So Obama released his 2012 budget and as expected, it contains more spending:
President Barack Obama’s budget proposal resurrects a series of tax increases that were largely ignored by Congress when Democrats controlled both chambers. Republicans, who now control the House, are signaling they will be even less receptive.
The plan includes tax increases for oil, gas and coal producers, investment managers and U.S.-based multinational corporations. The plan would allow Bush-era tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012 for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000. Wealthy taxpayers would have their itemized deductions limited, including deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
According to Obama’s numbers (never to be trusted) the deficit will rise to over 1.6 trillion dollars but will fall to 1.2 trillion next year. And if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.
Here is Dan Mitchell from The Center for Freedom and Prosperity with a short 6 minute documentary about spending restraint and how both Reagan and Clinton were able to accomplish that feat:
Does this mean it is impossible to restrain the growth of spending? Is fiscal responsibility just a fantasy considering the corrupt relationships in Washington between politicians, interest groups, bureaucracies and lobbyists? It’s never easy to get politicians to do the right thing. [this documentary] will show you, with real world examples, that it is possible to curtail the burden of government spending.
After you finish that you will instantly recognize that the Obama budget just worsens the current, unsustainable, spending levels.
Rep. Paul Ryan on FOX News yesterday:
CHRIS WALLACE: …The key feature is a five-year freeze on spending and some considerable tax increases on the wealthy. From what you have heard, what do you think of the president’s plan?
REP. PAUL RYAN, R-WIS.: It sounds like the similar budgets that he has been giving us the last couple of years. Last year, he gave us a $2 trillion tax increase. He got $700 billion of those tax increases enacted, mostly through his healthcare law.
It looks like he is coming back for another, I don’t know, $1.3 trillion in tax increases.
This discretionary freeze is off of an extremely high base. They just blew spending out the gates in the last two years. A 24-percent increase in domestic discretionary spending. When you throw stimulus on top, it was an 84 percent increase, and he wants to freeze for a few years off those high levels. It is less than 1 percent of spending over the next ten years.
~~~Borrowing and spending is not the way to prosperity. Today’s deficits means tomorrow’s tax increases, and that costs jobs. So all this borrowing and spending doesn’t work. Didn’t work on the stimulus, and it will cost us jobs. We need to cut spending so we can get taxes and interest rates low so businesses can plan and hire people.
~~~Look, I am not worried about Washington cutting too much spending too fast. I mean, the kinds of spending cuts we’re talking about just right now are $100 billion out of a $3.7 trillion budget.
So I am not concerned about that. What I’m concerned about is endless borrowing, which is going to compromise our economy not only today but in the future. Because we know the decisions we make right now really dramatically impact us in the future, and the debt is literally getting out of our control.
This budget is just one big shell game. Spend spend and spend some more because of another “crisis” and then come back with a budget that returns to levels still higher than what they started with…THEN tell the nation that they are making spending cuts. And oh by the way, we’re raising taxes too.
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It gets worse! While the President is feeding us his line of garbage as to cutting spending, it came to my attention yesterday that the FED is considering a QE3 package as the 1.2 trillion dollars of worthless money they’ve already printed hasn’t done what they though it would. All of the cuts in the world are not going to offset the hyper inflation and the costs that come with printing worthless money. M1 has grown 15.2% in less than 3 months and all of that is unbacked paper! We are in deep trouble!
Indeed, $100 billion out of a $3.7 trillion budget is almost irrelevant. And the $100 billion is only the figure they’re talking about. The spending cuts they’re likely to make total only around $30 billion.
The second paragraph is a suggestion that we do what else, exactly? Refer back to paragraph 1.
Anybody that has worked in a government bureaucracy knows that none of them can responsibly absorb and spend the gross increases that most of them have received over the past two years. I would love to see a real honest accounting of just how EPA has spent their monies over the last two years. Can you spell waste and fraud? On the other hand I suppose it did buy a bunch of lawyers to help slow down our businesses and the economy in general. They did a good job at that.
I was waiting for the words “Obama’s Budget is Dead on Arrival”, but never heard them. Must be the new kinder, gentler tone in DC…
Just to remind everybody, I predicted months ago that Democrats will do everything they can to collapse the economy totally so they can blame the Republicans in 2012.
Well, when you have people in his administration that want to treat a milk spill like an oil spill and punish diary farmers that don’t clean them accordingly, it sure looks like they are trying to destroy the economy.
The system is going to collapse anyway. Their just doing what a lot folks do before they file bankruptcy > run up the cards and get the stuff they want. The only way to fix it is a 50% cut now accross the board.
As I was saying: Obama’s Boldly-Played Budget Battle Bet-The-Ranch Blowout
Over the years, we’ve learned not to expect “strong response” and “GOP” in the same sentence. Hopefully they’ll learn from past mistakes.
@John Cooper: Good analogy. Just think, we’ll be saying, “I can remember a time when the deficits were only $400 billion”. How pathetic and irresponsible.
Powerline Blog has a graph of budgets, recent and projected.
