President Obama's proposed 2012 budget

President Obama's proposed 2012 budget

More taxes, more spending.

Massive deficit spending will inevitably lead to inflation, higher taxes, and an even more monumental national debt. Only someone whose goal is the collapse of capitalism would submit a budget like the one President Obama has cooked up.

Barack's bumbling breakdown. President Obama is on the verge of a crackup. The debt-limit talks are beginning to take their toll. ... Mr. Obama is to blame for the current political crisis. He refused to engage in discussions about lifting the debt ceiling until very late in the process. He has not been serious about controlling runaway deficits. In fact, the budget he proposed earlier this year dramatically boosted federal spending. It was voted down in the Senate 97-0. Even Democrats considered it irresponsible and reckless.

Nobody Should Believe A Single Thing Obama Says About the Budget. Granted, nobody should believe a single thing Obama says about anything — (including his denials that he knew anything about Fast and Furious), but in light of his press conference today, ahead of his budget negotiations with John Boehner and the Republicans, I thought it would be good to count the ways Obama has been duplicitous and disingenuous in his actions re the economy, (which he really and truly seems hellbent on destroying.) As always with him — you have to look at what he does — not what he says.

Obama is profoundly aloof. In preparing his February budget, Obama totally ignored the recommendations of his own fiscal commission headed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Others noticed: The Senate rejected the initial budget by a vote of 97-0. Then, speaking in April at George Washington University, Obama said he was presenting a new budget with $4 trillion in long-term spending cuts. But there were no specifics. Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf was asked last week if the CBO had prepared estimates of this budget. "We don't estimate speeches," Elmendorf, a Democrat, explained. "We need much more specificity than was provided in that speech for us to do our analysis."

The $1 Trillion That Got Away. While the drama in Washington went back and forth last week over the federal fiscal 2011 budget, lawmakers and the mainstream media missed the real opportunity. It's not whether President Obama or House Speaker John Boehner won on the deal, or the paltry savings they agreed on. It's also not whether the real savings are $352 million as scored by the Congressional Budget Office, or the $38 billion in savings claimed by Obama and Boehner, or the $100 billion expected by Tea Party-minded people. No! It's the $1,000 billion (that would be $1 trillion) they did not even talk about.

Time for Obama and Hill Democrats to grow up. [Paul] Ryan's "roadmap to prosperity" certainly is far more serious than the budget proposal Obama submitted to Congress earlier this year. The Obama plan not only nearly doubled the national debt by 2020, it totally ignored the recommendations of the president's own bipartisan fiscal commission and included nothing about reforming the entitlement programs that are the principal drivers behind our soaring national debt.

Obama's Budget Blowout. Republicans are pointing to a new Congressional Budget Office report released late on Friday [3/18/2011] which seems to confirm that President Obama is AWOL on the budget crisis. The new analysis finds that Mr. Obama's budget actually increases the deficit by $26 billion this year to a level of red ink only surpassed by his own record in 2009. His budget would also add more than $80 billion to the deficit in 2012. "This confirms that the White House isn't serious about the budget," Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee tells us. "There are no cuts and his budget makes the problem worse."

Obama's red ink grows by $2.7 trillion. When dealing with the massive spending levels of the federal government, a small rounding error can add up to big money. Now it looks like the amount of debt President Obama's budget will generate in the coming decade will be $2.7 trillion more than expected. Oops. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Friday [3/18/2011] updated its analysis of the government's red ink and found the fiscal hole deeper than expected.

Obama Budget Underestimates Deficits by $2 Trillion. A new, nonpartisan analysis of President Obama's proposed 10-year budget revealed Friday that the administration underestimated future deficits by more than $2 trillion.

CBO Adds $2,265,000,000,000 to Obama's Budget Deficits. Already responsible (along with Congress) for $3.3 trillion in actual or projected deficit spending in just his first two years in office — thereby breaking the prior record of $3.2 trillion for an entire presidency — President Obama has proposed an unserious budget that, even according to his own estimates, would add another $7.2 trillion in deficits over a decade.

CBO: Obama budget worse than projected on 10-year deficit. The Congressional Budget Office on Friday [3/18/2011] released its analysis of President Obama's 2012 budget proposal and found it does less to rein in deficits and the debt than the administration had estimated. CBO estimates Obama's plan would produce 10 years of deficits totaling $9.5 trillion. By 2021, it would increase the debt held by the public to 87 percent of gross domestic product.

