2012 Budget: “Debt on Arrival”

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Front Page Magazine:

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions described President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget as “debt on arrival,” a pithy assessment of a plan that seems to have virtually no chance of being passed. The $3.73 trillion spending plan exceeds the Republican’s budget target of $2.9 trillion by more than $800 billion. Recall that, even with majorities in both houses of Congress last year, the president had a tough time getting his 2011 spending bill passed. With the GOP in control of the House and with national anxiety over unsustainable national debt rising, it’s hard to see how this plan is going to go anywhere.

The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe broke down some of the details. Though the plan is supposed to ultimately cut the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next ten years, that figure falls far short of the $4 trillion in deficit reduction that the president’s own debt commission said was necessary to avoid fiscal catastrophe over the course of the decade. Additionally, most of the $1.1 trillion in deficit reduction comes on the back of $1.6 trillion in new revenue, most of that coming in as the result of higher taxes. The wealthy, businesses, the oil and gas industry, financial institutions and hedge funds would all be subject to higher taxes if this budget were to be passed.

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Human Events:

Congressional Republicans are outraged that President Obama sent a $3.7 trillion budget on Monday that continues the tax-and-spend policies that cost Democrats the midterm elections.

“Many people thought—ourselves included—that the President would moderate after this past election. This is not a moderating budget. This is not a triangulation budget. This is a budget that went to the left,” said Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

“It would be better doing nothing than if we were to actually pass this budget—for the sake of our economy, for the sake of our future, and for the sake of jobs,” said a clearly fired-up Ryan.

Obama’s budget would increase spending by $8.7 trillion and add $13 trillion to the debt over 10 years, according to Republican analysis. The budget, which would go into effect in Fiscal Year 2012, would only reduce the deficit by $1.1 trillion over 10 years, a third of which would come from $1.6 trillion in tax increases.

“This is not an I-got-the-message budget. It’s unserious, and it’s irresponsible. We need to look for ways to preserve what’s good that does not put us on a path to bankruptcy. That was the challenge of this budget. The administration failed the test,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) on Monday.

The current U.S. debt, which is the cumulative debts of years of deficit spending, will soon hit the statutory debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion. Republicans say that Obama’s budget would add another $13 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years.

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National Review:

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. With President Obama’s spending vision pushing the $4 trillion mark, it is worth remembering that it was only a few short years ago when Pres. George W. Bush shocked the nation by proposing the first $2 trillion budget. Time flies when you’re on your way toward doubling federal spending.

Obama’s budget is bad — very bad, inasmuch as its vision of fiscal responsibility includes deficits in excess of $1 trillion for the next decade, an arrangement that Uncle Sam’s creditors will have something to say about, none of it likely to be pleasant. It is wishful thinking to assert that our nation can continue to pile more than a trillion dollars a year onto its debt without driving up interest rates, depressing the dollar, and smothering the productive economy. Obama’s budget projects anemic economic growth for the next two years, and even those assumptions may be rosy; either way, his budget goes a long way toward undermining even these tepid growth projections.

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Not on the 2012 budget, but on the 2011 budget/funding stuff going on in the house:

 

More than 400 amendments were filed Monday night. Among them were a proposal from Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., to eliminate funding for the president's Teleprompter and one from Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, to strip funding for the alteration, repair or improvement of the executive residence of the White House and instead divert that amount to deficit reduction.

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Obama says:

"I expect that all sides will have to do a little bit of posturing on television and speak to their constituencies, and rally the troops and so forth,"

 

"But ultimately, what we need is a reasonable, responsible, and initially, probably, somewhat quiet and toned-down conversation about ... where can we compromise and get something done."

 

"I'm confident that will be the spirit that congressional leaders take over the coming months,"

 

"I hope we have an adult conversation where everybody says, 'here's what's important and here's how we pay for it.'"