A pledge to America, or something: get ready for the tea to go in the harbor as the budget news gets out

Ryan Streeter

Politico reports that House Budget Committee staff has outlined $32 billion in cuts, well below the $100 billion in the Pledge to America (The Hill just put up their story on it here).

The explanation, of course, is that much of the fiscal year is already past, and so this amount reflects what is possible for the remainder of the year. Current domestic and foreign aid programs are set $40 billion below current levels, with $8 billion added back for defense and security.

But none of these explanations are going to matter when it comes to keeping the troops motivated. Tea partiers are going to see this as retreat. They have already been grumbling. It's about to get louder.

This actually argues for the GOP leadership being loud on entitlement reforms. They should have all along been much clearer about where we really need the cuts longer-term. Focusing on discretionary spending too much as a demonstration of seriousness about the deficit was always bound to backfire at some point when the news got out just how limited it would be. But it's happening sooner than most thought it would.