Congress

Republicans Call for Fake Spending Cuts

Written by SK Ashby

The White House and House Republicans have both called for passing a rescission package that would reduce the amount of spending Congress agreed to earlier this year, but it wouldn't actually reduce spending.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the funds were never going to be spent anyway so cutting them won't reduce spending.

More specifically, the rescission would only apply to unobligated funds that have been lingering on agency books for years.

"Many of the amounts proposed for rescission have remained unspent by agencies for years; CBO reviewed the historical spending patterns of the affected accounts and concluded that most of the funding would not be spent under current law," the CBO analysis stated. [...]

While the rescissions package looks to slash budget authority worth a combined $7 billion from CHIP accounts, the CBO found that neither would actually result in reduced spending, as the targeted funds were overages from contingency funds that were not slated to be spent.

In other words, this is an election year gimmick intended to make Republicans look slightly less fiscally reckless.

This could backfire, however, because even if the cuts to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are fake, the average person probably won't know that.