UPI reported today that the statement by Harry Reid that Congress has already cut $2.6 trillion from projected future deficits by reducing non-defense programs alone is simply not true. Fact Check originally posted the story.

Fact Check reports:

Democratic claims of $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction refer not just to spending cuts. For example, President Obama said at a news conference on Jan. 14 that he had signed “a total of about $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the past two years.” But Obama included in that figure only $1.4 trillion in actual “spending cuts.”

Obama’s figure also included more than $600 billion in tax increases on upper-income individuals, which he signed Jan. 3. And it included about $500 billion in reduced interest payments, resulting from reduced future borrowing. A spokesman for Reid, whom we contacted by email, also conceded that Reid’s higher figure includes what he called “tax savings,” by which of course he means higher taxes.

The problem with cutting spending is part of the culture of Washington. Money equals power, and the more money Washington controls, the more power it feels it holds. Establishment politicians in both parties have learned that lesson well. Unless groups like the Tea Party bring new faces into Washington who refuse to enter into that culture, the runaway spending will continue, and Americans will be asked to turn over more and more of their hard-earned money.

If the American people want the runaway spending to stop, they need to make their voices heard at the ballot box. Just because someone has been in office for twenty years, they are not necessarily working for you!