This is URGENT! Congress is set to approve a budget deal today that supposedly gives us $38 billion in spending cuts. Please tell your representatives to vote NO on this deal. Please also call them if you can. Here’s why…
Would you be surprised to learn that the “historic” budget deal of 2011 may only cut a paltry $14.7 billion? One estimate even places the figure as low as $8 billion.
The details are found in this letter I sent to my “representatives” on Capitol Hill…
Smoke. Mirrors. Sleight of hand. Sleight of mouth.
Lies.
The budget deal of 2011 is voodoo on the American people. You have lied to us about the true size of the cuts this budget deal supposedly contains.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the cuts were an “historic” $78.5 billion. But that was based on hoped for spending, not real spending.
Then the story changed. The reported number was $38.5 billion in ACTUAL cuts. Most of you politicians agreed that this was still “historic,” but it was really just more hocus pocus…
The claimed $38.5 billion is really just a magic trick. Another lie.
The National Journal reports that the real cuts to the discretionary programs the GOP was supposedly targeting amount to a mere $14.7 billion. http://bit.ly/gd1SeW
In other words, the remaining $23.8 billion were MAGICAL cuts, NOT real cuts! But beware, because I know how your bad magic works…
The Associated Press reports that you simply failed to renew spending associated with the economic crisis that WASN’T supposed to be repeated anyway! For instance, Congressional leaders gave themselves credit for… http://yhoo.it/hS0CVZ
- $350 million from a 2009 program for dairy farmers who were then suffering from low milk prices
- $650 million that had been a one-time infusion into highway programs
- $1.5 billion in “savings” relative to last year because you gave the President only $1 billion in “high-speed” rail grants
The Associated Press further reports that another $5 billion came from an arcane bookkeeping rule that allows you to claim an entire victim compensation fund as a cut, just because you put a cap on payments out of that fund. Neat trick.
But I have to wonder if it will lead to members of Congress being prosecuted for accounting fraud under the Sarbanes-Oxley law?
Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot, the law doesn’t apply to the magicians of Capitol Hill. I’m not allowed to do your accounting gimmicks.
But the illusions continue. Congressional leaders also gave themselves credit for…
- Cuts to earmarked money piles, when the House had already banned earmarks back in January
- Four czars the President had already eliminated
- Other items PREVIOUSLY scheduled to be de-funded
- $2.5 billion that could NOT possibly be spent this year on highway repairs
- A $3.5 billion surplus from a program that provides health care to children of low-income families
None of these are real cuts. They are just sleight of hand. But you folks are no David Copperfield. People can see the tricks, so you’d better beware…
You may disappear in the next election, if you pass this budget and increase the debt ceiling.
You can send your letter using our campaign to cut spending.
CALLS ARE HIGHLY ADVISED BECAUSE THE VOTE WILL PROBABLY OCCUR TODAY.
It is URGENT that we defeat this bill, so please FORWARD this message to others!
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,
Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
