Details on the FY Continuing Resolution Being Released & Obama Get's Dragged Into Debt Discussion

H/T The Daily Bail

The Treasury Department announced this afternoon that the U.S. ran a monthly budget deficit of $188 billion in March.
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Washington, D.C. - April 12, 2011:
It’s expected at some point this week for the Senate will return to S. 493, the bill reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.

The House has released a statement detailing the items agreed to in the bi-partisan FY2011 Continuing Resolutions. While many may have been willing to toss Speaker Boehner under the bus, but we wanted to see the actual results which have begun to take shape as follows:
KEY POINTS: FY 2011 AGREEMENT ON SPENDING CUTS TO SUPPORT AMERICAN JOB CREATION

• Largest Non-Defense Spending Cut in American History. The agreement will enact the largest non-defense spending cut in dollar terms in American history, and the biggest overall reduction since World War II, beginning the process of ending the Washington spending binge that is causing uncertainty for American job creators. Subject to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring, the agreement has a reduction in spending of nearly $40 billion compared to Fiscal Year 2010 enacted levels.
• Hundreds of Billions in Spending Cuts Over the Next Decade. Subject to CBO scoring, the agreement will cut hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal budget over the next decade – “real money,” as the Wall Street Journal editorial board recently noted.
• Officially Ends the “Stimulus” Spending Binge. The agreement begins to reverse the “stimulus” spending binge that began in 2009 – signaling the official end of a period of unprecedented government intervention that former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and other economists say hurt job creation in America by crowding out private investment.
• Sets Stage for Trillions More in Spending Cuts. Clears the way for congressional action on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget – The Path to Prosperity – which cuts trillions in spending and offers a long-term blueprint for American job creation.
• Requires Mandatory Audits of the New Job-Crushing Bureaucracy Set Up Under Dodd-Frank. The agreement subjects the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) created by the job-destroying Dodd-Frank law to yearly audits by both the private sector and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to monitor its impact on the economy, including its impact on jobs, by examining whether sound cost-benefit analyses are being used with rulemakings. Two audits and a separate study are required within 180 days and annually thereafter, providing new accountability. The first audit requires an independent review of the CFPB’s operations and budget. The second audit requires the GAO to review the CFPB’s financial statements. The annual study requires GAO to report on the economic impact of the activities of the CFPB and other financial regulators. This review includes an assessment of how the CFPB’s activities are impacting safety and soundness of financial entities; cost and availability of credit; and savings for consumers, reductions in paperwork, and changes in bankruptcy filings. The study also requires examination of the costs of complying with rules, whether agencies are using sound cost-benefit analyses, and what efforts are being taken to avoid duplicative or conflicting rule-makings, information requests, and examinations.
• Bans Taxpayer Funding of Abortion in D.C. and Reduces Funding for Family Planning. The agreement restores the Dornan amendment (D.C. Hyde Amendment) to ensure that no Congressionally appropriated funds (whether locally or federally generated) may pay for abortion in the District of Columbia. The policy was in place from FY 1996 to FY 2009. FY 2010 is the only year since FY 1996 that the D.C. Hyde Amendment was not attached to the Financial Services, D.C. Government Appropriations Act. In addition, the agreement slashes funding for Title X of the Public Health Service Act by $17 million, and international family planning by $73 million, including a $15 million cut to the United Nations Population Fund.
• Fights Terrorism. Despite attempts by the White House to weaken current law regarding the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to third countries, the agreement maintains current law, including all certification requirements. House Republicans have fought for more than two years to ensure that terrorists held at the detention facility will not be brought to the United States nor released to third countries which cannot adequately detain them. Maintaining the language is a strong signal that Republicans remain committed to preventing terrorist attacks and will continue to fight to prevent the Administration from returning to a pre-9/11 criminal standard.
• De-Funds Obama Administration “Czars” for Health Care, Autos, Climate Change, & Urban Affairs. The agreement denies federal funding for the salaries and expenses for four of the Obama Administration’s controversial “czars.” De-funded through the agreement are the Obama Administration czars for health care (Director, White House Office of Health Reform), climate change (Assistant to the President for Energy & Climate Change), autos (Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury assigned to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy), and urban affairs (White House Director of Urban Affairs).
