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.

Congressional Tea Party Members WIll Vote No on 2011 Budget

The 2011 budget deal is heading to the House for the final vote and it seems that the final vote for approval is not a "shoe-in." The truest of true fiscal Conservatives and the congressional members of the Tea Party movement are adamant they will strike a "nay" vote to the legislation. Even with a 24-seat majority, Republicans will almost certainly need the help of fiscally moderate Democrats to get the 2011 plan passed. Honestly, I hope there is a shut down. It will motivate there public servant to do the right thing or they can say bye-bye to their plush job and pension. I find that fear is a get motivator.

(Washington Examiner) A vote on the 2011 budget is scheduled for Wednesday.

But many fiscal conservatives, including Reps. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have both announced they will not back the 2011 plan because it cuts only $38.5 billion, a historic amount for a single-year reduction but about $23 billion less than what Republican lawmakers said was needed to fulfill their campaign pledge to reduce spending to 2008 levels.

Jordan, who heads a large faction of conservative House Republicans as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said he expects significant GOP opposition when the 2011 budget comes up for a vote.

Even with a 24-seat majority, Republicans will almost certainly need the help of fiscally moderate Democrats to get the 2011 plan passed, Republican aides told The Washington Examiner, because many GOP conservatives and freshmen backed by the Tea Party will vote against it.

The federal government is operating under a temporary funding measure that expires Thursday at midnight.

Influential conservatives are pushing the GOP's far right flank to oppose the 2011 bill. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh panned the deal Monday and said the media and political pundits were too eager to praise Boehner, who he said should have pushed harder for deeper cuts.

"It doesn't appear that the rank and file is buying any of the spin," Limbaugh noted.

Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said Republicans may be angered that some of the cuts appear to be from areas of the budget President Obama had already intended to cut or target funds that haven't been allocated yet for specific projects.

"I suspect some of the cuts may not be real cuts," Edwards said, adding that "there may be a bit of a backlash" from conservatives.

Tea Party activists plan on making their disappointment known to the GOP leadership and individual Republican members.

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.

Washington Elitist Shafted America but Tea Party Will Get Last Laugh

I have mentioned it in the past that the budget cuts didn't go far enough. With trillion dollar/year deficit, couple billion in cuts is not good enough, especially when spending is out of control and the spending cuts decided were cuts that would happened anyway. I knew something was wrong when Liberal were praising GOP House Speaker Boehner. Liberals knew it all along. They were praising Boehner for giving the shaft to the Tea Part Movement. Well, 2012 is right around the corner. America is not done yet. There will be 28 Democrat senators and 10 Republican senators entering an election cycle. Both will be purged from Washington. Also, there will be a handful of Congressmen and Congresswomen entering the election cycle too. The American people will get the last laugh as we vote these idiots out of office. Washington has just angered the Tea Party Movement

(Washington Times) The final 2011 spending deal has more fingerprints of Democrats’ successful defense against cuts than it does House Republicans’ effort to slash federal deficits and rewrite the rules on spending.

Instead of expansive cuts the GOP originally pushed for, the agreement President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, reached with House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, makes use of the scalpel Mr. Obama favored, slicing from programs but overall avoiding the giant cuts to environment, education, job training and public broadcasting.

Also gone are the major billion-dollar cuts to public housing, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the National Institutes of Health and job-training grants — all of which passed the House but did not survive in the final deal.

Instead, the discretionary spending cuts come in large part from savings that would have happened anyway — $6.5 billion in recapturing unspent money from previous years and another $6.2 billion reduction in Census Bureau spending, which was artificially high already because of the 2010 census.

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.