F.Y.I......Double sequestrations, all the way across the sky We talk a lot about the “sequestration” or “sequester” around these parts. But I’ll let you in on a little secret: There are actually two sequestrations. That’s right, double sequestrations, all the way across the sky. The one you’re probably most familiar with — the one people normally mean when they say “sequestration” — is what Center for Budget and Policy Priorities analyst Richard Kogan refers to as the “supercommittee sequestration”. That’s the $1.2 trillion in cuts, split evenly between defense and non-defense programs, that were triggered by the failure of the supercommittee to agree on a deficit reduction plan. But there’s also what Kogan calls the “cap sequestration.” And that’s where it gets complicated. The Budget Control Act (BCA) set statutory caps on discretionary spending through 2021. There are separate caps for defense and non-defense spending. The two sequestrations interact a bit. For 2014-2021, the supercommittee sequestration’s cuts to discretionary spending work by lowering the discretionary caps used in the “cap sequestration,” rather than by mandating budget cuts through a separate process. So going forward, the caps are going to be where the action is for discretionary spending. This table by Loren Adler and Shai Akabas shows how that works. Before the supercommittee sequestration takes effect, the caps for 2014 are $552 billion for defense and $506 billion for non-defense. But after sequestration, the caps are reduced to $498.1 billion and $469.4 billion, for a total cap of $967.4 billion:
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:40:19 +0000
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