AP: Details of last week’s hard-won agreement to avoid a government shutdown and cut federal spending by $38 billion were released Tuesday morning. They reveal that the budget cuts, while historic, were significantly eased by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.
Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs – Pell grants for poor college students, health research and “Race to the Top” aid for public schools, among others – from Republican knives.
..As a result of the legerdemain, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber approved a bill slashing this year’s budget by more than $60 billion. In doing so, the White House protected favorites like the Head Start early learning program, while maintaining the maximum Pell grant of $5,550 and funding for Obama’s “Race to the Top” initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools.
Instead, the cuts that actually will make it into law are far tamer, including cuts to earmarks, unspent census money, leftover federal construction funding, and $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can’t be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused spending authority from a program providing health care to children of lower-income families.
…conservatives are upset that most conservative policy “riders” added by Republicans were dropped from the legislation in the course of the talks.
The White House rejected GOP attempts to block the EPA’s ability to issue global warming rules and other reversals of environmental regulations. Obama also forced Republicans to drop an effort to cut off Planned Parenthood from federal funding, as well as GOP moves to stop implementation of Obama’s overhauls of health care and Wall Street regulation.
The administration also thwarted a GOP attempt to block new rules governing the Internet, as well as a National Rifle Association-backed attempt to neuter a little-noticed initiative aimed at catching people running guns to Mexican drug lords by having regulators gather information on batch purchases of rifles and shotguns.
More here
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Steve Benen: Today is the first day we’ve been able to get a good look at exactly what spending cuts are included in the new budget deal. We’ve been working with the larger, top-line numbers since late last week, but without a sense of what the specific cuts are going to be.
….does this mean the actual budget cuts won’t be quite as brutal as we thought when the deal was struck on Friday night? Actually, yes, that’s pretty much what it means. The AP’s report echoes this point.
..It turns out, a lot of the cuts related to money that wasn’t going to be spent (leftover Census money, for example), eliminating programs that were set to expire, and not repeating expenditures intended to be one-time infusions anyway.
Maybe it’s time to revisit the assumption that the Obama White House got rolled.
More here
The Obama Diary 
Yes, we have a President other countries can only dream of: wise, even-tempered, honest, compassionate & tough, stays focused on the issues & is not distracted by hate comments, who truly governs instead of playing childish politics (i.e. tantrums, finger pointing, personal insults). What an extraordinary President we have. A truly unique person that comes into our lives once in a lifetime.
But Boner won,right? That’s what the teevee and EZzzzzzra told me. Once again the only adult in the flipping room.
They were just pizzed that the gov’t shutdown didn’t happen, and they watched their 1-2 weeks of easy ratings get flushed down the toilet on Friday night. They wanted to punish our President for that reason, so they went into attack mode with their pre-written script. See, it’s all about them, and not about ordinary Americans who would have suffered were the government to shut down. My President was vindicated by the American people, who thankfully no longer need the beltway MSM to tell them how and what to think.
Knee-jerk reaction. Everytime Obama does anything they claim the other side won. All they see is numbers and they can’t accept the fact that they budget can be cut without America collapsing. Why can’t they just realize that Obama knows what the hell he is doing.
Good morning Chipsticks and TOD Family,
It is a good morning indeed with this news. PBO is a master strategist who is on the side of doing the right things to proect and to move our society forward. I try not to question another person’s patriotism etc. but looking at the things that the republicans tried to destroy or block, things that are good for everyone, I must wonder; do they hate Americans? or is it that only consider a very small minority, people who care only for themselves and their ever-narrowing like-minded groups to be Americans, worthy of the bounty and opportunity that all of us contribute to.
I was in a community meeting at my school last night (I live in the fiefdom of Florida currently being destroyed by Rick Scott)to discuss the billions that will be cut from the local school district. Stimulus money the last 2 years helped save some programs and jobs statewide (this same money that repubs. wanted to refuse. Now there is talk of furloughs, dropping more electives, sports, the arts, lay-offs, and four day, nine hour, school weeks.
The president is the only one standing up and insisting that the two things that we need most to win the future and transform our culture, the health and education of our citizens, are non-negotiables. In my state, these are the two areas where the majority of the cuts are being made. Thank God for the leadership of President Obama. All Dems and Independents need to get behind him. Our way of life is at stake.
I want to ask CEB. Are people in your community waking up to the complete stupidity of the republicans’ radical ideology , that is to cut taxes, destroy public services and privatize everything ?
Amen!!!!!to that Jessica
Good morning all. As usual, PBO never ceases to amaze me.
Sellout!! Oh wait…
Yes our JOBS Gov Scott in Fl is also cutting ESE in schools. For those who don’t know ESE is for both mentally challenged kids and those with really poor reading skills. So now these kids who really need the one on one will be with what they call mainstream “regular” kids. And wait, its get better. Teachers will be paid through merit next year, meaning how you did last year vs this year. So if your average test score was 89 last year and is now 64 because you’ve got a couple of ESE kids in your class…Guess whose not getting a raise or possibly canned. Amazing,ain’t it?
oh wow.
Oh.my.God.
Are there possibilities of recall in Florida ? Are Scott’s numbers sinking like the Titanic ??
Sinking approval ratings. Can’t recall because it’s not in the state constitution. We’re stuck with this idiot thug for 4 years. God help us.
It shock me that the people of Florida elected Rick Scott as their governor.
Just coz they shouted the loudest doesn’t mean they won!! Every time I remember that Rethug Congress woman going off I grin.
The media is a disgrace! We are so fortunate to have this man leading.