What Is Obama Thinking? The House Republicans want $61 billion in cuts between now and the end of the fiscal year on September 30. The Obama administration says it wants to meet them "half way" by offering cuts amounting to $10.5 billion.

President Obama Busts the Budget for Pie-in-the-Sky Amtrak and "Livability" Proposals. As is apparent from the President's first two years in office, he and his team believe in a primitive form of Keynesian economics, one of the tenets of which is that government can spend its way to economic prosperity. Despite the revolving collection of euphemisms to define these varied schemes — "stimulus," "jobs," and now "investments" — this proposal would fare no better than the first several efforts. Notwithstanding the failure of the first several mega-billion-dollar stimulus plans, the President seems determined to find validation for his views, and taxpayers are expected to finance the search.

Sessions 'flabbergasted' by increase in Obama transportation budget. Given the record deficit this year, [Senator Jeff] Sessions said he was surprised to see Obama's 2012 budget call for an 11 percent spending increase and a 9.5 percent increase for the Education and Energy departments, respectively. But, he said, "I was flabbergasted to see Transportation wants 62 percent increase in spending."

Forget the machete, or the scalpel: Obama takes a butter knife to the budget. President Obama said he'd take a scalpel to the budget instead of a machete. So far, though, he appears to be wielding a butter knife — trimming little more than soft edges. The White House insists they're meeting the Republicans half way on budget cuts, but the numbers simply don't add up.

Sessions: Obama 'has not told us the truth' in budget. President Obama is hiding the truth when it comes to the nation's overspending and long-term debt problems, a key Republican senator said Monday [2/14/2011]. Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (Ala.) faulted the president's proposal, which is set to be released later Monday morning [2/14/2011], for not addressing bloated entitlement programs and not cutting enough federal spending while raising taxes.

A Budget of Outlandish Foolishness. If you are not in the happy position of earning at least slightly more than you spend, what portion of your household budget comes from borrowing, or selling the family silver? Is it the seemingly modest 3% that spelt M-I-S-E-R-Y for Charles Dickens' character, who wound up in debtors' prison. Or is it even worse than that? Say, a mind-boggling 43%? In percentage terms, that is the expected shortfall between U.S. government receipts and expenditures in the 2011 federal budget.

After Obama, the Deluge. President Obama established a bipartisan debt-reduction commission — and then ignored its findings, which called for unpopular reductions in entitlements and across-the-board spending cuts. His first two budgets led to the largest deficits in U.S. history. The ensuing $3 trillion dollars in red ink prompted the Tea Party movement and led to the largest midterm defeat of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives since 1938. No matter. The president has proposed a new budget with an even larger, $1.6 trillion deficit.

Obama's Gutless Budget Proposal. The White House's new budget is far worse than merely bad. By not attacking the underlying cause of our debt explosion and by raising taxes, it will lead inevitably to a weaker economy and perhaps even default.

Obama's Spending Spree: By the Numbers. Here is President Obama's budget for fiscal year 2012 (and outlook through 2021). And here is a look at some of the numbers that stand out:
$3.73 trillion — total spending this year (25 percent of GDP).
$46 trillion — total spending over the next decade.
$8.7 trillion — total new spending over the same period.
...
$77.4 billion — Funding allocated for the Department of Education, a 22 percent increase from 2010 levels, and a 35 percent increase from 2008 levels.
$29.5 billion — Total spending on the Department of Energy, a 22 percent increase from 2008 levels.
$9.9 billion — Funding allocated for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a 30 percent increase from 2008 levels.

Debt now equals total U.S. economy. President Obama projects that the gross federal debt will top $15 trillion this year, officially equalling the size of the entire U.S. economy, and will jump to nearly $21 trillion in five years' time.

The President Chickens Out on Spending Cuts. Despite the record $1.6 trillion deficit this year, and the consensus that exploding spending and debt is pushing the nation toward catastrophe, the Obama administration has completely chickened out on spending reforms in its new budget. Even though Obama's own Fiscal Commission proposed many good spending-cut ideas, the new Obama budget takes a complete pass.

Obama's Pathetic Budget. Let's be candid about President Obama's budget. It's pathetic. The country faces a worsening debt crisis and Obama has not come to play. He kissed off the crisis in his State of the Union address last month. And now his plan for spending over the next 10 years doesn't come close to dealing with the debt problem.

