Vos/GOP Budget Scheme: Cut Deficit by Increasing Spending $660 Million

After more than four months we finally have an answer to the question: What’€™s the Republican plan for closing the state budget deficit?

According to Wispolitics.com, ‘€œRep. Robin Vos, R-Racine, said Republicans support closing the gap by reducing spending through furloughs, a pay freeze, reducing the number of state employees and holding departments to last year’€™s budget levels.’€

‘€œ’€¦holding departments to last year’€™s budget levels’€?

Another steaming pile of budget credibility from the people who believe in having the middle class pay for tax cuts for billionaires, more corporate accountability through ending business regulation, protecting public education by ending public education and creating a strong workforce by taking away the rights of workers.

So let’€™s look at agency spending to see how credible the Vos/GOP plan is:

The 2008-09 General Purpose Revenue agency spending: $14,368,716,900.

The Governor’€™s proposed 2009-10 General Purpose Revenue agency spending: $13,749,238,100.

Um, that would appear to be an increase in GPR “department” spending of $619,478,800 for the first year alone. (And thank you to the public school mathematics teachers at Stewartsville Elementary school in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania who taught me subtraction.)

Likewise, the second year of the Governor’s budget recommendation calls for agency spending that’s also $42,497,000 lower than what Vos’s budget “plan” would. 

So, we finally have the GOP budget strategy for reducing the $6-billion-plus deficit ‘€“ hike agency spending by well over half a billion dollars.

Does that mean the devil is in the lack of details?

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