Analysis: Budget deal only reduces real discretionary spending by around $15 billion

[dennis4868]

See this AP piece for the grim details. Quote: “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 $4.9 billion comes from a Crime Victims Fund that wasn’t going to be spent this year anyway.
Based on the number of Republicans who voted no and Democrats who voted yes on the short-term funding resolution passed late last week, Boehner’s got something like a 40-vote cushion for Thursday’s House vote on the package. How much of it will be left after this starts making the rounds?

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All of this makes perfect sense from the Democrats’ perspective. It’s win/win. If Boehner can convince his caucus to suck it up and vote yes on the package anyway, great — Obama and Reid get to claim credit with independents for being newly minted deficit hawks or whatever while conceding a scant $15 billion in real cuts. If Boehner can’t convince his caucus to suck it up and the vote fails in an eleventh-hour revolt, great — Obama and Reid get to blame the GOP for shutting down the government by rejecting a deal that was, after all, approved by John Boehner himself. Voters are already more likely to credit Democrats for last week’s compromise than Republicans, so the GOP goes into this as the “stubborn” party; and according to Pew’s eye-popping poll this morning, Americans are also already plenty disgusted with the budget standoff. If the deal falls apart and the government shuts down, there’s a severe risk that that disgust will land squarely in the GOP’s lap.

The entire article is here....http://hotair.com/archives/2011/04/12/analysis-budget-deal-only-reduces-real-discretionary-spending-by-around-15-billion/?print=1