Washington Times: Obama Has Passed More Cuts Than Bush
I know, what you’re thinking: Delaware Liberal is linking to the Washington Times? Has the world gone mad? The Washington Times did a study of the budget under Bush and Obama and found that Obama was able to push more budget cuts through than Bush did.
President Obama notched substantial successes in spending cuts last year, winning 60 percent of his proposed cuts and managing to get Congress to ax several programs that had bedeviled President George W. Bush for years.
The administration says Congress accepted at least $6.9 billion of the $11.3 billion in discretionary spending cuts Mr. Obama proposed for the current fiscal year. An analysis by The Washington Times found that Mr. Obama was victorious in getting Congress to slash 24 programs and achieved some level of success in reducing nine other programs.
Among the president’s victories are canceling the multibillion-dollar F-22 Raptor program, ending the LORAN-C radio-based ship navigation system and culling a series of low-dollar education grants. In each of those cases, Mr. Obama succeeded in eliminating programs that Mr. Bush repeatedly failed to end.
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By comparison, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says Mr. Bush won 40 percent of his spending cuts in fiscal 2006 and won less than 15 percent of his proposed cuts for 2007 and 2008.
I think it’s a lot easier to talk about budget cuts in the abstract but when it gets down to actually cutting programs it’s much more difficult. Programs always have their proponents who will fight to save them because it brings jobs to their district. Budget cuts can have real consequences for them. Also, I doubt Obama will get any credit from the media or the born-again fiscal conservatives.
In the long run, we’re going have to figure out how to fix our budget. The deficit will be a drag on the economy in the long term.
From the same article.
“Even though the president succeeded in winning a high percentage of his cuts, they still account for well less than one-half of 1 percent of the total federal budget.”
That’s right, < 0.5%.
Now are we supposed to be impressed with < 0.5% of the total federal budget ?
never enough for the LefTeabagz. you’re right Delcrat. we should have elected Palin… she want to let American KEEP more of the money they are makin’.
ITS BEEN 1 YEAR!!!!!!!!!
I think that shows how difficult enacting cuts as opposed to talking about cuts actually is.
What percentage would impress you, delacrat?
My guess is that nothing would impress you since you’ve already carved your narrative in stone. It’s pretty telling that I already know what you’re going to say before I read your comments. Again, there is a discussion to be had. Would I like to see more cuts? Maybe, depends on what’s being cut. And, imo, that’s a debate worth having.
I think the problem with cuts is we aren’t really willing to cut big ticket items. The military budget so far seems to be untouchable but it is as much as the domestic budget. The born-again fiscal conservatives always talk about deficit-neutral domestic spending (look at health care reform) but I’ve never seen CBO scoring of defense programs. At some point we’re going to have to face up to defense spending as well as domestic spending.
Now are we supposed to be impressed with < 0.5% of the total federal budget ?
Damn straight we are. That means spending is not growing, and any growth in the economy is applied straight to the deficit – especially if we get tax policy rebalanced as Obama has promised.
It only takes a modest spending restraint to reduce the deficit. In the Clinton years all it took was a reduction in the rate of spending growth. So a 0.5% structural spending cut is fantastic. Any more would be recessionary.
How many of Obama’s cuts, accounting for less than .5% of the federal budget, targeted the military? I’m slow to make political points of comparisons of Bush and Obama; however different they might be on valence issues, they are disturbingly similar when it comes to federal spending. Keep in mind that while Obama has kept much of the country distracted by domestic reform, he has continued to pour tax dollars into the war. True, he inherited it, but his decisions have also prolonged it. Violations of privacy, per the PATRIOT Act, continue under Obama; when it comes to size and power of government, federal spending, and the increased power of the Executive Branch over the other two, I don’t find Obama and Bush to be so different as Democrats and Republicans seem to believe.