• Ends Funding for Ineffective Education Programs. The agreement terminates more than 40 ineffective programs at the Department of Education including the likes of Educational Technology State Grants, Even Start, Advanced Credentialing, Mental Health Integration, Exchanges with Historic Whaling Partners, Women’s Educational Equity, Tech-Prep Education State Grants, Smaller Learning Communities, Legal Assistance Loan Repayment Program, Thurgood Marshall Legal Opportunity Scholarships, and B.J. Stupak Olympic Scholarships.
• Provides New Tools in the Fight to Repeal Obamacare. The agreement generates new tools and accountability mechanisms for the fight to repeal Obamacare. It requires numerous studies that will force the Obama Administration to reveal more about the impact of its government takeover of health care, including a study on the premium impacts for individuals and families as a result of certain Obamacare mandates; a full audit of all the waivers that the Obama Administration has approved and denied to firms and organizations who can't meet the new annual coverage limits; a full audit of what's happening with the comparative effectiveness research funding that was in Obamacare and the president’s failed “stimulus” spending bill; and a report on all of the contractors who have been hired to implement the law and the costs to taxpayers of such contracts. More importantly, the final agreement includes a guarantee that the Senate will vote on a measure which if enacted will de-fund all of Obamacare. This will be the first time the Senate has had to vote on defunding Obamacare.
• Denies Additional Funding to the IRS. The Obama administration has sought increased federal funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – money that could be used to hire additional agents to enforce the administration’s agenda on a variety of issues. This increased funding is denied in the agreement.
• Guarantees Senate Vote on Ending Taxpayer Funding of Planned Parenthood. The final agreement includes a guarantee that the Senate will vote on a separate measure that defunds Planned Parenthood and any of its affiliates. Conservative estimates indicate that Planned Parenthood and its affiliates receive $363 million of its nearly $1 billion budget in taxpayer funds. While the national abortion rate continues to decline, the number of abortions provided by Planned Parenthood continues to climb. According to Planned Parenthood’s March 2011 year-end report for its 2009 fiscal year, Planned Parenthood served three million clients, of whom 332,278 received abortions contrasted with only 977 adoption referrals and 7,021 prenatal care clients. Since 1977 (the first year for which data is available), Planned Parenthood has conducted 5,493,960 abortions. Finally, new evidence has shown that Planned Parenthood employees are also willing to cover up sex trafficking.
• Saves the D.C. School Choice Program. The DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (DC OSP) is a successful program that is publicly supported by six members of the D.C. City Council and three former D.C. mayors, in addition to the 74% of D.C. residents who support the program’s reauthorization. For seven years the DC OSP has empowered low-income parents to choose the best learning environment for their children, giving their children an opportunity to a quality education while the District of Columbia takes steps to reform its public schools. Funding to allow new students into the program was included in H.R. 1, the long-term CR passed by the House in February. The agreement ensures the continuation of the three-sector approach to education reform by reauthorizing the DC OSP and providing equal funding for school improvement for D.C. public schools and public charter schools.
• Reforms the Pell Grant Program. The agreement reforms the Pell Grant program by eliminating year-round Pell, helping to ensure the program’s solvency not only for the remainder of this fiscal year but for years to come. Currently, the program faces a shortfall of $8 billion this year alone. In FY 2011, elimination of year-round Pell saves almost $800 million in both discretionary and mandatory dollars. Over the next ten years, this reform will save the program more than $35 billion.
• Reduces Congress’ Own Budget. The agreement cuts the Legislative Branch by $103 million over last year’s level. Of this amount, funding for the U.S. of Representatives is reduced by $55 million.
• Returns Power for Wildlife Management from Federal Government to Western States. In spite of the fact that wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains have vastly exceeded recovery goals put into place in the 1990’s, and the determination by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that they are fully recovered and should be removed from the endangered species list, a district court ruling in Montana relisted the entire population in August 2010. The language in the agreement reinstates the FWS original determination to delist wolves in states with approved management plans in place. It returns management of wolf populations in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Utah to the states. The language also allows negotiations between the State of Wyoming and the Department of Interior to continue so that the entire population can be delisted

