Perhaps I am misunderstanding your numbers earlier, but it appeared that Obama wanted a budget of X+200b. Boehner and co want to cut that budget by 100b, leaving a net budget of X+100b. Which is not a real cut, but a Washington Cut (real cuts involve spending less than the year before). If we keep cutting 100b and they keep raising it 200b, we'll keep getting worse off.
Sorry if I was unclear.
It's real cuts, not Washington cuts. If we take X to be last year's budget, then Barry's proposed-but-never-passed budget would have been X+200b. The GOP House budget is X-100b.
It's more complicated than that because we're already 40% of the way through the current budget year. They never passed a budget last year for the upcoming year (aka right now) because Barry and Harry and Nancy were afraid of the debate that would ensue right before the elections. So for the first few months of the current budget year we were operating under continuing resolutions that fund FedGov at the same rates as last year.
Back in Feb the GOP House passed a $1.2t budget bill covering the on-budget expenses over the 60% of the fiscal year that remains (many Federal expenditures aren't actually considered part of the budget - social security is the biggest of these). The GOP bill reduces spending from last year's levels at a 100b per year pace, but since only 60% of the budget year remains, the total cuts within this fiscal year are only $60b. The full $100b of cuts will not occur until a full year has elapsed. That bill has stalled in the senate, so we still don't have a real budget for this year.
Since then, the Republicans have allowed two more continuing resolution budgets, but they've demanded that these provide for spending cuts of $2b per week ($100b per year) from last year's budget. This was to allow time for the full budget bill to be approved by the Senate and signed by the Prez, but the Democrats have been stalling. It's unclear whether any further continuing resolutions will be allowed, or if we'll just let the government shut down. It's no big deal either way, as a shutdown reduces expenses, and so would more continuing resolutions with the $2b/wk cuts.
Clear as mud?
Here are some news articles that might explain the events a bit better:
House GOP budget passed in Feb:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2011/Feb/19/gop_bill_pairs_budget_cuts__regulatory_rollbacks.htmlFirst continuing resolution; 2 week extension that cuts $4b.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/02/the-note-the-two-week-solution-government-shutdown-likely-averted-for-now.htmlSecond continuing resolution; 3 week extension that cuts $6b.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/17/110622/government-shutdown-averted-for.html