The Obama Budget: Government Is Not Big Enough Yet. If you're one of the countless Americans worried about wild and unsustainable government spending, President Obama has a message for you: the government isn't big enough yet. The new budget includes a paltry trillion dollars of proposed deficit reduction over a decade. That means we'll end up with four straight years of trillion-dollar deficits, blowing right through the end of Obama's first term.

Electric cars get a boost in Obama budget plan. In its effort to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, the Obama administration's proposed budget supports a plan to give $7,500 directly to electric car buyers rather than make them wait for a tax credit.

NPR thanks Obama for budget 'vote of confidence'. As some Republicans on Capitol Hill try to cut, or even eliminate, its government funding, National Public Radio has sent a public thank-you to the Obama administration for proposing an increase in taxpayer funding for public radio. "Public broadcasting received a vote of confidence today from the Obama Administration," NPR said in a statement Monday [2/14/2011]. "The President's FY 2012 budget submission to Congress included $451 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for the two year advance appropriation for FY 2014, an increase of $6 million over FY 2013 funding."

Why Does No One Care? President Obama dumped a real dilly on Congress for Valentine's Day. That being a $3.73 trillion dollar budget that actually increases the deficit in 2012, but which attacks the problem with tax increases later on. ... Does the date November 2, 2010 mean anything to you, Sir? What about the word "shellacking"? Ring any bells?

Obama's Budget Makes Uncertainty Certain. Obama's new budget only makes some of the uncertainty more certain. The president set out some markers in his State of the Union speech: "If we truly care about our deficit, we simply can't afford a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans ... we should ask millionaires to give up their tax break." While Obama's timid budget proposal showed little sign that he truly cares about the deficit, page 172 makes clear that he has no intention of letting tax cuts for high earners extend beyond 2012.

5,100 More IRS Agents. President Obama's fiscal 2012 budget doesn't cut much of anything, and certainly not the Internal Revenue Service. The White House is requesting that the most beloved of all government agencies get an additional 5,100 agents next year, no doubt to wring further tax revenue from Americans.

The Presidents Budget Proposal: An Obamination of Progressive Profligacy. In one of the most daunting "present" votes of his entire political career, president Obama had demonstrated that he is completely unserious about getting both the federal deficit and the federal debt under control. His proposal of $1.1 trillion dollars in deficit reduction over a ten year period makes a complete mockery of reality: the deficit this year alone is $1.67 trillion. Mr. Obama's "solution" would reduce it to $1.56 trillion.

'Debt on Arrival'. Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, was not his usual even-tempered self this afternoon. At a joint press conference with his senate counterpart, Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), a visibly agitated Ryan slammed President Obama's $3.73 trillion budget proposal, calling it "debt on arrival." The president's failure to seriously address the federal deficit and the entitlement programs driving that deficit, Ryan argued, constituted "an abdication of leadership."

Where is Obama Leading Us? The country as a whole fails to grasp the magnitude of the coming fiscal crisis. Advantage, Obama. What to do? The answer, I think, is to tell a (true) story about Obama's long-term aims and intentions. If the word socialism makes you uncomfortable, try "unaffordable Euro-style welfare state."

Budget Bust. Pres. Barack Obama has proposed the largest federal budget in the history of the United States of America, at $3.73 trillion. It includes a string of monster deficits, including a projected 2012 deficit amounting to 10.9 percent of GDP — a borrowing binge exceeded by the United States only during the height of World War II.

The Obama Budget's Magic Asterisks. Past presidential budgets have been declared "DOA," or dead on arrival. President Obama's budget should be declared "TBD" — to be determined. Despite taking an extra week to release this year's budget, the president's budget is an incomplete list of magic asterisks. Overall, the budget's claimed $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction over the decade is based on smoke and mirrors. It claims $315 billion saved from eliminating "certain tax expenditures" — but doesn't list which ones.

The Budget. The message of the budget the Obama administration released today is the same as the message the president delivered in his State of the Union address: All is well, full speed ahead, and let's invest a little more in solar panels and high-speed rail.

"Steep Cuts?" Even the Left Is Starting to Notice. Liberal press outlets are reporting, generally without criticism, the Obama administration's claim that its FY 2012 budget embodies "steep cuts" in federal spending over the coming decade. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let's look at what federal spending would be until 2021 on the (admittedly silly) assumption that Obama's future projections are correct.

