House GOP exchanges 'PAYGO' for 'CUTGO'

As we noted when we first looked at this promise, one of the first actions taken by the new, Republican-led House was to pass a new package of House rules. And one of the most controversial measures in the package replaced "pay-as-you-go," or "PAYGO,” requirements with a "cut-as-you-go,” or "CUTGO,” requirement.

To recap, the PAYGO rule in the Democratic-run House prior to January 2011 required each bill to have offsets that ensured the bill didn"t add to the deficit. The version of PAYGO that governed House actions when the Democrats were in control allowed either spending cuts or revenue increases to be used as offsets for new spending. (The Senate had, and still has under continued Democratic control, a similar PAYGO rule.)
   
But after the Republicans won control in the 2010 elections, they instituted CUTGO. Under CUTGO, mandatory spending increases can't be offset by tax increases -- only by spending cuts. In addition, CUTGO does not apply to tax cuts, which reduce revenue and, without being offset, worsen the deficit.
   
CUTGO has been enforced in the House, said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, though he added that as far as deficit reduction goes, "it takes what was already a weak, swiss cheese program and makes it even weaker."

However, the GOP Pledge-O-Meter doesn"t evaluate the effectiveness of policies instituted by the Republican majority, only whether they stuck to their promise to do something. In the case of CUTGO, they did, so this is a Promise Kept.