In a move that certainly belies the transparency that Democrats and Republicans in Washington have trumpeted, the details of the $38 billion budget deal reached on Friday were released at 1:30 this morning on a government web site.
According to CBS News, the $38 billion in cuts “were significantly eased by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.”
When lawmakers get their first look at the list later today, congressional Republicans will certainly conclude that many items are cuts in name only. In some cases, the so-called reductions consist of federal funds that were never spent but remained on the books.
CBS congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes offers several examples: “… $1.7 billion left over from the 2010 census; $3.5 billion in unused children’s health insurance funds; $2.2 billion in subsidies for health insurance co-ops (that’s something the president’s new health care law is going to fund anyway); and $2.5 billion from highway programs that can’t be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation.”
About $10 billion comes from targeting an appropriations account for earmarks, though the GOP had already engineered a ban on earmarks.
Republican leadership also claimed $5 billion in savings by capping payments from a fund awarding compensation to crime victims. CBS reports that, under an arcane bookkeeping rule — used for years by Capitol Hill appropriators — placing a cap on spending from the Justice Department crime victims fund allows lawmakers to claim the entire contents of the fund as “budget savings.”
Cordes also reports that the deal engineered by House Speaker John Boehner backs away from cuts for Head Start, Pell grants, President Obama’s “Race to the Top” education reforms, and the “politically treacherous” reductions proposed for food inspection programs.
Watch for a mini-revolt later today among GOP lawmakers.
