Volume XIX No. 10

The President’s $3.9 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2015 came out on Tuesday. Like most presidential budgets, this one will make a good door stop, but not do much else beyond that. In fact, this one is even more irrelevant because the House, Senate, and the President agreed on the top line spending levels for FY15 back in December: $1.014 trillion. And even though the President is asking for another $56 billion on top, it isn’t going to happen.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Harold Rogers (R-KY) immediately threw cold water on the bonus spending contained in the “Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative” stating: “Contrary to the president’s wish list of additional spending, my committee will abide by the budget caps for fiscal year 2015 put into place by law…” The President’s request didn’t even get a good reception across the Capitol in the Democratically controlled Senate. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Chair of that chamber’s Appropriations Committee plainly stated: “We have a budget agreement for fiscal year 2015, and the Senate Appropriations Committee will adhere to the spending caps in that deal.”

So that seems pretty settled.

But there’s still plenty in the rest of the discretionary budget that needs a close look.  It is still more than a trillion dollars after all. Here at Taxpayers for Common Sense we’ve been digging into the budget so you don’t have to. We actually find it kind of fun.

Those of you who share our idea of fun, can follow our ongoing analysis.  To whet your appetite,  here are some highlights:

What peace dividend? Even though we are purportedly pulling out of Afghanistan, the amount of requested war spending is almost the same as it was last year: $79.4 billion compared with $80 billion in last year’s budget request. The budget even envisions war spending at $30 billion a year for the next six years.

Less Cutting, Consolidating, and Saving. Always one of our favorite parts of the budget, the Cuts, Consolidations, and Savings list is a who’s who of parochial, wasteful, and under-performing programs. Unfortunately, the list itself took a hit this year, proposing only 136 programs worth $17 billion. That represents 32 percent less in savings. And trust us, it’s not because so much was successfully eliminated last year.

RELATED ARTICLE
Monsters On the Hill

Here we go again.  The President is back with some familiar cuts, including many that we support including reining in tax breaks for oil and gas companies, calling for reducing deductions for high earners, and treating the money earned by some traders as, well, income instead of capital gains. Maybe with tax reform efforts in the House and Senate (and some of these were in the two chambers’ plans) these stand a chance of being enacted.

RELATED ARTICLE
Pentagon Fails Audit for 6th Straight Year

Cherry picking numbers.  It may seem counter intuitive, but Administrations like to estimate the deficit to be higher than it will likely be for the current fiscal year so that the deficit in their proposed budget looks smaller. The President’s FY15 budget estimates that the FY14 deficit will be $649 billion, which would fall to $564 billion in FY15. Problem is, just last month the Congressional Budget Office estimated the FY14 deficit to be $514 billion – smaller than what the White House estimated for next year! They also differ in the out years with CBO looking at trillion-dollar deficits starting in 2022 while the White House keeps it closer to $400 billion.

We’ll keep digging in. Even though the whole package won’t get enacted, the budget request sets the stage and contours for the upcoming appropriations bills, which we hope get enacted on time this year. Hope springs eternal.

Share This Story!

Related Posts