February 10, 2013 1:34PM # So You Want to Cut Spending By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE Back in 2011 there was a titanic fight between President Obama and the newly energized House Republicans over the federal budget. The ballyhooed result, which averted the frightening specter of a “government shutdown,” was “the largest annual spending cut in our history,” in the words of President Obama and the national media. I raised some doubts about it at the time, noting that it [certainly wasn’t](http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/04/biggest-cut-history-long-shot/) the largest budget cut in history and then pointing to a National Journal story suggesting that the cuts [weren’t really there](https://www.cato.org/blog/incredible-shrinking-38-billion). Now, [in the Sunday Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/many-2011-federal-budget-cuts-had-little-real-world-effect/2013/02/09/11938e3e-6bc6-11e2-a396-ef12a93b4200_story.html?hpid=z1), David Fahrenthold follows up: What happened to the much-touted $38 billion in cuts (out of a $3,800 billion budget)? Oops. Not so much: > Nearly two years later, however, these landmark budget cuts have fallen far short of their promises. > > > In some areas, they did bring significant cutbacks in federal spending. Grants for clean water dried up. Cities got less money for affordable housing. > > > But the bill also turned out to be an epic kind of Washington illusion. It was stuffed with gimmicks that made the cuts seem far bigger — and the politicians far bolder — than they actually were. > > > In the real world, in fact, many of their “cuts” cut nothing at all. The Transportation Department got credit for “cutting” a $280 million tunnel[ that had been canceled six months earlier](http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/hudson_river_tunnel_project_is.html). It also “cut” a $375,000 road project that had been created by a legislative typo, on a road that did not exist. > > > At the Census Bureau, officials got credit for a whopping $6 billion cut, simply for obeying the calendar. They promised not to hold the expensive 2010 census again in 2011. > > > Today, an examination of 12 of the largest cuts shows that, thanks in part to these gimmicks, federal agencies absorbed $23 billion in reductions without losing a single employee. [Read it all](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/many-2011-federal-budget-cuts-had-little-real-world-effect/2013/02/09/11938e3e-6bc6-11e2-a396-ef12a93b4200_story.html?hpid=z1). It’s just an amazing investigation into what happens in the bureaucracy when Congress announces it’s cut the budget, and the reporters move on. Which is why I wrote last week that if you really want to cut spending, you should [shut down agencies and programs.](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/where-cut-spending-start-here) Then you have some hope that the spending will actually stop. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).