How rescissions are peeling back modest amounts of wasteful spending

As Congress proceeds to trash the Trump administration’s fiscally sound budget proposals for fiscal 2019 and implement the bloated budget deal that allows for a $300 billion increase in discretionary spending over two years, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has refused to give up on spending reform.

President Trump has signed off on Mulvaney’s package of rescissions (in English: taking back appropriated but unspent funds) that total $15 billion. When you stack that up against the March budget deal, it seems like a drop in the bucket, and it is if you define the program in total dollars.