In ‘fiscal cliff’ debate, Boehner condemns accounting gimmicks he once embraced http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/boehner-condemns-accounting-gimmicks-once-embraced-232025016–politics.html?oldbustedhotness

“We are about to vote on a trillion-dollar spending package,” Ryan warned in a January 27, 2009, speech. “Yes, a trillion dollars, because the Congressional Budget Office just told us today (that) just to pay for the interest on this bill is another $350 billion.” So why don’t Congressional Republicans apply the same rule to Obama’s fiscal cliff offer? “Interest savings from higher taxes is not a spending cut,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said by email. “I wish the folks at the White House would work as hard to actually cut spending as they do trying [to] look like they are.” It’s not an idle inside-the-Beltway debate. Obama counts the interest costs on the way to claiming that his latest offer to Boehner includes $1.22 trillion in spending cuts–roughly in line with the president’s proposed $1.2 trillion in new tax revenues.