How Big Were Those Budget Cuts, Really?

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The AP suggests that accounting gimmicks make the cuts a lot smaller than their price tag implies.

A close look at the government shutdown-dodging agreement to cut federal spending by $38 billion reveals that lawmakers significantly eased the fiscal pain by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.

National Review‘s Lowry is startled by a $4.9 billion “gimmick.” And here’s his colleague Ramesh Ponnuru:

So the budget deal is supposed to deliver $38 billion in spending cuts, including $20 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary spending. (House Republicans originally passed $61 billion of cuts in that category of spending.) Based on news accounts, quite a lot of that $20 billion could be phony: $6.2 billion in unspent money for the Census; $2.5 billion of highway funds that couldn’t be spent; $3.5 billion of unused spending authority in a children’s health-care program. Is it possible that Republicans have gone from $61 billion in domestic discretionary savings all the way down to $8 billion?

It’ll be interesting to see whether large numbers conservative House Republicans start to squawk. This deal hasn’t passed yet, after all.