Posted on 04/12/2011 8:04:55 AM PDT by quesney
WASHINGTON – The historic $38 billion in budget cuts resulting from at-times hostile bargaining between Congress and the Obama White House were accomplished in large part by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.
Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs — Pell grants for poor college students, health research and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others — from Republican knives, according to new details of the legislation released Tuesday morning.
And big holes in foreign aid and Environmental Protection Agency accounts were patched in large part. Republicans also gave up politically treacherous cuts to the Agriculture Department's food inspection program.
The details of the agreement reached late Friday night just ahead of a deadline for a partial government shutdown reveal a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially "score" as cuts to pay for spending elsewhere, but often have little to no actual impact on the deficit.
As a result of the legerdemain, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber approved a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
If the Republicans were smart (big IF), then they would put the executive branch on notice that there would be no raise in the debt ceiling until the next fiscal year starts, so Obama will have to make ends meet with the funds he has until October 1.
they are saying “just wait until we have both houses and the executive branch” as if that’s a guarantee.
They majorly blew it. They sure will never shut down government in election year. They suck!
Boehner was PLAYED!
Republican leadership SUCKERS!
Urge more republicans to vote no!
I am very disappointed ,the more I learn about this sellout. I have emailed my congress woman . I am very upset. If this is what we can expect ,we are doomed.
Oh lord people
WAKE UP
GEEESH
I said for the last two weeks this was nothing more than a joke and a slight of hand.
Freepers that actually thought the Republicans were going to cut money or help them out?
PLEEEEAAAAZZZZZZZE
Not going to happen
And you can talk about the “HOPE” of the next budget cutting trillions.
YES YES - by all means - talk among yourselves. Meanwhile I have a bridge to sell you...
WAKE UP
It is over. America will never return to where she used to be. Not without war. Not without revolution.
And good luck finding enough people to help you with that. America has become a lazy hog. Dying hog.
Turn the lights out on the way out.
Don't lose sight of the fact that we're literally surrounded by traitors, political hypocrites and those with personal agendas, who have *absolutely* no desire for truth.
“Don’t fall for this crap. This is nothing more than a save-face story for Obama. While I am not happy at all with the amount of cuts given, I do recognize a CYA piece for the benefit of the Imposter-in-Chief. Regardless of what Boehner did, Obama dropped the ball on this one through his inability to lead. And the point of this story is to make Obama look like some brilliant winner when in fact he wasn’t even involved in the process.”
—It’s going to be a lot less painful and shocking in the end to just admit the truth now, IMHO. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. The ultra-secrecy, broken promises, smearing Conservatives who question any of this, and so forth. I hope I’m wrong, but I think it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better with these people.
Proof again that secession is the only answer.
Oust Bohner and replace his weepy crying butt with Paul Ryan.
Yup.
There was no 2011 budget "cut" relative to the 2010 budget. The only thing that was cut was a small amount of money from Obama's failed budget proposal that the Democrats rejected during the last congress.
This is the biggest and most deficit ridden budget in US history, and that includes even the "stimulus" soaked budget of 2010.
Boehner's scam is that he chopped $100 billion off of a failed, exorbitant Obama budget proposal, that wasn't even introduced, and never would have passed during the last Democrat congress.
If Boehner was so afraid of a government shutdown, because of the military, he could have honestly stated that there was nothing that he could do, that there was no real budget cuts, and that people should elect more Republicans in 2012 to resolve the problem.
Or he could have called Obama's bluff on the shutdown.
But that's not what Boehner did. Instead he deceives the public and in exchange he gets nauseating praise from the media.
Your description above of what happened nails it, and the Boehner Bots who infested this website this past weekend need to wake-up.
Republicans and Democrats alike, take note. If the budget doesn’t get under control REAL SOON, you will need a new job next year.
They just keep on trying the patience of the American voter. If they (Dems AND Repubs) thought the Tea Party backlash was harsh this last November, wait ‘til next time!
I faced a major storm of criticism on the Congratulations House Speaker John Boehner and Deal falls short of GOP cut pledge; 'As good as we could get,' says Boehner (We lost!) threads when i said that $38 billion was next to nothing and even if it was something, it was all smoke and mirrors that would simply disappear into govt and be spent elsewhere.
They were all saying that this is a great start, but me, I have ultimate confidence in my tagline. I don't expect it to fail me for the foreseeable future.
The $38 billion that this was supposed to "save" would have only paid to allow us the privilege of borrowing $1.3 TRILLION on this year's budget and a further $1.7 TRILLION on next year's.
Not a bad deal if you're a Dem. Give up $38 billion and get to tax ( since the only way that it'll EVER be paid back is through new taxes in the future. 100%+ taxrate new taxes at that! ) and spend another $3 *TRILLION* to give away before the election!!
Well .... The GOP should go back to HR1 and make passage of another $40b in cuts ... AND repeal and defund Obamacare ... the price of the debt ceiling increase.
At the current rate of drunken sailor (Sorry USN guys; no offense) spending, its game over.
“Don’t fall for this crap. This is nothing more than a save-face story for Obama. While I am not happy at all with the amount of cuts given, I do recognize a CYA piece for the benefit of the Imposter-in-Chief.”
This is true... but it is also true that a classic way to balance budget is smoke and mirrors. We need real cuts not smoke and mirrors. if this is true, we gave up quite a bit in the ‘details’.
‘If the Republicans were smart (big IF), then they would put the executive branch on notice that there would be no raise in the debt ceiling until the next fiscal year starts, so Obama will have to make ends meet with the funds he has until October 1.”
We can do even better. No debt ceiling raise unless Obamacare is defunded and spending is capped, with locked-in spending caps for FY 2012.
“There was no 2011 budget “cut” relative to the 2010 budget.”
Not true. The $38b is a real ‘cut’ from 2012. The number off the Obama ‘budget’ was $78 billion, meaning Obama’s original budget was to ramp it up $40 b more.
And the Dems never rejected th ebudget, they just never wrote one in the first place!
“This is the biggest and most deficit ridden budget in US history, and that includes even the “stimulus” soaked budget of 2010.”
True, and a travesty.
This compromise barely starts what needs to happen. we have to do better.
Just keep working. . . ha ha ha hahahahaha. . .
Time for the march on Washington D.C. yet?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.