by James Valvo, Americans for Prosperity
House Republican leaders failed their first major test about whether they will play straight with the American people — and now they’re paying the price. In an attempt to meet their Pledge to America commitment to cut $100 billion in spending in their first year, House leaders decided to compare their continuing resolution cuts to President Obama’s FY2011 budget request instead of comparing the cuts to current spending levels. This was a mistake.
Presidential budgets are a starting point each year for the discussion over spending priorities. These budgets are printed at taxpayer expense, delivered with fanfare to Capitol Hill and then summarily dismissed. Congress then goes about its business passing a framework budget and appropriating funds under that framework. That process fell apart last year when Democrats were so obsessed with Obamacare that they failed to pass a budget for the first time in modern history.
Speaker Boehner led the new House GOP majority into office on January 5th saying, “hard work and tough decisions will be required of the 112th Congress.” But first the new budget hawks had to clean up after the Democrats. In two months the temporary continuing resolution would expire, and the media, GOP freshman and a wide swath of voters would be looking for spending cuts. The Pledge to America stated Republicans intended to “roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving at least $100 billion in the first year alone.” This $100 billion was calculated by comparing current FY2010 non-defense, non-security discretionary spending to the same categories in FY2008.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/28/both-parties-claim-to-cut-nonexistent-41-billion/print/
