Boehner Proposal Would Cut Non-Security Discretionary Programs 21 Percent, The Deepest Such Cut in Recent U.S. History
Tax-Cut Part of Plan Designed to Achieve Opposite of Orszag Fiscal Goal
End Notes
[1] This revised paper reflects further analysis (since we issued the original paper on September 10) regarding Rep. Boehner’s definitions of “security” and “non-security” funding. While the materials he issued are ambiguous, Rep. Boehner appears to be defining these categories on the basis of appropriations subcommittee jurisdictions, in which case the “non-security” category would include approximately $22 billion in defense funding for the nuclear weapons programs of the Department of Energy and defense activities of the FBI. The original paper noted that this was one interpretation of Rep. Boehner’s approach, but focused primarily on an alternative approach that defines “security” and “non-security” funding on the basis of budget functions, which would exclude all defense spending — including the above-mentioned $22 billion — from the non-security category.
However, there is only a trivial difference between the two approaches in the estimated effects of the Boehner proposal on funding for non-security programs. Under the subcommittee jurisdictions approach, the proposal would require a 21.1 percent cut in non-security programs, while under the budget functions approach, it would require a 22.4 percent cut in these programs. (The required cut is smaller under the former approach because the base level of funding for “non-security” programs is larger if that category includes some defense funding.)
[2] This does not count the change in funding levels from 2009 to 2010, when a larger reduction occurred, because that reduction merely reflected a return to more normal funding levels following the very large spike in 2009 resulting from temporary funding provided by the Recovery Act.
[3] Although Rep. Boehner says he wants to limit non-security discretionary funding for 2011 to the amount that was provided for 2008, the $378 billion allowed for such spending under his plan is about $8 billion less than the non-emergency funding that was actually provided for such programs in 2008. The discrepancy apparently arises from the fact that the estimated $378 billion cost of non-security appropriations bills for 2008 included $8 billion in savings in mandatory programs that were included in those bills. As a result, the actual level of non-emergency funding provided for non-security discretionary programs for 2008 was $8 billion higher than the estimated cost of the bills, or $386 billion.
[4] The CBO baseline projections are adjusted to exclude projections of emergency appropriations for 2010 and reflect the funding needed to maintain the basic Pell Grant award for 2011 at the same level as in 2010. (Under the baseline rules, CBO assumes continued Pell discretionary funding at the same level as appropriated for 2010, adjusted for inflation — $17.7 billion. The baseline amounts cited here are adjusted to reflect CBO’s estimate that maintaining the Pell Grant award at the same level as in 2010 will require funding of $23.2 billion in 2011.) Without this adjustment, the baseline is $5.5 billion lower, and the cut below the CBO baseline level that would be required to comply with the Boehner limit would be 20.2 percent instead of 21.1 percent.
[5] It may be noted that the definition of non-security funding used in the President’s budget is different from the one used by Rep. Boehner. The President excluded funding for international programs as well as funding for defense, veterans, and homeland security.
[6] The President’s budget proposed making the Pell Grant program fully mandatory and therefore did not request any 2011 discretionary funding for Pell Grants. Congress decided, however, to leave the basic Pell Grant award as a discretionary program. (Congress enacted a modest mandatory add-on award in this year’s health reform and education reconciliation legislation.) Rep. Boehner apparently recognized the need to adjust the President’s discretionary request to reflect this congressional decision, but his adjustment to the 2011 funding level that the President has requested understates the amount needed to carry out the President’s policies. His adjustment appears to equal only the 2010 Pell Grant appropriation level, adjusted for inflation, not the amount CBO estimates is needed to maintain the basic Pell Grant award at the 2010 level as Congress assumed would happen when it created the add-on award and as the President has proposed. With this further $5.5 billion adjustment, the President’s request for total discretionary funding (excluding funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) equals $1.134 trillion instead of the $1.128 trillion cited in Rep. Boehner’s materials.
[7] The HBC conclusion would be invalid here in any case because it was based on an analysis of nondefense spending, which excludes all defense spending and includes funding for homeland security and veterans programs that is excluded from Rep. Boehner’s definition of non-security funding.