Ed Morrissey, Hot Air, noted:
Two efforts seem particularly noteworthy.  First, Labor/HHS funding got cut 3.36% from last year’s levels, and two ObamaCare programs got entirely defunded:

The CR terminates funding for more than 55 programs, for a total savings of well over $1 billion.  In addition, the bill terminates two programs funded in ObamaCare (the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) and the Free Choice Voucher programs).

The Daily Caller gives a little background on CO-OP:

Critics have blasted the CO-OP program as a “stealth public option,” the government insurance plan pushed by liberal Democrats during the consideration of Obamacare.

The program would have received $6 billion in the first ten years to push states into creating non-profit, member-run health insurance co-ops.  It was apparently thrown into the bill when the public option failed in Congress.  Its removal won’t prevent such co-ops from forming, but will leave it to states to deal with the issue rather than the federal government.

The second item of interest comes in the cuts to Financial Services, which saw a 10% reduction in their appropriation from FY2010 and 14% lower than Obama’s budget request.  Most of the cuts apply to construction of new federal buildings, a rather easy place to cut considering the plethora of open office space in the US.  It increases the funds for the Inspector General of the TARP program and restarts the DC Opportunity Scholarship voucher program, a key goal of Boehner’s, but this is the part that Congress will like best:

The CR restores a long-standing provision against the use of federal and local funds for abortions in the District of Columbia. The bill also includes the reauthorization of the DC Opportunity Scholarships, along with a $2.3 million funding increase, to stop the termination of the program and allow new students to participate. The legislation also eliminates four Administration “Czars,” including the “Health Care Czar,” the “Climate Change Czar,” the “Car Czar,” and the “Urban Affairs Czar.”

This list includes three of the most offensive “czars” in the Romanov wing of the Obama administration.  Obama has an HHS Secretary in Kathleen Sebelius, so he doesn’t need a “czar” on health care.  Likewise, his Cabinet includes a Secretary of Energy (Stephen Chu) and Interior (Ken Salazar), so why does the administration need a “climate change czar”?  The government shouldn’t even be in the car business, so the car czar has to go.  And while the “Urban Affairs Czar” hasn’t gotten much press, shouldn’t Shaun Donovan’s role as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development cover, er, urban affairs?

Four czars and two ObamaCare programs ended up getting the axe in the funding bill.  That’s not a bad start.  Here are the dollar figures stated in the summary for each department, in billions for apples-to-apples comparisons:

• Agriculture: $3 billion cut from FY10 level, $3.2 billion less than Obama budget request
• Commerce/Justice/Science: $10.9 billion cut from FY10 level, $7.1 billion less than Obama request
• Defense: $5 billion increase from FY10
• Energy/Water: $3.6 billion cut from FY10, $1.7 billion less than Obama request
• Financial Services: $2.4 billion cut from FY10, $3.4 billion less than Obama request
• Homeland Security: $0.784 billion cut from FY10, $1.9 billion below Obama request
• Interior: $2.62 billion cut from FY10, $2.8 billion below Obama request
• Labor/HHS/Education: $5.5 billion cut from FY10, $13 billion below Obama request
• Legislature: $0.103 billion cut from FY10
• Military Construction/Veterans Affairs: $0.6 billion increase over FY10, $3.4 billion more than Obama request
• State/Foreign Operations: $0.504 billion cut from FY10, $8.4 billion below Obama request
• Transportation/HUD: $12.3 billion cut from FY10, $13.2 billion below Obama request

Recall the US Senator, who voted "present" much of the time; and has yet to have had a sobering conversation on the reality of our U.S. debt crisis. Well, tomorrow, President Obama is going to give a speech on his plans to deal with the debt. The speech comes a week after House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his plan to tackle long-term debt and deficits, weeks after Obama released his own budget that ignored the problem, and months after the president’s own fiscal commission issued a report the White House essentially set aside. It’s little wonder, then, that there’s a great deal of criticism for President Obama for arriving late to the issue and failing to lead on a solution to this nation’s debt crisis.

