CBO Says Budget Deal Will Cut Spending by Only $352 Million

LIKE I SAID, "NOT ENOUGH!!!!!"

(National Journal) A 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.

Budget Cuts Axes Czars Already Gone

The budget cuts proposed by Republicans is a sham. The cuts are either spending proposed by Obama (never implemented) or money left over from stimulus, census, or money to pay for Obama's czars. They are not real concise budget cuts. Billion dollar in spending cuts is nothing to the trillions we have in deficit. I can't believe Washington assumes the American people are stupid. The American people are frustrated. Washington saw how capable the Tea Party Movement can destroy a politician's future. It is too late for retribution. The fury of the movement will be seen 2012.

(Politico) House Republicans won a symbolic victory by dethroning four White House "czars" under the contentious federal spending agreement rolled out early Tuesday morning, but symbolism may be all they got.

The language in the short-term budget agreement seeks to put four of President Barack Obama's policy czars out of jobs — those appointed to assist the president on health care, climate change, autos and manufacturing, and urban affairs.

The catch: At least three of those four czars have already moved out of the czar jobs.

House Republicans attached an amendment to a spending bill that passed the chamber in February to block funding for nine White House policy advisers. Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, the author of that amendment, warned at the time against what he called "a very disturbing proliferation of czars" under President Obama.

With the narrower anti-czar rider, both sides have an opportunity to claim victory. Republicans walk away with the talking point that they dethroned unelected officials playing key roles on controversial policy initiatives; the White House and Senate Democrats can claim they protected most of the advisers that matter — those who are still there.