CBO: Budget cuts won't have fast impact

WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- The Congressional Budget Office says the $38 billion in 2011 budget cuts agreed to by President Obama and Republicans will have little immediate impact.

If Congress passes the historic $37.7 billion in one-year cuts, total non-emergency appropriations for the remaining months of fiscal 2011, which ends Sept. 30, would be $1.0498 trillion, Politico said. But the impact on 2011 outlays and direct spending would amount to just $352 million and the immediate deficit-lowing impact would be less than $500 million this year, CBO said. Many of the cuts are in programs that are already winding down.

The CBO, in data posted Wednesday, said the reductions are even less when contingency funds for Afghanistan and Pakistan are factored in because discretionary spending in the latest numbers is about $3.3 billion higher that it estimated in December.

The CBO now projects a $1.4 trillion federal budget deficit for 2011.

Politico says the numbers could be a problem for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who was under pressure by Tea Party conservatives to produce the "$100 billion cut" proposed by Republicans in the run up to last year's midterm elections.

The House votes on the budget reduction compromise Thursday.