Those Phantom Budget Cuts

I've been saying this since before the election, but the Republicans are bound to upset the Tea Partiers when they're unable to actually make any significant cuts to federal spending. I remember Chris Matthews on election night asking Republican leaders what programs they would cut, and not a single one could name a program they would cut, including mumbling nonsense from Michele Bachmann and Eric Cantor. The only thing we knew they were against was the Affordable Care Act, which, according to the CBO would reduce the federal deficit by a significant amount. In other words, the Republicans would increase spending.

Now, we have evidence that the Republicans never had a plan to actually reduce spending:

Many people knowledgeable about the federal budget said House Republicans could not keep their campaign promise to cut $100 billion from domestic spending in a single year. Now it appears that Republicans agree.

Now aides say that the $100 billion figure was hypothetical, and that the objective is to get annual spending for programs other than those for the military, veterans and domestic security back to the levels of 2008, before Democrats approved stimulus spending to end the recession.

It was hypothetical? I don't remember hearing that word during the campaign or any tea party rally. Funny timing.