Philip Klein examines the Congressional Budget Office’s score of House Speaker John Boehner’s (R., Ohio) deficit plan:
House Speaker John Boehner’s plan to raise the debt limit will reduce deficits by just $1 billion in 2012 and $851 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The news that the deficit savings are backloaded to occur in years that the current Congress has no control over is likely to increase doubts among House conservatives who were already skeptical about the plan.
In total, the plan would reduce discretionary spending by $695 billion compared to current projections for 2012 through 2021, cut mandatory spending by $20 billion, and save $135 billion in interest payments.
In 2012, the one fiscal year that the current Congress has full control over, discretionary spending is only supposed to go down by $5 billion. Those savings are projected to increase over time reach $112 billion in 2021. But the problem with relying so heavily on discretionary spending cuts rather than structural reforms to mandatory programs is that it’s hard to bind future Congresses’s into meeting the caps.
These numbers don’t exactly inspire confidence, and it will be interesting to see how members react, if any minds are changed. Either way, this score would appear to confirm the narrative that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) at least partially signed off the plan, before the White House rejected it.
Most significantly, the $851 billion in deficit reduction is less than the $1 trillion debt increase authorized in the plan, which is technically a violation of the GOP’s own requirements. Boehner spokesman Michael Steel says the speaker’s staff are currently “looking at option to re-write the legislation to meet our pledge,” adding: “This is what can happen when you have an actual plan and submit it for independent review – which the Democrats who run Washington have refused to do.”
Ugh. He's rewriting. Meanwhile, Reid and Obama laugh because they don't have to lift a finger.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey should make all the cuts happen in the first year. And add a balanced budget amendment requirement before debt ceiling passage. And while their add it, insist on repeal of Obamacare. It will just make the political fallout after the Senate and/or Obama kills it that much greater. If they are going to walk over the cliff, they may as well walk with their head held high.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo....in return for a $1 trillion debt-ceiling increase, and after a promise of $1.2 trillion in cuts, we get … $850 billion in actual savings over 10 years and....wait for it....wait for it.....just $1 billion in cuts this year! Way to go Boehner!
What a joke. Like I said, it's the CR disaster all over again.
Whoever votes for this travesty should be primaried.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy not cut some whole departments? Go for the gusto.
Someone has to have the courage to save the country. If not now, when.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen?
How about when you have a President who would sign the bill and a Senate who would even allow it to get passed?
How about NOT making your stand when failure to raise the ceiling will lead to a government shut down of all discretionary functions until the debt ceiling is raised - meaning no customs guys at the airports, ending unemployment benefits for pretty much everyone, ending student loans and grants for pretty much everyone,no approvals of new drugs, furloughs of federal prisoners, no FHA mortgages, and other ridiculous things because there is a chance that the money to pay people for these labors will never come in?... Because you know that the media will blame the Republicans unless they are being overwhelmingly reasonable (e.g. "we sent two different plans up," he didn't take either) - and you've just increased the chances that Pelosi is the new speaker (but she's better than Beohner, right?) and Obama has a 2nd term with both houses to cement that "transformational change" he wants.
But, no, you are right. NOW, with 1 house of congress, is the time to make the stand. We can't take a small win (small cuts in discretionary spending, force them to at least to put a plan out on entitlements, and no new taxes) and fight for Cut, Cap & Balance in the next election, right? That's waiting too darn long. I WANT IT NOW, DADDY!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe don't need a bill to pass to cut spending. The House holds the veto on spending. So sure we can get our way right now.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe House already appropriated funds for next year. They could have had the fight then, but they folded. Bad call, in my opinion, but what happened, happened.
But they DO need to raise the debt ceiling... or there will be serious economic harm from the immediate 40% cut in government spending - the cuts controlled by Obama, and that will be pinned on the Republicans by the media, and Nancy Pelosi will be speaker again while Obama will have his next 4 years.
And you can all be happy about having taking a stand for the big win instead of walking away with a material, if small one.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Now" is always the best time to do the right thing. What's at stake here is the PR hammer for next year's election. Republicans should be the ones who demand BIG spending cuts NOW (as in Trillions NOW, in the next 12 months), or else a 5 month extension raise only. Let Obama be tattooed with the stink of vetoing that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Real Grant-
Maybe you should get a calculator- we don't have the money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
40% of the annual budget we are spending is borrowed.
This borrowing will end one way or another- let's do it in a systematic way by passing laws that cut spending
or
In a unsystematic way by total government collapse
Two options
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's it
Times up
@TheRealGrant - "...meaning no customs guys at the airports, ending unemployment benefits for pretty much everyone, ending student loans and grants for pretty much everyone,no approvals of new drugs, furloughs of federal prisoners, no FHA mortgages, and other ridiculous things because there is a chance that the money to pay people for these labors will never come in?"
Dunno, a lot of that sounds pretty good to me.
Guess what: The media is going to blame the GOP no matter what happens.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood grief. Can't anybody here play this game?
We are so boned.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy captcha was "helter skelter". How appropriate.
I SO don't care about spending plans 10 years out. How many times have the dems promised big cuts in the future for just a modest tax increase now? Taxes happen. Cuts don't. These guys have no control whatsoever over what happens ten years out. And even if they did, they could care less. Why does the process even exist? No responsible enterprise has spending plans for a decade from now. Our government should have a one or two year budget plan.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA BBA is starting to sound better and better.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI cannot express how disgusted I am with Boehner and the rest of his leadership buds who are selling us out once again. The debt ceiling increase is real, but the savings are illusory. I concur that any Republican who votes for this joke of a bill should face a primary challenge. Why is it the Democrats have to do nothing while we shoot ourselves in the foot? Make them produce a bill or let the country pass the pseudo-deadline cooked up by Geither and Obama.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCut a measly billion, raise a trillion? After the smoke-and-mirror cut last time? GOP needs a new Speaker. How the heck could the GOP yes votes survive their primaries next year? Stick to Ryan's plan, or that Cut, cap, and whatever... Let the Dems pass their own plan in the Senate, and Obama explain the downgrade.
What happened to those "Blue Dogs" who fell on Pelosi's Obamacare sword?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo awesome. A few more of these and the House will vote down Boehner's 11th hour legislation for fear it will be a repeat of the $100 billion cuts fiasco.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn another thread, I reluctantly supported Boehner and Ryan, thinking at least some of the cuts were real.
I agree. Can't these clowns come up with any real cuts?
I had not seen the scoring of the CBO (and, yes, I know the CBO scoring is a very sand-box driven scoring). Had I seen the result, I would have never given them the benefit of the doubt.
The biggest issue I now have is that they had to know it was all fluff and they were hoping the CBO would hide until it passed and they could say, "Snookered again."
Well, Boehner and Ryan, the Tea Party and your base gave you support to move the discussion into your court and you promptly compromised away any real victory.
Bravo.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy kids are all up and grown now, but I remember when the youngest played church league girl's soccer, age group 5-6-7. They had no idea how to play, despite all the practices. It all went out the window. They'd all crowd around the ball so nobody ever really had possession and there'd be no one to pass to anyway because they were all jammed up in a bunch, both teams. They looked not like two teams, but a single weird beast with twelve heads stumbling around the field staring at twenty-four feet and no clue as to what to do next.
This is what Congress looks like to me now.
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