UA-9726592-1

Saturday, February 5, 2011

DCCC: The Incredible Shrinking Republican Budget Promise


Yesterday, Budget Chair Paul Ryan finally offered a plan to fulfill the Republican promise to cut government spending but the promise completely fails to meet the target they set for themselves. Below please find a brief history of the Republican pledge to cut the budget:

The Original Republican Pledge….
$100 billion

“We will put government on a path to a balanced budget and pay down the debt with a plan to … Cut government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels saving at least $100 billion in the first year alone.” [A Pledge to America, 9/22/10

The Revised Republican Pledge….
$74 billion

“On Thursday, Ryan said he would cap total appropriations at $1.055 trillion - $74 billion less than the budget request Obama submitted to Congress last year…” [Washington Post, 2/3/11]

The Re-Revised, Pro-rated Republican Pledge…
$58 billion

“…they plan on pro-rating that $100 billion dollar number to $58 billion in non-security savings from the money President Obama asked for in the 2011 fiscal year budget.” [MSNBC, 2/3/11]

The “We Didn’t Realize How Hard This Would Be” Republican Pledge…
$50 billion

“…Republican leaders are scaling back that number by as much as half…” [New York Times, 1/4/11]

The Republican Proposal
$32 billion

“House Republicans pledged Thursday to slice more than $32 billion from agency budgets over the next few months…” [Washington Post, 2/3/11]

Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said:

House Republicans delivered on 30 percent of their budget promise, which by the standard of any school is an “F” failing grade.
 





No comments: