Welcome to your Tuesday open thread. I’m busy. I’m counting on you to tell me what’s going on.
Mission Accomplished, Andrew Breitbart! Shirley Sherrod is going back to work at the USDA working on civil rights:
Sherrod will not take her old position, reports Politico, instead rejoining the agency to work on civil rights. In her new job, she’ll lead a program designed to improve relations with minority farmers.
Good for her! And here’s to Shirley for making Brietbart spend alot of his wingnut money on lawyers. Because her lawsuit against him continues.
How many times have we told you that Republicans and math don’t mix? The CBO says that the *Historic Spending Cuts* the repubs have been touting actually increased spending by $3B. Yes, folks, that was Three Billion.
Mission Accomplished, Teajadis!
“Total discretionary outlays in 2011 will be $3.2 billion higher as a result of the legislation, CBO estimates–an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs, partially offset by a net reduction of $4.4 billion in other spending,” reads a just-released report from the Congressional Budget Office — Congress’ non-partisan scorekeeper. Analysts there conclude that increase is due in large part to the fact that the six month spending bill shifted defense spending to more immediate activities, which means the bills will come due sooner than later.
Prior to passage of the 2011 budget, the CBO estimated a savings of about $350M for the year. Now that the CBO has had a chance to look at the full package — including the cost of not having a budget –it turns out that we are spending more for the GOP spending cuts. A thing that only the GOP could accomplish, I’m thinking.