$38B in savings agreed to by GOP and Democrats averted a government shutdown, but new details indicate some accounting sleight-of-hand
CBS/AP) Details of the $38 billion worth of spending cuts factoring in last Friday's 11th-hour budget that averted a government shutdown have been released, but the cuts, while historic, 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.
CBS News Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reports that legislation that reflects the deal made between Republicans and Democrats was posted online at 1:30 this morning.
Members of Congress are going to be getting their first real look of the deal Tuesday, and Republicans in particular are sure to express frustration that so many of the cuts in the deal aren't exactly cuts at all.
A group of New York Democrats has also announced they would vote against the deal (which is likely to pass) because of the cuts to social programs.
Budget cuts target Democratic priorities
Among the cuts:
$700 million from clean and safe drinking water programs;
$390 million from heating subsidies;
$276 million from pandemic flu prevention programs; and
$1.5 billion from the president's new $8 billion initiative to spur high-speed rail development.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/12/earlyshow/main20053039.shtmlAnd who said President Obama wasn't a skilled negotiator. The tea baggers would burn John Bonner at the stakes if they see the details of the agreement :)