April 8, 2011 9:57AM 

# Negotiating a Budget Compromise 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer [says](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110408/ap_on_re_us/us_spending_showdown_democrats) “you can’t negotiate on the basis that one side gives 100 percent and the other side gives zero.” Good point. So let’s see: The budget is [$836 billion](https://www.cato.org/extreme-budget-cuts/) higher than it was in President Bush’s last full fiscal year. The chart below the jump shows how much the House Republicans want to cut from that massive increase. Seems like if both sides — say, the Obama administration and the taxpayers — each give 50 percent, we’d cut the budget by $418 billion, half the recent increase.

##### Related Tags 

[Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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