Over the last few weeks, this blog has called out both parties on their fuzzy budget math, as Republicans and Democrats in the House puffed up the amount of money they were supporting in spending cuts.
The GOP started this exercise by claiming that they were cutting $74 billion from the budget, when a closer look showed it was a $35 billion cut.
At that time, Republicans openly denounced reporters who challenged the $74 billion figure, even though they knew it was a comparison of their budget plan to the proposed Obama budget from a year ago, which was never enacted - and not a real cutback.
GOP lamwakers kept using that fuzzy math as more cuts were added to their budget cutting plan, claiming $100 billion in savings, when it was really $61 billion, compared to the current budget that's in law right now.
"We will exceed our Pledge to America this week when we cut $100 billion worth of spending," said Speaker John Boehner in mid-February.
Even though it wasn't $100 billion in "real" cuts.
So, for weeks, it was okay for GOP lawmakers - freshmen, leadership and members of the Appropriations Committee to tell their constituents what was basically a fake total of cutbacks, $100 billion.
But, when Democrats this past week started using the exact same fuzzy math, talking about how they had already made $41 billion in cuts - when they had not - Republicans started complaining that Democrats were using fuzzy math.
"$41 billion is not a cut," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). "That's the status quo."
But down the hall, it was a cut.
"We have, I repeat, have cut $41 billion from President Obama’s budget already," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said yesterday to reporters, who repeatedly pressed her to drop the fuzzy math.
"What we’re talking about here is actual spending," one of my colleagues said in a question to Pelosi. "Actual spending, not based on a budget that doesn’t – that never passed, never existed."
Later on the floor of the House, Pelosi's top lieutenant, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) got into an extended Fuzzy Math debate with GOP Leader Cantor (R-VA), taking it to almost Catch-22 type heights.
Hoyer laid out how Republicans had counted the same $41 billion in "cuts" that Pelosi had been talking about earlier in the day - and how it was okay to do that - but now suddenly, it was not.
"I say to the gentleman, we've already discussed the math here," Cantor said dismissively, as he tried his best to forget that he used the $100 billion on a regular basis a few weeks ago.
Where is Yossarian when I need him?