The only reason there is even an appearance of a dip in spending it that ObamaCare is busy collecting tax revenues while spending it out does not occur until 2014.
John Hindenraker concludes:
There are a few who will hate the cuts, namely the individuals who get cut.
And, just as the lefty media did under Bush’s 8 years, we will begin to have full page pictorial stories of hard-luck cases.
Individuals who fall through gaps.
Too bad Obama wants to make it more expensive to give to charity.
PRIVATE charities USED to be able to fill those gaps.
Nan– Powerline used to be my first read of the day until those three lawyers exposed themselves part of ‘The Ruling Class’. When they started disrespecting Sarah Palin I quit reading them at all.
@John Cooper:
John, we are on the same page, I, also, have cut down on clicking over to Powerline.
BUT, this particular article is a good one.
Hindenraker makes sense on this issue.
House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (WI) briefly mentioned, and noted by Ed Morrissey, that the latest Obama budget was worse than doing nothing.
Well, a blogger ran the numbers and Rep. Ryan’s right!
There is a bandwidth issue with this site, so, don’t expect it to come up on the 1st click…..it is getting a lot of traffic today.
The bottom line, if you’re not that into stats and charts, is this:
It’s interesting that when you look at what the administration and their supporters claim to be the reasons behind the deficits, Obama’s own budget proves them to be wrong. They claim the three main reasons for the deficits are: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; tax cuts, and the economy. Obama’s budget: cuts funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; raises taxes, and assumes the economy is going to get much better, much faster than the economists are predicting, yet we will still have projected unsustainable deficits. That means the main source of the problem lies elsewhere (out of control spending perhaps?).
For what it’s worth, here is a link to an article by John Stossel with some ideas on how to balance the budget through real spending cuts, a lot more the Republicans are proposing and way more the Obama is proposing. He makes it sound easy. I haven’t crunched his numbers but even they appear to come up short.
http://www.newsmax.com/Stossel/balance-budget-CBO-NPR/2011/02/02/id/384754
I’m confident that the people will get the CONSERVATIVES IN POWER ON A MAJORITY SCALE
IN 2012, THEY WILL INHERIT A DISASTER BUT THEY WILL START WITH THE REPUBLICANS AND THE TEAPARTYERS, THE TRUE RECOVERY OF AMERICA, WHERE THE PRESENT ONE PARTY IS NON STOP SPENDING THE MONEY OF THE PEOPLE. I KEEP HOPING IN THE AMERICANS WANTING TO RECOVER FROM THEIR MISERY OF THIS ADMINISTRATION. WE WILL MEET IN A VICTORY PARTY NEVER BEEN DONE YET, BY AMERICA, BE THERE
@ilovebeeswarzone: Hopefully you are correct. We were approaching the point of no return under Bush and the Republicans and then Bush and the Democrats and may have already gone over it with Obama and the Democrats. The current Congress has their work cut out for them and they best not flinch. If so, we’re all losers.
ANOTHER VET ,
another vet, hi, the CONSERVATIVES know what’s at steak and they will ferocly follow their agenda like if tomorrow will never come, determination will be their unstopeble goal, and they’ll have the reward from the AMERICANS who wont be swayed by the DEMOCRAT S sneaky tacticts, to convince the electorat that
they are doing something, and further more let the people who are on welfare not to believe their
scare tactics that if they vote CONSERVATIVE they’r loosing their money, THAT IS A LIE AND THEY WILL NOT LOOSE THE HELP THAT IS GIVEN TO THOSE NEEDING IT, IF THEY VOTE FOR CONSERVATIVES THEY ON THE CONTRARY WILL HAVE A BETTER CHANCE TO HAVE A JOB,
THAT IS BEING DENIED TO THEM NOW. THE TRUTH MUST REACH EVERY ONE, THAT’S WHAT AMERICA DEMAND IT’S CITIZEN TO DO FOR FREEDOM TO SURVIVE
@ilovebeeswarzone: It’ll be a tough sell. A lot of the ones you are referring to have been indoctrinated for years into believing their role in society is to take without contributing anything. It’s to the point now where too many people believed they are entitled to everything without earning it. I’m probably a little more pessimistic than you are. Hopefully you are right.
Another vet, YES but if I could straighten up the lies that they will be left without support if they vote the right way, at least they wont think that they depend on OBAMA to live, and that’s what is said to them at this point ,the scare tactic beside the races tactic propaganda, remember that poor woman saying; OBAMA will pay for my gaz, HOPE for better days depend more on changing the GOVERNMENT,
to better knowledgeble peoples, and we have them here in the smart and tolerant CONSERVATIVES,
for 2012 election, the people better learn sooner than too late that their VOTES is VERY IMPORTANT
and PATRIOTIC, not just a signature, after waiting in line. THEY will be bombarded by the CHEAP talk from media, IT will be hard to see the right ones, I’m making it easy for them to see ,
just check CONSRVATIVES, REPUBLICANS if you dont have a representant of the first party
bye