April 13, 2011 9:03AM 

# Two Pinocchios for ‘Biggest Cuts Ever’ 

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

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

![Media Name: pinocchio_2.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/pinocchio_2.jpg?itok=JWpz88kI) 

The *Washington Post*’s Fact Checker column [looks at the claim](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/biggest-cuts-in-us-history-well-no/2011/04/12/AFhTwwSD_blog.html) that this week’s budget deal delivers the biggest spending cuts in history:

> For instance, during World War II, the federal budget soared from $9.4 billion in 1940 to nearly $93 billion in 1945. Talk about an expansion of government! But then in 1946, the budget [was cut](http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/hist01z1.xls) to $55 billion. That’s a cut of $37 billion, technically less than the $38.5 billion in cuts reached last week. But it’s also a cut of 40 percent, which means it is 40 times larger than the deal that is routinely described as historic.…
> 
> 
> There is yet another way to measure these cuts. [As little as $15 billion](http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/details-of-spending-deal-demonstrate-that-budget-cutting-ain-t-easy-20110412) of the cuts are in the domestic nondefense discretionary budget. How do these cuts stack up to the historical record, when adjusted for inflation (2005 dollars)? From 1981 to 1982, [this part of the budget](http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/hist08z2.xls) fell by $43 billion (this was during President Ronald Reagan’s term, so at the same time, the defense budget went up $30 billion.) This part of the budget also fell about $15 billion — twice — during the Clinton administration. So, again, the current round of cuts are not the biggest even when looked at through this narrow prism.

Fact Checker Glenn Kessler concludes:

> #### The Pinocchio Test
> 
> We’re going to give the politicians a pass here. Technically, these appear to be the largest raw-dollar spending cuts in history, and we have not found evidence that either Obama or Boehner has pretended otherwise — at least in public. (Note that Obama and the White House always are clever to insert the word “annual” before the phrase “spending cut.”) At worse, these are one-Pinocchio violations, typical bragging that all of the strum and drang over the budget was worth the effort.
> 
> 
> But it is up to the media to provide context to these claims. On that score the media, including (alas) The Washington Post, misled its readers.
> 
> 
> **Two Pinocchios**
> 
> 
> (to the media)

Hats off to Glenn Kessler for holding his colleagues to a higher standard than politicians. And note that [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/largest-spending-cut-ever/) and [I](http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/04/biggest-cut-history-long-shot/) have also questioned these claims about “the biggest cuts ever.”

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [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/).