Not that it’s anything to sneeze at, but HR1363 the “Department of Defense and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011” that the House is considering this morning only cuts $4.4B vs. FY10, not the $12B I’ve seen cited so often. Yes, the CR portion has $12B in cuts, BUT the FY11 Defense spending part that is also in the bill adds $7.6B to the Pentagon budget, thus netting $4.4B for the bill. See my explanation from Tuesday (below).

Saying the continuing resolution cuts $12 billion while ignoring the $7.6 billion in defense adds is like saying you met your weight loss goals if you don’t count your backside…(you might have heard that one before… numbers games make it so easy).


Numbers Game II: CR
Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Along with the budget resolution the House majority rolled out another short term Continuing Resolution this morning. The CR would fund government through April 15, it also had the final FY11 Defense spending bill. The bill has a hodge-podge of cuts that total $11.4 billion plus $632 million in rescissions to Military Construction. That gets you to the ballyhooed $12 billion number that has been cited.

BUT that number conveniently ignores the fact that the bill increased Defense spending by net of $7.6 billion even though FY10 accounts that contained earmarks were cut by $4.2 billion (the total level of earmarked defense funding in FY10).

So the net cuts vs. the FY10 budget is $4.4B for this CR. In total, the FY11 CRs have cut roughly $14.5 billion.

More to follow.

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