White House: Ryan budget cuts spending by $19B more than thought

White House Budget Director Jeff Zients on Wednesday warned that the House GOP 2013 budget, coming to a vote on Thursday, cuts 2013 spending more than previously thought.

On its face, the budget cuts non-defense appropriations by 5 percent more next year than called for in the August debt deal. The budget, authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), cuts the top-line overall spending figure by $19 billion, to $1.028 trillion, while increasing defense spending by $8 billion.

Zients warns in a blog post that the cut is even deeper when the budget’s disaster aid and Pell Grant changes are factored in.

“Now, we’ve learned that these cuts in discretionary spending are even more extreme than we originally thought,” he writes.

Zients points out that the budget ends a provision in the August debt deal that allows Congress to add billion of dollars per year in spending for disaster relief.

He points out, “[I]n the report language filed with the resolution last week, it says that the Republicans now refuse to abide by the disaster 'cap adjustment' to which all parties explicitly agreed to in August in order to make sure that disaster victims get the help they need when they need it, and aren’t held hostage to politics.

“It means that the House Republicans now want disaster assistance — likely to be about $10 billion this year based on the average from prior years — to come out of the overall discretionary funding pot,” he writes.

Zients says that the budget will also force more cuts to maintain Pell Grants at their current $5,550 maximum level.

“If you combine the Pell and disaster needs, then what was thought to have been roughly a 5 percent cut of $27 billion is now a cut of about $46 billion — a 10 percent cut in 2013 alone,” the budget director warns.

Look for Pell Grants and disaster aid to be major issues when Congress tries to tackle 2013 appropriations bills in the fall.