Bogus Budget Cuts Insult Taxpayers

Imagine taxpayers' chagrin when they learned this week that $38 billion isn't what it used to be. It could happen only in Washington, where the President and both parties have tried to hoodwink Americans with a bogus budget agreement that offers little hope the country's deficit problem will ever be addressed responsibly.

While the Beltway in-crowd jockeyed to claim credit for reducing the 2011 budget by "historic" levels, it was left to the Congressional Budget Office to expose the shabby charade. It turns out the spending cuts were not as advertised.

After examining the proposed budget deal, the CBO determined that the planned reductions will only trim federal outlays by $352 million below 2010 spending. The nonpartisan budget agency's findings sent Washington politicians scrambling for cover.

Try as they might, the Capitol spin machine could not explain how $38 billion overnight became $352 million. According to the CBO, the plan used accounting gimmicks, cuts to reserve funds and counted funding that was not going to be spent in the current budget.

Under the agreement, the actual reductions are one-hundredth of what Republicans and Democrats trumpeted publicly when the deal was reached. This sham was foisted on the American public by a media that rushed to laud the downsizing before checking the facts.

Now that the truth has surfaced entrenched Washington politicos are still trying to sell the idea that this is a good deal for taxpayers. Their collective arrogance is an insult to every American of all political stripes.

Meanwhile, the federal deficit continues to march skyward. In just the first six months of the current fiscal year, the budget deficit zoomed up 15.7 percent. That staggering increase added another $829 billion to government debt.

At the current spending pace, the federal budget will bleed $1.4 trillion in red ink for the year. As a consequence, government debt will soon bump up against the $14.2 trillion debt ceiling. Raising the debt limit will require Congressional approval.

The media is salivating over another high stakes political battle like the one that just resulted in the budget trimming fiasco. Mainstream news outlets snookered Americans with coverage of the impending doom of a government shutdown. It spooked Republicans who caved as the clock ticked down.

Now President Obama is already daring Republicans to play "chicken" with the debt ceiling. When Obama was a senator, he voted against raising the debt limit, scolding then President Bush for his lack of leadership on deficit reduction. By the president's own definition, apparently the nation still has a leadership problem.

The president and his legions of foot soliders are warning that refusal to increase the debt ceiling will lead to financial Armageddon. Watch as the media takes up the chant. For their part, Republicans are talking bravely, but their leadership will crumble when the media heat reaches the boiling point.

Where does that leave ordinary citizens? Unfortunately, the less than 50 percent of Americans who actually pay taxes in the country are on the hook to pick up the tab for Washington's refusal to enact meaningful budget reform.

It is a sorry state of affairs. The government will continue to grow. Budgets will get fatter. Washington will borrow more money. The country will sink deeper into debt and prospects for economic growth will dim.

Our political leaders should be ashamed. Instead they want us to believe they are now really getting serious about shaving the deficit. Based on the budget deal, nothing could be further from the truth.