Red Ink Forever
It’s official. The proposed Obama Federal budget will generate red ink and the US Government deficit will increase every year during the new President’s term. In fact the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts US Federal deficits of $1 Trillion per year over the next decade. The complete CBO report is linked here
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10014/03-20-PresidentBudget.pdf
The national debt is now $11 Trillion and counting. With another decade of spend and tax being proposed by Obama Administration and being supported by the majority Democrats in the Congress, the colossal national debt could double in 10 years to over $20,000,000,000,000! Here is a direct link for more on the deficit:
http://www.federalbudget.com/
According to the CBO, as report by the Associated Press www.ap.org President Barack Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, according to the latest congressional estimates, significantly worse than predicted by the White House just last month. The Congressional Budget Office figures, obtained by The Associated Press Friday, predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the White House predicted in its budget. Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy; figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.
The AP also reports that conservative “Blue Dog Democrats” are questioning the larger that life spending proposed by President Obama:
WASHINGTON (www.ap.org ) — “Conservative and moderate Democrats are flexing their muscles on Capitol Hill, demanding significantly lower spending for domestic programs as well as automatic budget cuts if tax cuts and new programs would increase the deficit.
A group of 51 so-called "Blue Dog" House Democrats released their roster of budget demands Thursday, calling for cutting more than $40 billion from domestic programs funded by Congress each year.”
In the Hill on-line version www.thehill.com concerns about the ballooning deficit all even alarming the Democrat majority, “The deficit level, which Obama expected to be 12 percent of gross domestic product this year, would fall to approximately 3 percent of GDP in 2013 and beyond under the president's policies. But the CBO estimated deficits in those years to be much larger, between 4 percent and 6 percent of economic growth. The Office of Management & Budget (OMB) director Orszag said that a deficit that amounted to 5 percent of GDP would be "unsustainable."
The top Republican on the House budget committee Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), said that the new projections show that Obama's budget "will lead our nation into a far worse fiscal catastrophe" than the White House's own numbers suggested.
Janet Hook, in the March 20th LA Times www.latimes.com reports: “That bad (deficit) news, combined with other recent developments, portends a rocky road for the Obama budget, which was initially hailed by congressional Democrats for promoting such liberal priorities as expanded access to health insurance and curbs on global warming.
In the three weeks since the budget was unveiled, fiscally conservative Democrats have raised concerns about proposed spending increases. Leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees have criticized some of Obama's proposed tax increases on wealthier Americans. And influential Democrats are backing away from using a legislative shortcut that may be Obama's best hope for passing his far-reaching health and energy policies.
An additional multibillion-dollar bailout for banks and other financial institutions, which the administration will soon propose, is expected to add more pressure to the federal government's finances. Into that tinderbox, a lit match has come from new deficit estimates. Where Obama's budget foresees rolling up $7 trillion in cumulative deficits over the next 10 years, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) on Thursday pegged the deficits at $1.6 trillion higher over that period.” www.latimes.com
As the FY 2010 budget debate begins on Capitol Hill, the majority Democrats in Congress are faced with the reality that the Obama budget is overspending and over committing the Federal government to programs that cannot be sustained, even if taxes on all of Americans are dramatically raised. And while the President is only beginning his term, a number of US Senators and all the House members face an increasingly skeptical and angry electorate in November 2010. It is becoming increasingly clear that for the majority in Congress to continue to blaming others, each other and past Administrations, will not fly with the US taxpayers. The November 2010 election may be the last chance to vote out the big spenders in Washington. In the meantime, it is clear that the big spender in the White House, who doesn’t stand for election until 2012, won’t use the Obama veto pen on earmarks, pork, overspending or tax increases.
For more details on the US Federal budget, click through to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget
© 2009, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org
