In an “exclusive” The Washington Times, which is considered right-leaning, notes:
President Obama notched substantial successes in spending cuts last year, winning 60 percent of his proposed cuts and managing to get Congress to ax several programs that had bedeviled President George W. Bush for years.
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The administration says Congress accepted at least $6.9 billion of the $11.3 billion in discretionary spending cuts Mr. Obama proposed for the current fiscal year.
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Among the president’s victories are canceling the multibillion-dollar F-22 Raptor program, ending the LORAN-C radio-based ship navigation system and culling a series of low-dollar education grants. In each of those cases, Mr. Obama succeeded in eliminating programs that Mr. Bush repeatedly failed to end.
The article notes that this still accounts for less than 1-half of 1 percent of the total budget. But, hey, you gotta start somewhere.
Steve Benen points out a couple of inconsistencies:
…when the president reached out to Republicans over the summer, urging them to put together a list of spending cuts they’d like to see, the GOP caucus came up with $23 billion in proposed cuts over five years — far less than the White House plan to reduce spending over the same period.
For all the complaining from the Tea Party crowd, there’s an odd disconnect. These folks applauded a Republican president who increased the deficit and increased the size of government, but they literally take to the streets to denounce a Democratic president who has cut taxes, cut spending, and makes sure his proposals are paid for. Why throw a fit over the more fiscally responsible president?
I would disagree that the Tea Party crowd is all that thrilled with President Bush’s handling of the deficit but we sure do hear a lot of the “tax and spend liberal” nonsense coming from that crowd.
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