The Cato Institute’s Tad DeHaven has an interesting graph of what the $61 billion in cuts proposed in the House Republicans’ plan to fund the rest of 2011 would look like against the total budget. The answer? You guessed it: not much.
As the chart shows, the proposed cuts amount to less than a third of what taxpayers will pay in interest on the debt alone this year.
The $61 billion in cuts, which are woefully insufficient, would come from a relatively small category of government spending (non-defense, discretionary spending). However, that merely indicates the need to tackle defense spending and budget-busting “mandatory” programs. [emphasis mine]
As DeHaven notes, “Senate Democrats are balking at the $61 billion in cuts and the president has issued a veto threat.” If Democrats can’t even stomach to cut this much from the budget, the prospects for long-term reform are not good.