When is a spending cut a spending cut? That may seem like a nonsensical question, but these days in Washington it is one of considerable importance.
In January, the spending levels for the federal government will be set by law according to the Budget Control Act which is commonly known as Sequestration. If you read items in the mainstream media, you would think that there is about to be a new 91 billion dollar cut in federal spending. Here is how the AP described the upcoming sequester in an article just this afternoon:
The automatic spending cuts are required because a 2011 deficit-reduction supercommittee failed to reach an agreement. The cuts would carve $91 billion from the day-to-day budgets of the Pentagon and domestic agencies in 2014 compared with the spending caps set by a 2011 budget deal. The Pentagon would absorb almost 60 percent of the cuts.
If you notice that the language used by the AP seems a bit strange, that is because the so called "cuts" are not really cuts at all. Spending in 2014 would be higher than in 2013 for all of the items that are being hit with these "cuts". The difference, however, is that spending levels would be less than the levels that were set for these items in the tentative ten year budget two and a half years ago. Only in Washington would spending levels lower than a thirty month old tentative budget that was never actually adopted be called "cuts". By that reasoning, I should tell my wife that I plan to spend a million dollars next month on food. If we actually spend a thousand dollars, I will have "saved" $999,000.
It never fails to amaze me that Washington and its helpers in the media try repeatedly to fool Americans about the nature and trajectory of spending levels that are actually being expended by the federal government. The Democrats and the media try to make a year with a regular increase into a major cut and assault on people's welfare by the Republicans. Of course, they tried this in a major way last year when the Sequestration cuts actually went into effect. The world was coming to an end, or so we were told. Then the cuts kicked in and no one even noticed the difference. Any rational person would have realized that if Americans did not care when there were real cuts, it is unlikely to sway many people when there are only phony cuts like those that will supposedly hit in January.
Maybe the Democrats should stick to promoting Obamacare since that is going so well for them.
In January, the spending levels for the federal government will be set by law according to the Budget Control Act which is commonly known as Sequestration. If you read items in the mainstream media, you would think that there is about to be a new 91 billion dollar cut in federal spending. Here is how the AP described the upcoming sequester in an article just this afternoon:
The automatic spending cuts are required because a 2011 deficit-reduction supercommittee failed to reach an agreement. The cuts would carve $91 billion from the day-to-day budgets of the Pentagon and domestic agencies in 2014 compared with the spending caps set by a 2011 budget deal. The Pentagon would absorb almost 60 percent of the cuts.
If you notice that the language used by the AP seems a bit strange, that is because the so called "cuts" are not really cuts at all. Spending in 2014 would be higher than in 2013 for all of the items that are being hit with these "cuts". The difference, however, is that spending levels would be less than the levels that were set for these items in the tentative ten year budget two and a half years ago. Only in Washington would spending levels lower than a thirty month old tentative budget that was never actually adopted be called "cuts". By that reasoning, I should tell my wife that I plan to spend a million dollars next month on food. If we actually spend a thousand dollars, I will have "saved" $999,000.
It never fails to amaze me that Washington and its helpers in the media try repeatedly to fool Americans about the nature and trajectory of spending levels that are actually being expended by the federal government. The Democrats and the media try to make a year with a regular increase into a major cut and assault on people's welfare by the Republicans. Of course, they tried this in a major way last year when the Sequestration cuts actually went into effect. The world was coming to an end, or so we were told. Then the cuts kicked in and no one even noticed the difference. Any rational person would have realized that if Americans did not care when there were real cuts, it is unlikely to sway many people when there are only phony cuts like those that will supposedly hit in January.
Maybe the Democrats should stick to promoting Obamacare since that is going so well for them.
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