Today in Washington D. C. - Feb 26, 2009

The House passed $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill (H.R. 1105) by a vote of 245-178 yesterday. Next week, the Senate is expected to consider the bill. The bill funds the federal government through September. A continuing resolution passed last fall to fund the government expires March 6th.

Today the Senate resumed consideration of S. 160, the unconstitutional DC voting bill. Votes on amendments to the bill will continue today, with a vote on final passage possible as early as this evening. Yesterday, the Senate failed to sustain a point of order on the DC bill offered by Sen. McCain that it violates the constitution by a vote of 36-62. Senators also voted down a substitute amendment by Sen. Coburn (R-OK).

President Obama is set to officially release his budget plan later today, but the press is already full of reports of the staggering sums of money that he plans to spend. According to Politico’s Mike Allen, the full cost of his plan for the next fiscal year is an unprecedented $3.7 trillion dollars. For comparison, President Bush’s final budget proposal was $2.9 trillion.

Reading some of the numbers being reported this morning, most "adjectives" that come to mind seem unprintable. The Wall Street Journal reports, “The White House projects a $1.75 trillion deficit for the current fiscal year, which ends in September. That will be more than triple the previous record -- $455 billion. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the 2009 deficit would hit 12%, a level not seen since World War II.”

And these astonishing sums of money, only cover what’s planned for this year. According to The Washington Post, “President Obama is proposing to begin a vast expansion of the U.S. health-care system by creating a $634 billion reserve fund over the next decade, launching an overhaul that most experts project will ultimately cost at least $1 trillion. . . . Obama aims to make a ‘very substantial down payment’ toward universal coverage by trimming tax breaks for the wealthy and squeezing payments to insurers, hospitals, doctors and drug manufacturers, a senior administration official said yesterday.”

After one recovers from the sticker shock, the first question that comes to mind is "How is all of this gpomg to be paid?" Clearly, some of it won’t be, given that the Obama administration said earlier in the week that they’d like to cut the deficit to around $533 billion by 2013, still far in excess of the prior deficit record. However, Obama’s budget does plan to pay for some of his spending with huge tax hikes. According to Politico, the Obama budget plans to “squeez[e] the wealthy to help get $2 trillion in 10-year savings.” The same article notes that the budget also allows some of the Bush tax cuts to expire in 2010. And The Wall Street Journal reports that the budget explicitly calls for $318 billion in tax increases over 10 years as part of Obama’s $634 billion health care plan.

It’s important to remember, though, that this is in addition to all the spending we’ve heard about over the last month: the $787 billion stimulus, the $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill, and billions for a home mortgage rescue plan and more cash infusions for banks. As Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said last week, “This isn’t Monopoly money. It’s real. It adds up — and it has to be paid back, by our children and by their children.”

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