CR cuts equal 14 days of budget balance

Fourteen days of balance. That’s all the proposed continuing-resolution cuts will
produce — two weeks.

Over the next three weeks, the Senate is going to threaten to shut down the government
to avoid balancing the budget for 14 days in fiscal 2011.

The $59 billion in real spending cuts that House Republicans are proposing is dwarfed
by the CBO-estimated $1.5 trillion budget deficit for FY 2011, but it is a good
start.

With another bite of the apple available during the debt-ceiling debate, if the
Republicans stick to their guns, it is possible that we just might be able to move
the budget deficit down to $1.4 trillion, and put us on a glide path to reaching
a mere $1.25 trillion deficit next year.

That is how crazy the out-of-control Obama/Reid/Pelosi-axis spending schemes were.
Even with what some will consider devastating cuts to the discretionary budget,
we are still likely to fall a full $250 billion short of breaking below the once-unthinkable
$1 trillion annual deficit level.

As appropriators look to put together the FY 2012 budget, they need to set some
priorities. While the CR effectively takes an across-the-board approach to cuts,
the FY 2012 budget provides the opportunity for Congress to decide what programs
are needed and effective, thus deserving more funding, and those that just need
to go away (are you listening, Corporation for Public Broadcasting?).

While this initial stage of cutting in the CR is necessary to change the baselines
back to sustainable levels, the regular appropriations process will be the important
part.

Hopefully, authorizing committees and appropriators will work together to invest
in those programs that meet the needs of America, and defund those that are merely
wants.

One place that they should look is ratcheting back the length of time unemployment
benefits are available. With the Obama administration claiming that the unemployment
rate has dropped a miraculous .8 percent in the past two months, taxpayers can save
billions simply by changing the length of time when people are eligible for unemployment.

Of course, since the .8 percent is a result of people giving up on getting a job,
combined with the administration changing the way it conducts the survey, the unemployment
rate is hardly an accurate indicator of the real economic situation, but the fact
is that the administration claims 500,000 jobs were created last month. With that
level of “job growth robustness,” it seems reasonable to roll back the unemployment
check availability to the 90-week level, significantly reducing the deficit spending.

Somehow I don’t think that former Speaker Pelosi will get on board with this fiscally
sound move, as not even the most ardent Obama supporter actually believes the reports
out of the Labor Department.

So, while the current fight will be over whether we should have 14 days of balanced
budget in FY 2011, the next one will be over what programs and agencies our federal
government can afford and whether it should be doing them at all.

It will be a great debate on the proper role of the federal government, which will
determine the survival of our nation as the world’s foremost economic superpower.
Let’s hope the House Republicans stay strong in the face of the coming special-interest
onslaught.

Rick
Manning is the communications director of Americans for Limited Government. Follow
him on twitter @rmanning957.