Three words Rachel: In your face!!!!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lovepolitics2008
Most are still not awake. We had an election for Mayor last month and very few showed up and probably fewer will show up for the run-off.
On the positive, many parents showed up at the budget meeting, but most because of the threat to atletics. My part of Florida is especially conservative and republican; but we are mostly blue-collar, so hopefully, some will realize that they have been voting against themselves.
The ESE thing is especially egregious. We have teachers who are trained and educated to teach children with special needs. To mainstream these kids (we tried it at my high school this year) is not in their best intterest.
Good morning, TOD family. I’m sure no one here is too surprised to find out that once again our President turns out to be the better negotiator. His opponents don’t understand how he operates -it’s become so rare that a person in a position of power says what he means and means what he says. Clarity of purpose is confusing to the mindset that acts only upon the daily polls and the ups and downs of a manipulated “public opinion”. But the shortest path from Point A to Point B is still a straight line. Anyway, what I wanted to do this morning is to urge everyone here – who has not done it yet – to go to http://www.barackobama.com and sign up as a supporter (“I’m in”). It is imperative that we demonstrate our clear choice and lend support to the President in dealing with the opposition and in his re-election campaign.
The media is outrageous…. so tired of the spin and the lies, all to get better ratings. Thanks for all you do, Ms. Chips! This is a great article.
Morning all, it’s a rare day that I have a few minutes to drop in mid-day and have enjoyed all the wonderful stories. The IRA rider that was shot down (pun intended) was a real surprise, but nothing else was.
I remember when PBO presented his budget at the end of the year and it was discovered (after a lot of handwringiing) that the cuts he was proposing were coming mainly from items that were built up by the stimulus so they weren’t too many ‘real’ cuts there. I’m surprised the thugs fell for it. Short memories all around I guess. And that can serve us well IMHO
hgerhard, thanks for reminding us to lend our voices to barackobama.com Have they gotten rid of the trolls yet? I do go there but only rarely these days (okay maybe once a day isn’t ‘rarely’ but I used to spend most of my time with that site open in a browser window).
Unfortunately for my way of thinking -and for many I know who support the President- their troll infestation is way out of hand.
The sad thing is that for over a year now people have been pleading with that site’s admin to do something about them and lo and behold, a whole new site, which is harder to collaborate on, and still nothing done about the trolls. Everyone’s one and only concern with the site for over a year, completely ignored and everyone is wondering -why?
So if they are not seeing people show up in droves, it isn’t that people have jumped ship on the president but they have on that site. I’ve seen lots of knew faces showing up on BWD and this site, among others, since President Obama kicked off his campaign and a lot of them are coming from there running away from the darn trolls.
When they clean that site up you would see more people getting involved there once again, I’m sure. Myself included.
Please don’t take this as a knock to you, as it is not intended that way at all. Thank you for reminding people to go there but my guess is they won’t stay until it’s cleaned up.
Finally, I’m not sure who is manning the site but the only info I can find about the president’s recent accomplishments are buried in the members’ posts. Nothing in the headlines like there used to be. Everything is focused on ‘I’m in’ What is that about? It really can use some of both. I’m hoping they have a master plan, but you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Anyway sorry for the rant folks. Didn’t mean to, but once I got typing the disappointment just sorta all came out. Won’t happen again. Back to work for me now.
I always knew that my President has our backs and I would always trust him to do so. Never will I ever listen to the whiny left.
Thank you, for the post… It truly amazing how every news media was reporting how the Pres. ‘is a bad negotiator’ and how Boehner got ‘everything they wanted’…. That some Democrats in the House and senate are complaining that the Pres. gave in too easily…. And want to have somebody else at the head of negotiation (God help us)… And these include: Rachel Maddow, Ed Shultz, Chris Matthew, Ezna Klein, Daily Kos, TPM, HuffPo, NYtimes, Eugene Robinson,CNN (all their Hosts)….
Today the details came out about the budget and you don’t hear nothing from these same people but silence no retraction, correction or amendment to their commentary….
So once again, THANK YOU for your post and I look forward to reading your next post… Keep them coming…
As I told that Rachel Maddow when I email her last night, I am so dam tired of those Progressive Liberals attacking and lying on this President. They make me sick. They are no better than the Tea Party. I used to respect Rachel, not any more!!!!
Wow, our MSM has zero cerdibility. We need to encourage people to seek more reliable sources of information, and at the very least raise their awareness to become active listeners, not passive recepticals for the influence peddling media. IMO, our media is not a delivery system for information, but rather a marketing tool. FAIL! President Obama understands this, IMO, which is why he puts so much effort into going directly to the people.
I spent time today telling more of the people that I work with about this site and BWD’s. They are also fed up with the lies, misinformation, and lack of information coming from the MSM.
Thanks, Chipsticks for all that you do. You have attracted wonderful, intelligent, supportive, funny, and like-minded people to this oasis created by your hard work, open and warm nature and unrelenting nose for news.
I visit several times a day everyday,even when I do not comment.
With great appreciation,
CEB
And lets continue to promote this site and BWD’s as well as those journalists who are taking their jobs seriously and reporting with balance, perspective and factual integrity. We must help facilitate the flow of accurate information.
Sue and Ceb, I concur with your all the way. This is a wonderful peaceful haven to come to and read, share, and give thanks for Chipsticks. This site has given me peace, a restful and enjoyable interacting with smart and caring people. I want to thank Chipsticks for all of the hard work put into this site, and thanks for keeping it so nice and respectful.