Credit Where Credit is Due on GOP Promises

Since we at OTB have noted the GOP’s less than stellar record on fiscal issues in this first (partial) week in control of the House, seems only fair to note that they have kept one promise. Via PolitiFact: GOP’s first Promise Kept: Cut congressional budget:

According to the office of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, the resolution prohibits any congressional office from spending more than 95 percent of what they were allowed to spend last year. If an office requests more money than that, the House’s Chief Administrative Officer will be directed to disallow the request.

The 5 percent cut will be effective immediately, and when the new appropriations bill to fund the legislative branch going forward is passed later this year, the 5 percent cut will be written into the bill. The most recent spending bill provided $660 million for fiscal year 2010, and the appropriations this year have been based on that number.

Granted, it’s not much, but it is a promised kept.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Patrick T. McGuire says:

    And just how much did you expect them to accomplish in their total of 3 days in office?

  2. @Parick,

    I expected Speaker Boehner to have at least an idea as to what he thinks can and should be cut..

    I expected an actual plan to cut the promised $100 billion that was disucced during the campaign.

    Those are the things I was thinking of here.

  3. An Interested Party says:

    “Those are the things I was thinking of here.”

    Oh, but we are told that he is hiding this information, just waiting for the right time to reveal it…that to do so now would somehow give his political enemies something to use against him and his party…apparently, his lack of knowledge is all part of the master plan…