Budget deal: not even smoke and mirrors
It's clear that President Obama and Speaker Boehner have tried to pull the wool over their colleague's eyes with the budget deal trumpeted last week by both men.
The Congressional Budget Office has examined the deal and their report shows that it is not all that it is cracked up to be. National Journal
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 included in the deal, especially at the Defense Department; decisions to draw over half of the savings from recissions, cuts to reserve funds, and mandatory-spending programs; and writing off cuts from funding that might never have been spent.
And there you have it. Instead of cuts, we get accounting gimmicks.
It may indeed be considered irresponsible by some to shut down the government. But this deal should be rejected and let the chips fall where they may. Boehner and Obama out and out lied about the impact of this bill on federal spending. It's hard to see how the Speaker can be trusted by anyone going forward.
Perhaps some other short term solution could be found to keep the government operating. But this budget deal should be voted down simply because it's dishonesty disqualifies it from passage.
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