Some hostage takers. It turns out that instead of killing the hostages, the hostages actually had babies on their watch (okay, bad analogy, but basically, they screwed up).
It turns out the six-month spending bill Congress passed in March increased discretionary outlays through the remainder of the fiscal year by a bit over $3 billion. In other words, total direct spending will be higher by the end of September than if Congress had just set spending on autopilot for the remainder of the fiscal year back in April.The good news for Republicans? Their super duper budget cutting deal should cut spending in ten years by as much as they claimed it would by September.
"Total discretionary outlays in 2011 will be $3.2 billion higher as a result of the legislation, CBO estimates--an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs, partially offset by a net reduction of $4.4 billion in other spending," reads a just-released report from the Congressional Budget Office -- Congress' non-partisan scorekeeper. Analysts there conclude that increase is due in large part to the fact that the six month spending bill shifted defense spending to more immediate activities, which means the bills will come due sooner than later.
Heckuva job, Boehner.
But in all seriousness, this is going to make Boehner's job all that more difficult as it's going to make the rabid wing that controls the GOP that much more rabid about enacting massive instant cuts to spending that will jeopardize our recovery. And with the Democrats' track record, it's not like they'r likely to stand up to the GOP. Then again, if the Dems cut more deals like this, maybe there's hope yet.
