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| Government |
| $253.5B--Obama Borrowed Nearly 6x as Much in February as Sequester Cuts All Year |
| 2013-03-05 |
| During the month of February--as President Barack Obama was warning Americans they would see dramatic effects in their lives if "sequestration" of some planned federal spending kicked in--the federal government's debt climbed by $253.5 billion. That one-month increase in the debt was nearly six times as much as the $44 billion in spending cuts the Congressional Budget Office estimates will take place in all of fiscal 2013 as a result of sequestration. In its Budget and Economic Outlook for Fiscal Years 2013-2023, published in February, the CBO explained that only $44 billion in planned federal spending will be cut during this fiscal year as a result of sequestration. The CBO also says additional cuts that will be "attributable" to fiscal 2013 will actually take place "in later years"--not in fiscal 2013. "By CBO's estimate, budgetary resources for defense (other than spending for military personnel) will be cut by around 8 percent across the board, and nondefense funding that is subject to the automatic reductions will be cut by between 5 percent and 6 percent," said CBO. According to that estimate, discretionary outlays will drop by $35 billion and mandatory spending will be reduced by $9 billion this year as a direct result of those procedures; additional reductions in outlays attributable to the cuts in 2013 funding will occur in later years." The combined $35 billion in discretionary cuts and $9 billion in mandatory cuts--or $44 billion--that will actually take place this year equal approximately one-sixth of the new debt the federal government accumulated in February. Bottomline: In February alone, the government borrowed nearly 6 times as much as it intends to save with the sequester over the rest of the fiscal year. |
| Posted by:Beavis |