**BREAKING**: CBO Says Budget Deal Will Cut Spending by Only $352/353 Million

[vaberella]

Yeah...read that...$352 MILLION.

Now I wasn't subscribing to the Obama is playing Chess meme. But...when you get news like this! Then you have to sit there and wonder. $100 Billion----> $352 Million are not the same. AT ALL!

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.

**snip**
With some conservatives already opposing the deal for not going far enough to meet the GOP campaign pledges to cut $100 billion, the news could complicate House Republicans' efforts to pass the bill. The minimal effect on current government spending, however, could improve macroeconomic forecasts that predicted lower economic growth if government spending was drastically reduced.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/budget/cbo-says-budget-deal-will-cut-spending-by-only-352-million-20110413

This broke about 1 hour ago.

What do you guys think about that. At the link they added the number comparisons too.

Update---FOX News link---beware---they're good when they're pissed:

http://nation.foxnews.com/budget-battle/2011/04/13/americans-were-lied-cbo-says-budget-deal-cuts-just-353-million-not-38-billi#ixzz1JS8ihFoG">AMERICANS WERE LIED TO: CBO Says Budget Deal Cuts Just $353 Million, Not $38 Billion


A new budget estimate released Wednesday shows that the spending bill negotiated between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner would produce less than 1 percent of the $38 billion in claimed savings by the end of this budget year.

The Congressional Budget Office estimate shows that compared with current spending rates the spending bill due for a House vote Thursday would pare just $352 million from the deficit through Sept. 30. About $8 billion in cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid are offset by nearly equal increases in defense spending.

The House began preliminary debate on the measure Wednesday with it easily advancing over a procedural hurdle by a 241-179 vote. The measure appears on track to pass the House and Senate this week before a stopgap spending measure expires Friday at midnight despite opposition from some of the GOP's most ardent budget cutters.

The budget deficit is projected at $1.6 trillion this year.

[uponit7771]

1. HORRIBLE, it doesn't cut by 353 so I'm not going to vote in 2010 /sarcasm (yes, that's needed in DU)

[vaberella]

5. ROFL! It is 353---or that's how Fox News says it. n/t

[Festivito]

2. So, we lose 38.5-billion in government services and get back 0.4-billion in cash, over time,...

Oh, now that's some deal. :eyes:

And, the Repubs wanted us to lose even more, and probably get back even less. So, smart they are... :dunce:

[vaberella]

4. Nope...the cuts don't add up to the 38.5 billion from the start.

and there were little cuts to government services. The numbers aren't what was projected.

[Festivito]

18. It did, it will hurt us, and by 38B$. What more, they're not including what it cost to save 0.4B$.

The cuts do add up to 38-billion. It's just that the cuts are to things that might not get spent anyway.

However, if they do need to be spent, Congress will have to try and micro-manage this 38-billion, ridiculously focusing on one-percent of the yearly budget, instead of leaving it to lower-level managers inside government where those decisions are done by people who know the situations better. If it does happen, not only will it be spent, but it will be spent costing us more to even spend that amount, or it might cost us even more, later.

Thusly, we the people lose.

We would lose things like spending on a building problem, now, quickly, so it does not become a huge expense in a year or two.

PLUS, what did it cost us to bring us to the brink?

Thousands of employees in a paper storm trying to determine what services are required in a total shutdown. Things like feeding animals that will die in a zoo by the time the silly shutdown might be over.

We the people lose, we lose, we lose, we lose.

[DrToast]

3. Boehner is screwed.

If this deal collapses, he is ruined.

[vaberella]

6. I think it will. This doesn't look good. Fox is going crazy. n/t

[vaberella]

7. Kick for importance. n/t

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. This is the deal that Boehner put his ass on the line for? Expect there

to be a change in the GOP leadership soon. Couldn't happen to a nicer a-hole. :rofl:

[mucifer]

9. Doesn't this make the dems look bad too?

[DrToast]

11. To who?

[vaberella]

17. How?! n/t

[ProgressiveEconomist]

19. On the contrary! IMO this makes Obama look brilliant and John of Orange look moronic--

as though he can't even count with the help of a HUGE Speaker's staff.

The timing of this report couldn't be better, coming on the heels of Obama's intimidating a Paul Ryan sitting in the front row for the President's dramatic GWU address on how the Rs want to change America fundamentally for the worse. Ryan wou,ld be a natural replacement for Boehner, but the President has made Ryan look like a nincompoop too!

[Dokkie]

22. Its sad that the cuts did not come from the military

apart from that the dems come out rosy on the deal

[sasha031]

10. so what happens if the repubs vote against it?

that means the government isn't funded, doesn't it put us back in the same place.

[DrToast]

12. I imagine there's probably enough Dems + Republicans to pass it

But Boehner insisted on having enough Republican votes to pass it alone. He might have to rely on Democrats now.

[sasha031]

13. should be interesting

[vaberella]

24. It passed. Most of the Repubs don't read--Teabaggers never read.

This came out late last night. I know one TX guy found out and said as much on the floor. But the others didn't. So I think they're going to get all this information now and they will hate, that they got duped. But that's what they get when they don't read the fine print.

[Dokkie]

26. Rep Louie Gomer?

[Make7]

14. So now Fox News considers the CBO an acceptable source? ( n/t )

[vaberella]

16. Seems so. n/t

[robinlynne]

15. Guess what. TIME TO TAX THE RICH.

[vaberella]

20. Agreed! n/t

[SpartanDem]

21. Obama and Co ate Boner's lunch

K&R

[totodeinhere]

23. If this deal made Boner look so bad why did a majority of House Democrats

including Pelosi vote against it? It must not have been all that good.

[Dokkie]

25. its political theatre

act as if you were shafted when in reality your side won. Just play along and hope the rethugs dont realize this. The is the part of the sausage making where you have to avert your eyes, its really dirty :)