Budget tricks helped Obama save programmes from cuts

The historic US$38 billion in budget cuts resulting from at-times hostile bargaining between congress and the Obama White House were accomplished in large part by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programmes President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.

Such moves permitted Obama to save favourite programmes - Pell grants for college students, health research and 'Race to the Top' aid for public schools, among others - from Republican knives, according to new details of the legislation released Tuesday morning.

And big holes in foreign aid and Environmental Protection Agency accounts were patched in large part. Republicans also gave up politically-treacherous cuts to the Agriculture Department's food-inspection programme.

The details of the agreement reached late Friday night just ahead of a deadline for a partial government shutdown reveal a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially 'score' as cuts to pay for spending elsewhere, but often have little to no actual impact on the deficit.

reverse cuts

As a result of that sleight of hand, 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 US$60 billion. In doing so, the White House-protected favourites like the Head Start early-learning programme, while maintaining the maximum Pell grant of US$5,550 and funding for Obama's 'Race to the Top' initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools. Food aid to the poor was preserved, as were housing subsidies.

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 US$2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programmes that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another US$3.5 billion comes from unused bonus money for states that enrol more uninsured children in a programme providing health care to children of lower-income families.

Still, Obama and his Democratic allies accepted US$600 million in cuts to community health centres programmes, US$414 million in cuts to grants for state and local police departments, and a US$1.6 billion reduction in the Environmental Protection Agency budget, almost $1 billion of which would come from grants for clean water and other projects by local governments and Indian tribes. Community development block grants, a favourite with mayors of both political parties, take a US$950-million cut.

The National Institutes of Health, which fund critical medical research, would absorb a US$260-million cut, less than one per cent of the NIH budget, instead of the US$1.6-billion cut sought by House Republicans. Family planning programmes would bear a five per cent cut rather than being completely eliminated.

AP