Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The $38 billion budget compromise that averted a government shutdown contained numerous political victories for Republicans, as well as some chicanery to help inflate the GOP achievement.
For instance, lawmakers can claim they cut $5 billion from the Department of Justice’s Crime Victims Fund. But the reduction is a paper one only. The money is in a reserve fund that wasn’t going to be allocated in 2010 anyway.
Republicans can also crow about axing funds for four Obama administration “czars” overseeing health care, climate change, the auto industry and urban affairs. But those positions were vacant before the compromise, so no one really is out of a job.
The cuts also included almost $2 billion left over from the 2010 census, which went under budget.
The biggest cuts will affect the departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services. Together, these three will absorb 52% of the cuts, or $19.8 billion.
The GOP also enjoyed chopping 16% off the budget for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which will lose $1.6 billion.
The biggest single cut was $6.2 billion leftover from the Department of Defense (DOD)’s construction fund, but overall DOD actually saw its budget increase.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Budget Deal: Cuts of $38 Billion Include Accounting Gimmicks, Target Obama Priorities (by Philip Rucker, Washington Post)
Budget Tricks Helped Obama Save Programs from Cuts (by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press)
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