Republican proposed Budget

[Nebuchadnezzar]

(07-21-2017, 08:41 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: It depends on the programs. For mandatory spending, that is typically the way they are calculating the cuts since it is difficult to cut those programs. So things like Medicare and Medicaid fall into that category. They can just talk straight cuts, though, for discretionary funds. For instance, DoD makes up about half of the discretionary budget and is a very malleable budget section. There can be more immediate cuts done to that. The reason for the difference is that some programs are set to increase at rates tied to inflation and projected for growth, not all are.

Isn't when they want to cut a program down they will call it a "Decrease" in spending on that program?

So, a budget cut is cutting the increase by a certain percentage and a decrease is cutting the total?

[Belsnickel]

(07-21-2017, 08:52 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: Isn't when they want to cut a program down they will call it a "Decrease" in spending on that program?

So, a budget cut is cutting the increase by a certain percentage and a decrease is cutting the total?

Usually that is the case. Mandatory programs come with budgets for their programs that extend well into the future that are codified into law. Those budgets come with stepped increases in spending. So cutting the budget is decreasing those stepped increases. It is still a decrease in the total budget for the program, but the decreased expenditures aren't often realized for several fiscal years.