From Politico:
On the eve of Thursday’s House vote, new cost estimates of the White House-Republican budget deal are a double-edged sword for GOP leaders: confirming historic cuts but projecting the immediate deficit impact this year at less than a half billion dollars.
Congressional Budget Office data, posted Wednesday morning, shows that total non-emergency appropriations will fall to $1.0498 trillion, a nearly $38 billion reduction from their level at the beginning of this year. But the impact on outlays or direct spending before the 2011 fiscal year ends Sept. 30 will be just $352 million compared to prior CBO reports reviewed by POLITICO.
In fact, once overseas contingency funds related to Afghanistan and Pakistan are counted, the news gets worse: CBO now says that total discretionary outlays for 2011 are higher –not lower—by about $3.3 billion than it had estimated in December.
The budget deal’s increase in Pentagon appropriations—together with the mix of spending that produces higher outlays—are clearly major factors. But even if the Pentagon portion of the budget is discounted entirely, the net outlay reduction is just $8.2 billion from what CBO was forecasting at the end of last year….