Editorials & Senator Slam Obama's Budget; McConnell: It's "A Blueprint For Deficits Built To Last"

Regardless of how the federal government raised the additional $1 billion, it would shift resources from one part of the economy to another, in this case to road building. The only way that $1 billion of new highway spending can create 47,576 new jobs is if the $1 billion appears out of nowhere as if it were manna from heaven. ~ Ronald Utt, Heritage Foundation

Today in Washington, D.C. - Feb. 14, 2012:
Yesterday the Senate voted 89-5 to invoke cloture on the Adalberto Jose Jordan nomination and today resumed post-cloture consideration of the nomination to be a United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit. This afternoon if work on the Jordan nomination is completed the Senate is expected to return to S. 1813, the highway bill.

The House will in session tomorrow and is scheduled to debate H.R. 7, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012, from Wednesday through Friday. The House may this week also consider legislation relating to the payroll tax, unemployment payments, and doctor reimbursements from Medicare.

Editorial pages across the country today are slamming the budget President Obama released on Monday.

Savannah Morning News: "President Obama did the unthinkable Monday: He punted on first down."

USA Today: “The best test of a budget proposal these days is whether it reins in the national debt, which is projected to equal a troubling 74% of gross domestic product this year. The last time the publicly held debt was that high as a percentage of the economy was in 1950, when the nation was still paying off the stupendous amount of money it had to borrow to fight and win World War II. The election-year budget President Obama sent to Congress on Monday fails that test.”

Bloomberg News: “Do as I say, not as I do. That was the unwelcome message in President Barack Obama’s federal budget for 2013. . . . This is a wasted opportunity, even considering that the final budget of the president’s term is largely a political document.”

The Wall Street Journal: “Federal budgets are by definition political documents, but even by that standard yesterday's White House proposal for fiscal year 2013 is a brilliant bit of misdirection. With the abracadabra of a tax increase on the wealthy and defense spending cuts that will never materialize, the White House asserts that in President Obama's second term revenues will soar, outlays will fall, and $1.3 trillion annual deficits will be cut in half like the lady in the box on stage. All voters need to do is suspend disbelief for another nine months. And ignore the first four years.”

The AP covers some of the misdirection in President Obama’s budget in a fact check piece today: “When a president introduces a budget, there are always phantoms flitting around the room. President Barack Obama's spending plan sets loose a number of them. It counts on phantom savings from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's underpinned by tax increases Republicans won't let happen and program cuts fellow Democrats in Congress are all but certain to block. And it assumes rates of growth that the economy will have to become strikingly undead to achieve.”

Where are the Senate Democrats?
It’s telling that Senate Democrats haven’t rushed to the microphones to laud Obama’s latest budget. According to Roll Call, “While President Barack Obama was rallying the faithful around a politically minded budget laden with base-nourishing tax and spending proposals, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was keeping a low profile. . . . [W]hen he went to the floor Monday afternoon — long after the budget had been delivered and an 11:15 a.m. embargo had been lifted — Reid focused on the mundane goings-on of the Senate chamber in his opening remarks. In fact, when Reid did touch on a president’s plan for spending, it wasn’t to reference Obama’s newly proposed budget — or, in fact, any of Obama’s budget plans.” “Reid’s hesitancy to talk about the budget is understandable; the Senate hasn’t produced a budget in almost three years . . . . Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) was also noncommittal. . . . Even worse were statements from Members such as Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CN) and Mark Pryor (D-R), who rejected it outright. Pryor . . . said, ‘This budget proposal is simply a case of misplaced priorities when it comes to Arkansas.’” And The Hill observed today, “For the second day in a row Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) ignored President Obama's $3.8 trillion budget proposal, leaving his deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), to rebut yet another withering attack from across the aisle.”

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said this morning, “President Obama knows better than anyone in this country that government spending and debt is out of control, and that America is headed down the same road as Europe. The budget was his chance to show it. Instead, he decided to basically pretend these problems don’t even exist, and to the extent that he does acknowledge them, to propose solutions that are either gimmicks or that he knows will never come to pass. Just to take two examples, he says he’ll bank savings by not fighting a war he already declared we wouldn’t be fighting. And he’d raise money with tax hikes that have been rejected eight times by both parties. Oh, and by the way, forget the fact that government spends a trillion dollars a year more than it takes in. The President says government spending should be even higher. He significantly increases government spending. . . . “Last month the President said he wanted an economy that’s built to last. What he’s given us instead is a blueprint for deficits built to last. And he hasn’t done a thing to live up to his pledge to get our nation’s fiscal house in order. He’s made it worse. Last year’s budget wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on, and neither is this one.”

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