Obama's Budget And Speech
Update: Paul Ryan Responds

The Obama administration released its budget today and The One is now giving a speech shortly to sell it.

President Obama is offering his spending blueprint for the next decade -- an election-year document that seeks to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction through cuts in government spending, higher taxes and inclusion of last year's debt-ceiling deal for deficit reduction.

At the same time, Obama will ask for substantial spending increases on infrastructure and job training, but will offer few reforms to entitlement programs, which take up 40 percent of the annual federal budget.

Republicans, who are vowing to oppose Obama's tax increases, have planned several events Monday to counter the president's release. On Sunday House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said the president's proposal is full of gimmicks and does little to reduce the deficit or curb the rapid growth of benefit programs like Medicare.

Tax increases? Oh yes, Obama has those.

OBAMA BUDGET: ends Bush tax cuts for top earners, limits their deductions & exemptions, brings back top 39.6% rate

Bottom line...this is all theater since Obama's budget is Dead on Arrival. Democrats in the Senate don't want to touch it but Mitch McConnell is trying to bring it up for a vote.

"The only budget votes we'll have in the Senate, which refuses to follow the law and pass a budget of its own, would be a House-passed budget and the president’s budget, so I intend to offer the president’s budget for him so he’ll have a chance to get a vote on it," McConnell said.

He did the same thing last year - and the budget was defeated 97-0.

Obama's Chief of Staff is either a liar or an idiot (I'm not ruling out both however). Yesterday he repeatedly claimed the Senate can't pass a budget because it takes 60 votes and the GOP won't allow it. Even the Washington Post "fact checker" can't ignore how wrong that is even though he really wanted to cut Lew a break.

The problem is Lew was most recently the head of the Office of Management and Budget. Surely he knows the rules and just lied to attack Republicans.

As for President "I will cut the deficit in half" in his first term, Jim Geraghty takes a look at the budget and it's not pretty.

You’ll also recall that in 2007, the deficit was… $160 billion. You know, about 12 percent of the total deficit Obama’s budget would create this year.

Follow the link, the numbers are ugly.

UPDATE: Paul Ryan lays out the facts.

Key facts from the President’s budget:

Spends Too Much:

$47 trillion of government spending over the next decade

Proposes a net increase over current spending projections

Taxes Too Much:

$1.9 trillion in new taxes

Raises taxes, not to pay down the debt, but to fuel more government
spending

Borrows Too Much:

Four straight years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits; no plan to reduce the debt

Gross debt at the end of FY22: $25.9 trillion

Budget Gimmicks & Broken Promises

Overstates new deficit reduction by taking credit for savings already
enacted

Exploits discredited budget gimmick by “not spending” nearly $1 trillion
that was never going to be spent

posted by DrewM. at 11:14 AM

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