Obama says that Democrats have met Republicans halfway on budget cuts. It’s false of course.
It really comes down to where you draw the line — the budget baseline. Democrats like to draw the line at the president’s proposal for 2011, even though it was never enacted. Under that measure, Republicans would cut about $100 billion and Democrats some $50 billion. That’s where the “halfway” comes from.
Republicans — and much of the news media — measure the cuts from the 2010 budget, the last one signed into law. Under that scoring, the Republicans have cut $60 billion and the Democrats about $10 billion. The two sides are still $50 billion apart, but under this scenario, the Democrats have barely budged.
White House officials have argued that it makes sense to compare one proposal — the president’s 2011 budget request — with another proposal, the House 2011 bill. But that argument has gained little traction in official Washington.