Chris Edwards, editor of the Cato Institute’s DownsizingGovernment.org, questions whether a potential deal on raising the federal debt limit will amount to much. He shares his concerns in a Daily Caller column.
Behind closed doors, congressional leaders and the White House are discussing budget savings to tie to the upcoming vote on the federal debt limit. Republicans have promised that spending cuts must be at least as large as the debt-increase amount. Thus, if the debt limit is increased by $2 trillion to get the government through the end of 2012, policymakers need to agree on $2 trillion in cuts, probably measured over 10 years.
However, I’m getting very suspicious that party leaders will deliver phony “cuts,” not actual terminations in programs or reductions in entitlements. Looking at Congressional Budget Office projections, it is fairly easy to come up with $2 trillion in “savings” without actually cutting anything. …
…[W]e need real spending cuts, and those come in only two flavors. One type of real cut is to fully zero out discretionary programs and repeal the underlying program authorizations. The other sort of real cut is to change entitlement laws to permanently reduce benefit levels of programs such as Medicare. Those sorts of cuts would be difficult to reverse, and thus would be solid steps toward controlling the budget and averting the coming debt tsunami.
