BARACK WHO?:

GOP gains upper hand on spending (DAVID ROGERS | 11/17/10, Politico)

“It’s touch and go, at the best,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) told POLITICO on Tuesday of his efforts to strike some accord by cutting close to $26 billion from President Barack Obama’s 2011 budget. Instead, Republicans want no increase above 2010 funding and are maneuvering to buy enough time so the incoming GOP majority in the House can instigate tens of billions in additional rescissions, rolling back many programs to 2008 levels.

Indeed, even as Inouye has been working with Senate Republicans on trying to reach a compromise, GOP aides on the House Appropriations Committee have been preparing rescission packages to be offered next year. And those reductions, about $62 billion below current funding, dwarf whatever savings would be achieved from the much more publicized battle over parochial earmarks.