sought the downfall of this nation. They must be stopped.