Indeed, The Washington Post writes today, “Letting others take the lead on complex problems has become a hallmark of the Obama presidency. On health care, last year’s tax deal and the recent battle over 2011 spending cuts, Obama has repeatedly waited as others set the parameters of the debate, swooping in late to cut a deal.”

The president’s failure of leadership has been acute on the problems of debt and spending in particular. As The New York Times wrote yesterday, “Mr. Obama’s budget waiting game . . . has helped to fuel widespread criticism by Republicans, pundits and some Democrats that he has failed to lead.” And Politico notes today, “Last week’s release of Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s [budget plan] and a looming vote to raise the debt limit has forced the White House to unveil its own plan in a speech planned for George Washington University Wednesday afternoon.”

Politico gives a short history of how the president arrived at this point. “He set up a blue-ribbon deficit commission last year — even promised its report wouldn’t gather dust on the shelves — then promptly distanced himself from it. His State of the Union speech mentioned debt reduction, but focused on stimulating job growth and funneling new funding to education, infrastructure development and green energy projects. And he adopted a political strategy that seemed to be based on Republicans making the first move on presenting a plan for the deficit.”

At the time of his State of the Union speech, The New York Times wrote that President Obama “did not lay out any specific plans for addressing the long-term costs of Social Security and Medicare, the biggest fiscal challenges ahead.” And, the NYT pointed out, “[H]e did not adopt any of the recommendations of the bipartisan fiscal commission he appointed to figure out ways to bring the deficit under control.”

When the president released his budget in February, the press was swift to criticize it for doing little to address the debt crisis. The NYT wrote, “The budget confirms that Mr. Obama is not taking the lead in embracing the kind of far-reaching deficit-reduction plan recommended in December by a bipartisan majority of his fiscal commission.” The Wall Street Journal editors explained his budget, saying, “It leaves every hard decision to the new House Republican majority. And it ignores almost entirely the recommendations of Mr. Obama's own deficit commission.” And The Washington Post editorialized, “The president punted. Having been given the chance, the cover and the push by the fiscal commission he created to take bold steps to raise revenue and curb entitlement spending, President Obama, in his Fiscal 2012 budget proposal, chose instead to duck.”

But once again, President Obama seems to be offering little more than a speech. According to The Washington Post, “Obama will not blaze a fresh path when he delivers a much-anticipated speech Wednesday afternoon at George Washington University.” And Politico reports, “It's looking less likely that President Barack Obama's speech Wednesday will embrace a lot of specific ideas on how to cut Medicare and Medicaid — which would get him in trouble with Democrats and progressive groups anyway. Instead, his health care allies are expecting him to talk in more general themes, focusing on cutting wasteful health care spending rather than cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits.” Politico also reports, “Bob Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition and a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s debt reduction task force, said, ‘I don’t expect anything with a whole lot of detail,’ calling the Wednesday speech, ‘another step in the dance … an attempt by the president to get out in front of the debate because the only marker down there is Ryan.’”

Still, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell noted  this morning, “Apparently the President is finally ready to acknowledge problems that the rest of the country has been waiting for him to address. It’s unfortunate that he had to be dragged into this discussion.. . . And we all look forward to hearing what the President has to say. But it’s my hope that in doing so, he offers more than the outline his political advisor suggested. . . .Too often, it seems, Democrats in Washington claim to be interested in helping those in need, when what they really seek is to protect big government. Whereas Republicans see America growing its way to prosperity, Democrats seem to want to constrict opportunities for everyone, so everyone is forced to do with less — except, of course, the politically connected and those who are lucky enough to get a waiver. But at least the President is joining in the conversation. Hopefully that conversation . . . doesn’t devolve into the kind of unhelpful scripted, and frankly juvenile, name-calling that we saw in the closing hours of the debate over the Continuing Resolution last week.”

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