If you start hearing about how President Obama has more spending cuts under his belt that George Bush did, realize you aren’t hearing the whole story.
NRO: Last spring, President Obama proposed $11.3 billion worth of discretionary spending cuts. Today’s Washington Times notes that Congress accepted $6.9 billion worth of these cuts, a 61 percent success rate.
In a $3.6 trillion federal budget, that comes to just 0.2 percent of the federal budget.
But there is a larger issue:100 percent of the savings from these “cuts” were automatically shifted into new spending. Total federal spending was not reduced by one dollar.
Here’s why: By the time President Obama released his proposed cuts, Congress and the White House already agreed on a top-line figure of $1,091 billion in discretionary spending. The only remaining issue was how to divvy up the funds. So Congress merely took $6.9 billion from the targeted programs, and shifted that money to other programs. At the end of the year, total discretionary spending remained at exactly $1,091 billion. …
By the way, the spending cuts came from the defense budget, and were shifted to domestic spending – ie: support for Democrat supporters and cronies.
Via memeorandum
