Friday, February 13, 2015

Don't Pat yourself on the Back Barry: Budget Control Act, NOT YOU, Brought Down Deficit

Fiscal Policy: President Obama boasts that he's brought the budget deficit down by two-thirds from the towering heights of $1.4 trillion in 2009 and 2010. But he doesn't mention the main reason why borrowing has fallen.
That happens to be the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA), which established tight budget caps and a sequester process of automatic, across-the-board spending cuts.
It slammed the brakes on spending and reversed the budget blowout of Obama's first two years in office. It has already saved $600 billion over what spending would have been (see chart).
Naturally, Obama wants to end those caps and launch a new spending spree. His budget calls for $74 billion of spending above the caps next year and $350 billion more spending through 2020. To get Republicans to go along, he's offering half of that money for the Pentagon.
A growing number of Republican appropriators are foolishly willing to sign on and bust the caps, and throw out the sequester as well. Sen. John McCain and other defense hawks want more money allocated to the military. But they can get it without abandoning all spending discipline.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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