Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Lies Washington Budget Style

Have you seen the latest on the proposed budget deal to be signed tomorrow? Not only is it not a cut of $38B of which $12B had already been included in previous deals but now the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has come out with a report that the savings will only be 352 million, 1% of the initial "sales job."

Do they think we are so dumb that we could not figure this out? Folks, I have lost it.  Not only did the Democrats lie to us (that should be assumed) but our Republican members of Congress are going down that same path.  What is in the water in Washington?  That can be the only reason for it.  Lies, Lies and more lies. 

I hope that I am not the only American out there that thinks this is a travesty. Both parties have lied to us. They made us think they had made this grand deal while at the same time knowing the whole thing was a smoke screen. If we do not throw a nationwide "hissy fit", we will have indeed lost the country to the "ruling class".  If this passes, you might as well send all your money, your deed to your house, your IRAs, and all of your investments to Washington now because it will not be long before they confiscate them to feed their spending habit.

I think it is time to "throw all the bums out!"  What do you think?

Here is the article posted on the National Journal's web page on Wednesday:

Congressional Budget Office analysis of the fiscal 2011 spending deal that Congress will vote on Thursday concludes that it would cut spending this year by less than one-tenth of what both Republicans or Democrats have claimed.

A comparison prepared by the CBO shows that the omnibus spending bill, advertised as containing some $38.5 billion in cuts, will only reduce federal outlays by $352 million below 2010 spending rates. The nonpartisan budget agency also projects that total outlays are actually some $3.3 billion more than in 2010, if emergency spending is included in the total.

The astonishing result, according to CBO, is the result of several factors: increases in spending, especially at the Defense Department; decisions to draw over half of the savings from recissions; and cuts to reserve funds and and money for mandatory-spending programs that might never have been spent.

National Journal previously reported that after removing rescissions, cuts to reserve funds, and reductions in mandatory-spending programs, discretionary spending would be reduced only by $14.7 billion. CBO’s analysis, which takes into account the likelihood that certain authorized funding will never be spent, suggests that the actual cuts will be even smaller.

With some conservatives already opposing the deal for not going far enough to meet the GOP campaign pledges to cut $100 billion, the news could complicate House Republicans' efforts to pass the bill. The minimal effect on current government spending, however, could improve macroeconomic forecasts that predicted lower economic growth if government spending was drastically reduced.

The CBO did confirm that spending would remain nearly $80 billion below what President Obama requested in his fiscal 2011 budget request, and Republicans can point to long-term savings as a result of lowering the government’s spending baseline.

“It is kind of crazy to have come to the brink of shutting down the government over a $350 million difference,” said Scott Lilly, a former staff director at the Appropriations Committee under Chairman David Obey, D-Wisc.







2 comments:

  1. Heh. This year, the government needs to cut a minimum of $1.5 trillion, to stay solvent. This, coupled with long term restructuring of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and other entitlements, would put us back on the road to fiscal stability.

    Coupled with substantial cuts in taxes, the damage to the economy would not be all that great. The worst possible plan is on Obama's desk, that of not cutting spending and raising taxes.

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  2. I agree with you 100%. Our leaders, BOTH Repubs and Dems are misleading us. we can take hope in that a 50+ Republican Representatives voted against the piece of garbage. However, until we can get control of the leadership, we will continue to be lied to and deceived.
    It is time for Americans of all pollitical stripes to take action. we need to "pink slip" currrent leadership.

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