Budget Deal Actually Cut Less Than $15 Billion
The full extent of the budget deal reached late Friday did not become clear until today “after congressional aides worked all weekend and all day Monday to shape a detailed spending plan based on the framework that Obama and congressional leaders agreed to Friday,” the Washington Post reports. “In several cases, what look like large reductions are actually accounting gimmicks.” National Journal : “The specifics show that finding nearly $40 billion in cuts during the 2011 fiscal year required clever accounting and, for the White House, a willingness to concede on rhetoric to find gains on substance. For example, the final cuts in the deal are advertised as $38.5 billion less than was appropriated in 2010, but after removing rescissions, cuts to reserve funds and reductions in mandatory spending programs, discretionary spending will be reduced only by $14.7 billion.”
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