An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Insanity!
The Obama Budget: Higher Taxes, Higher Spending and More Debt
The Foundry
President Barack Obama will submit a $3.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2011 to Congress today. One might hope that given last year’s $1.4 trillion budget deficit was an all-time high and the President promised a spending “freeze” in last week’s State of the Union, this budget might signal a change in direction from the White House. No such luck. President Obama’s new budget is full of billions of dollars in new spending for failed government programs, higher taxes on American families and businesses, and deficit spending for as far as the eye can see.
At the very least, the budget document President Obama is submitting today exposes his spending “freeze” promise for the fraud that it is. As outlined last week, the administration would halt spending increases for only a $447 billion sliver of our total budget, with a total of $15 billion to be saved. That is less than half a percent off of last year’s spending. Worse, this isn’t even an across-the-board spending freeze; it is an aggregate one. So “spending cuts” in parts of the budget are immediately channeled to others. For example, even though the federal government does not need any money for the Census next year, President Obama counts the $5 billion spent this year as a “spending cut” that can be immediately spent on other government programs, such as a 16% increase in Department of Education funding, a 6.8% increase in Department of Energy funding, and increases for ineffective Health and Human Services programs like Head Start and sex education.
Given the best case scenario, the most the White House hopes to save from this supposed spending “freeze” is $15 billion. And that is easily dwarfed by just the $100 billion President Obama wants for his Economic Stimulus II plan. Then there are the tax hikes, including higher taxes on families earning more than $250,000 and a brand new tax on financial institutions to pay for the failed automobile union bailout.
And what is the end result of all of President Obama’s new taxes and spending? A record national debt. According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the United States will post a $1.556 trillion deficit in fiscal 2010, which the Obama administration claims will be reduced to $1.267 trillion in fiscal 2011, thanks to their budget. Given this administration’s budget forecasting record, however, expect that final deficit number to go up. The Obama administration now forecasts $5.08 trillion in debt over the next five years; that is 35% more debt than they forecast just 12 months ago.
A common sense budget would move our country in a much different direction. For starters, the remaining TARP and stimulus funds should both be rescinded. Next, instead of the President’s fungible “aggregate” spending freeze, tough hard spending caps should be enacted. Finally, Congress should disclose the massive unfunded obligations of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; put those programs on long-term budgets; and enact the necessary entitlement and programmatic reforms that can keep government within those limits.
WE ARE IN DEEP DOO DOO!… I was worried before, but now I’m almost shaking with anger!
Yeah. We’re boned.
And just days after he got on national TV and lied to our faces about cutting spending.
I got past the “so mad Im shaking” phase a long time ago.
Heres the sad reality of all of this: even if we elect all repubs into Congress this year, this wont change much. The spending will slow down, but thats about it. They wont repeal the insanity the dems have been putting into place, b/c they think that would be “partisan politics”, b/c half of the repubs are damn rinos anyway.
Might as well grab our ankles now.
We have to do what we can, and vote out the current asshats, but in the end, we will still be headed down the same road.
The repubs wont cut taxes so businesses can come back and start hiring people, they wont get rid of our 30000000 social programs, etc.
Its like seeing a train coming at you, and your feet are glued to the tracks.
That Clown in Chief wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him upside the head with a cricket mallet!
Y’know, I use to be a rather rational, polite person. I still try to be, but sometimes, I just let my Irish temper have at it!