Posted by Speaker Boehner's Press Office on July 27, 2011
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its analysis of the revised Budget Control Act of 2011 today, and CBO’s analysis confirms that the spending cuts are greater than the debt hike – affirming that the House GOP bill meets the critical test House Republicans have said they will insist upon for any bill to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. Specifically, the CBO analysis confirms the Republican plan will:
- Cut and cap spending by $917 billion over 10 years – that’s more than the $900 billion debt hike;
- Cut $22 billion in spending for FY2012 and hold spending below FY2010 levels until FY2016;
- Continue reducing discretionary spending each year compared to President Obama’s budget (by $96 billion in 2012, $118 billion in 2013, $115 billion in 2014, $117 billion in 2015, and so on); and
- Require Congress to draft proposals that produce reductions of at least $1.8 trillion that help protect programs like Medicare and Social Security from bankruptcy.
Republicans adjusted their spending cut bill after a lower-than-expected score from CBO. This updated analysis confirms what others are saying: the Republican plan “changes the trajectory of spending” and “would keep the debt cutting process going.” Unlike Senator Reid’s gimmick-filled plan, the Republican proposal includes real spending cuts and reforms that will restrain future spending – and the spending cuts are larger than the debt limit increase.
This bill is far from perfect, but it’s a positive step forward that denies President the $2.4 trillion blank check that lets him continue his spending binge through the next election. Learn more about it here.
Uh huh.
Let's go through it, point-by-point.
- Any spending "cut" projections 10 years out are a fantasy. 30 years of history says the tax increases (if any) come immediately, the cuts come never. Go ask Bush 1 or Reagan, among others.
- $22 billion is 1.3 percent of $1,700 billion in deficits. This is otherwise called a bad joke. Oh hell, let's just cut the crap - it's public fraud to call this a "cut."
- Holding spending at 2010 levels is not a cut at all. But you call it one. This is the common fraudulent (outrageously so) accounting commonly done by a con man. In this case, 535 con men and women in the properly-named CONgress.
- Require CONgress to draft "proposals" to reduce spending by $1.8 trillion more? And if you don't? What's the penalty?
Oh, don't believe me that it's bullcrap and in fact includes no actual cuts.
Never mind that the ever-optimistic CBO, which said we'd add approximately $9 trillion (and quite possibly more) in new debt over the next ten years, themselves says this will "save" 1/10th of that. Maybe.
This is our outrageously-fraudulent "baseline" budgeting once again. That is, the "savings" are not actual spending reductions, but instead are simply "holding it steady" (except for entitlements and wars, you see.)
What has this little ditty told us? Simple: The odds have just gone up - a lot - that we're going to get an actual balanced budget.
Right here, right now.
Be ready for it.