Obama Has Already Thrown in Towel on 'Winning the Future'. Reuters reports that Obama's proposed budget would cut the deficit by $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Are you kidding me? We wouldn't even come close to balancing the budget if we applied all those cuts in one year, but spread out over 10 years, they are insulting. Plus, many of these "cuts" would be solely the result of bringing troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Brother, Can You Spare an Investment? The takeaway lesson from Obama's proposed budget? Look before you leap into a car with a community organizer at the wheel.

A Teachable Moment For Obama Supporters. This week may be a teachable moment for the gentry liberals and Obamacons who swooned over Obama in 2008. They thought that someone so smart, so reasonable-sounding, so much like them would be the one to chart a course to fiscal sanity. They accepted the years of massive deficits during the recession. But by the 2012, he would finally start to put the budget on a path to a sustainable future, right?

Obama's budget blarney. When the biggest spender in America's history says it's time for government to live within its means, it is reasonable to ask: Who does President Obama think he's kidding? Mr. Obama's new budget is the latest installment in a series of proposals featuring flawed estimates based on unrealistic economic assumptions.

Obama says he'd stop adding to debt, but that's not true. President Barack Obama's claim Tuesday [2/15/2011] that his proposed budget would stop adding to the national debt is wrong — and is proved wrong in his own budget. "We will not be adding more to the national debt," he said flatly Tuesday [2/15/2011] at a news conference. ... However, his budget shows that the gross national debt would continue to rise every year under his proposal, almost doubling from $13.5 trillion last year to $26.3 trillion in fiscal 2021.

Obama's HHS Is Bigger Than LBJ's Government. Anyone who doubts that the trend toward socialism is pushing America toward ruin should examine the historical tables President Obama published Monday along with his $3.7 trillion budget. In fiscal 2011, according to these tables, the Department of Health and Human Services will spend $909.7 billion. In fiscal 1965, the entire federal government spent $118.228 billion. What about inflation? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator, $118.228 billion in 1965 dollars equals $822.6 billion in 2010 dollars. In real terms, the $909.7 billion HHS is spending this year is about $87.1 billion more than the entire federal government spent in 1965.

Obama budget gives light rail $200 million. President Obama's 2012 budget proposal on Monday allocated $200 million to the Central Corridor light-rail line. The federal money is necessary to make the project go forward, Tim Busse, University of Minnesota Services spokesman, said.

Good Morning, Suckers. President Obama's budget released on Monday proposes to spend $3.73 trillion for 2012. He can't say Bush made him do that. That proposed spending is an undeniable fact that reveals who he is, which he successfully hid from 53% of voters in 2008. Campaigning in 2008 he promised voters that his plan involved a "net spending cut." That net spending cut translated into $836 billion in increased spending this year from 2008, according to President Obama's own budget documents.

AWOL: The 'responsible' Obama. [Scroll down] Mr. Obama imagines that by snipping total federal spending by 2.4 percent this year, the federal government is somehow emulating the fiscal discipline of the Breece family. What he doesn't mention is that the 2.4 percent cut follows a 10.5 percent increase the year before, leaving 2012 spending significantly higher than it was in 2010. Also, he omitted the fact that after a single year's rectitude, total spending (not just discretionary spending) will resume its upward march in fiscal 2013, increasing every year over the following eight years. As for that $400 billion in "savings," they represent no more than a diminution of the spending increases Mr. Obama had forecast previously — not actual cuts.

Mr. President, do you think we're stupid? The length to which this administration will go to stretch the truth is mind-boggling. Here we have the President of the United States standing before the world and claiming that his latest budget balances in 2015. He didn't even flinch when he said it. Yet his own budget document shows clearly on page 160 that the deficit in that year is $669 billion with a 'b'. When questioned on this obvious inconsistency, Obama said, in effect, that his calculus does not include interest payments. This was later confirmed by his budget director who used the term 'Primary Budget' to describe this cool new way of viewing the world.

Barack Obama's Louis XV Budget. Five days before his inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama told the Washington Post that entitlement reform could no longer be kicked down the road. He then spent the next two years kicking — racking up $3 trillion in new debt along the way — on the grounds that massive temporary deficit spending was necessary to prevent another Great Depression.

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