Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Sequester this!

The sequester doesn't actually cut federal spending, episode 113.

This one comes from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO):




(clic the pic for an even more savage image)

The full document is available here.

Outlays/Spending are recorded in the second line of the table, and yes this includes the sequester!

Federal Spending is expected to be flat between 2012 and 2013 at around $3.55 trillion before beginning to rise again. It rises each and every year of the sequester.

Spending hits $4,000,000,000,000 in 2016, $5,000,000,000,000 in 2020 and flirts with $6,000,000,000,000 in 2023

People, these are the "savage cuts" that are going to wreck havoc on the American economy. This is Paul Krugman's "doomsday machine".

They are not actual cuts at all, but simply a lowering of the planned growth in Federal spending.

If this level of "cutting" is not politically possible, then we are all doomed.






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I calculated the CBO's estimated annualized GDP growth rate based on the 2013 $2,708 revenue at 16.9% of GDP and the 2023 $4,961 revenue at 19.1% of revenue. It's freaking 5%!!!

So, if we go through with the 'horrible' sequester, and use outrageously generous growth rates, in ten years our deficit will be close to 4% of GDP and rising.



Anonymous said...

But on page 9 of the CBO report you site, shows "discretionary" outlays:

(2012) 1,285
(2013) 1,213
(2014) 1,170
(2015) 1,189
etc...

While the growth in "mandatory" spending outpaces this, the two budget categories cover very different programs. I don't know much about these differences, but it seems like the ~5% cut is on the side of the budget that directly hires people (roughly speaking)... but I may be wrong and would like to learn.

I would like to REALLY learn when they will really look at the actual problem... but I won't hold my breath...