You’re both correct IMO but this forum is inundated by a gang of “my way or the highway” folks who seemingly have lost the ability of cognitive thinking.
AS outlined the plan STOPS growth of government and SHRINKS it by 100 billion per year immediately with mechanisms in place for a further 14 billion per year in cuts by years end. We will have to see the details of what cuts will be made by the trigger if the comm. cannot reach agreement.
One very important and overlooked aspect of this whole thing is that the public has now become glaringly familiar with the huge spending problem in Washington. And since more and more spending is the only way the liberals can get elected it presents for them a serious issue which they will have a difficult time explaining away as they continue to attempt to buy votes.
This does not stop the growth of government at all! Stopping the growth of government would require a spending freeze (i.e., not spending one dollar more next year than was spent this year). The cuts anticipated by this deal do not even come close to doing that. Only in the Beltway world of "baseline" budgeting, where growth of government is assumed and sacrosanct, would this even be considered a cut at all.
Yes; it’s a step in the right direction.