The Ugly, the Ugly, and the Ugly: A Look at the 2011 Funding Deal

[ProudDad]

In the end, the deal to a avert a government shutdown and keep funding going for the rest of the fiscal year amounted to a $38.5 billion cut in appropriations from the 2010 baseline (although WaPo puts it at $37.8 billion, the joint Boehner/Reid announcement used the $38.5 billion number, so that’s what I’m going with). There was a time last December, with the McCaskill-Sessions compromise, promoted by the very conservative Republican ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, when Republicans agreed to a 2011 budget appropriation $20 billion ABOVE the 2010 baseline. If mixed in with the tax cut deal, that level could have been put in place. Therefore, this deal inked late last night cut $58.5 billion from the level of McCaskill-Sessions. This equals all of the tax advantages that didn’t extend current law, outside of the business expensing provisions, in the December 2010 tax cut deal. The entire stimulus is gone.

Incidentally, John Boehner made an additional point – because the cuts to agency appropriations end up setting a new baseline and magnifying over time, the total impact of cuts in this bill is $500 billion over the next decade.

This comes at a time of 8.8% unemployment, when many economists believe additional fiscal stimulus is needed to prop up a nascent and still-fragile recovery. But Washington has gone into austerity mode. You had a Democratic President last night touting the “largest annual spending cut in our history,” as if that were something of which to be proud. Yet it’s undeniable that this cut sets the country backwards and puts it on bad footing for the additional bigger spending fights ahead. To quote Brian Beutler: “That the focal point of policy on Capitol Hill is on what should be cut — and not when to cut, or whether cutting is even wise — illustrates just how brief the progressive moment lasted after Obama’s election in 2008. It also represents a colossal failure of government.”

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/04/09/the-ugly-the-ugly-and-the-ugly-a-look-at-the-2011-funding-deal/

[ProudDad]

1. A couple of tidbits from the article

• From the WSJ: “Includes $513 billion for defense – less than Republicans and President Obama wanted but more than the $508 billion provided in 2010.” So defense actually gets a $5 billion increase above the 2010 baseline. This is equal to what was in McCaskill-Sessions in December. Defense didn’t get touched.

• From the Christian Science Monitor: “Anti-abortion lawmakers did succeed in winning a provision to ban the use of government funds to pay for abortions in the Washington capital district.” This is a radical step. The District of Columbia will not be able to use even its own tax dollars collected from its constituents to pay for any reproductive choice services. When this says “government funds,” we’re not only talking about federal government funds, we’re talking about DC’s local government funds. Annals of colonialism!

[AzDar]

2. ...

:kick:

[midnight]

3. Michael Jackson warned us via his song: they don't really care about us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nAvTVeR6o