Factoid ‘O the Day: who cuts “entitlements” more?
by digby
So yesterday the Republicans divided up their duties and sent out the head of the NRCC to wail about how the president was balancing the budget on the backs of seniors while Boehner and McConnell proclaimed their dismay that President Obama didn’t cut “entitlements” enough.
The beltway seems to think this is a sign of Republicans disarray. I think it’s a sign of the GOP knowing how to get the Democrats to do their dirty work and cut the most popular programs in America for them:
[I]t’s easy to get the impression that the president hasn’t met Republicans half-way with his cuts to Medicare and Social Security, the two biggest entitlement programs. In fact, he’s exceeded them. The president’s budget would spend less on both Medicare and Social Security than Ryan’s GOP plan over the next ten years.
On Social Security: Ryan didn’t cut Social Security by a penny. The president has proposed cutting the program’s spending by $130 billion, by adopting a slower-growing measure of inflation.
On Medicare: Ryan’s budget kept Obamacare’s Medicare cuts and added another $127 billion. His budget projects $6.74 trillion in Medicare spending between 2014 and 2023. Obama cuts even deeper with $380 billion in cuts below his baseline, and his budget projects $6.67 trillion in Medicare spending over the same period. Upshot: Obama’s ten-year Medicare budget is $70 billion below the GOP, and his announced cuts are about $250 billion deeper than the GOP.
Jonathan Alter characterized this as “calling the Republicans’ bluff” on Hardball today. He’s funny.
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