Congress can't add

[HI54UNI]

Deficit 'fiscal cliff' bill actually spends $330 billion more

The "fiscal cliff" deal that was designed to save money actually includes $330.3 billion in new spending over the next decade, according to the official estimate the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday afternoon.

CBO said the bill contains about $25.1 billion in new cuts, but those are swamped by the new spending on extended unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and other new refundable tax credits that President Obama fought for.

Of those cuts, only $2 billion are scheduled to take effect in 2013.

And CBO also warned that some of the cuts Congress is counting are from programs on which CBO never expected the money to be spent anyway — such as cuts to the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan, which was part of Mr. Obama's health care law.

All told, the bill deepens the deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade, when the new tax cuts and spending are combined.

The bill also delays by two months the automatic spending cuts slated to take effect Wednesday, with a promise to reduce spending in the future to cover for them.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/ins ... -330-bill/

[kalm]

There are a ton of things to cut, but the extended unemployment benefits should be somewhere near the top.

[∞∞∞]

To be fair, sometimes the extra spending are actually investments that pay off in the long-run. A more specific breakdown of the 330 billion dollars would be helpful in this case.

Regardless, this country (obviously) has a huge deficit issue despite avoiding the supposed "fiscal cliff."

[kalm]

To be fair, sometimes the extra spending are actually investments that pay off in the long-run. A more specific breakdown of the 330 billion dollars would be helpful in this case.

Regardless, this country (obviously) has a huge deficit issue despite avoiding the supposed "fiscal cliff."

Very true. We are still benefitting a ton from New Deal infrastructure projects, the GI Bill, the Federal Highway System etc. Just seems like there's a ton more waste and redundancies these days.

[Col Hogan]

I have a liberal Donk as my representative...and he's a perfect example of why we will go broke before we fix the debt/spending problem...

I'm just outside DC, so loads of Federal employees...he's opposed to reducing the #'s of federal employees because that will "unfairly impact" his district...IAW his future employment...