Budget tricks helped Obama save programs from cuts

This deceitful accounting manipulation is so common with Washington, especially with the Obama Administration. From the unemployment numbers to balancing the budget, it is all about hiding numbers. Everybody in Washington is in on the act. The GOP establishment knew what was going on with Democrats leading the way. Unfortunately, the America public is not privy to the inner works of Washington. Even though most Americans are blinded by the double standard in Washington, there is one thing Americans can agree. The Legislative and Executive branch are crooks. They are looking for ways to make themselves richer and holding onto power as long as they can. This is why both Democrats, Liberals, and the GOP establishment hates the Tea Party movement. The elitist in Washington have a common enemy that can change the total make-up of America. The Tea Party movement will take back America from Washington and return it to the American people.

(My Way News) WASHINGTON (AP) - The historic $38 billion in budget cuts resulting from at-times hostile bargaining between Congress and the Obama White House were accomplished in large part by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.

Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs - Pell grants for poor college students, health research and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others - from Republican knives, according to new details of the legislation released Tuesday morning.

And big holes in foreign aid and Environmental Protection Agency accounts were patched in large part. Republicans also gave up politically treacherous cuts to the Agriculture Department's food inspection program.

The details of the agreement reached late Friday night just ahead of a deadline for a partial government shutdown reveal a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially "score" as cuts to pay for spending elsewhere, but often have little to no actual impact on the deficit.

As a result of the legerdemain, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber approved a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion. In doing so, the White House protected favorites like the Head Start early learning program, while maintaining the maximum Pell grant of $5,550 and funding for Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools.

Instead, the cuts that actually will make it into law are far tamer, including cuts to earmarks, unspent census money, leftover federal construction funding, and $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused spending authority from a program providing health care to children of lower-income families.