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Politics : President Barack Obama
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To: Road Walker who wrote (80971)8/16/2010 6:06:11 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (2) of 149317
 
I think much of the supposed one off spending is anything but. That hasn't been proven yet, but even when the spending from something is below what had been planned for, you don't get a reduction when the "need" has been met. For example the unused TARP funds have basically become a government slush fund rather than being used to reduce the deficit by the amount of the left over funds.

True some of it, at least the "automatic stabilizer" spending, extra spending from higher unemployment and lower income, without any change in policy to cause it, or change back needed to make it go away (it goes away as employment and incomes go up), is one off (until the next recession), and (hopefully) some of the additions in aid to state and local governments are temporary. But not everything talked about as temporary is.

And whatever might be temporary I doubt the budget's actually going down. Some specific spending line item might be canceled, but the budget keeps going up. I'll believe real cuts when I see them. I don't think the federal nominal dollar top line spending has gone down year to year in my lifetime, or even in the whole post WWII period (after the initial cutbacks as the war ended). We've had "temporary" spending before, but the top line keeps going up even as the temporary spending gets phased out (when it does actually get phased out).
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