LA Times: Obama's Budget "No Real Solutions" - Chicago Tribune: Plan Would "Grow Our Debt By Leaps And Bounds"

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The President’s Budget in 62 Sec.
The most important figures and
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President Obama was never serious about his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Like every budget this administration has proposed, this one was written with red ink. The deficit spending proposed in the President’s FY13 budget topped a trillion once again. ~ Sen. John Boozman (R-AR)

Today in Washington, D.C. - Feb. 15, 2012:
At noon, the Senate will vote on the nomination of Adalberto Jose Jordan to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit. Following the vote, the Senate will return to consideration of S. 1813, the highway bill. Votes on amendments to the bill are possible today.

The House today will consider H.Resolution 547 addressing several bills including H.R. 3408 to set clear rules for the development of United States oil shale resources, to promote shale technology research and development, and for other purposes; H.R. 3813 to amend title 5, United States Code, to secure the annuities of Federal civilian employees, and for other purposes; and H.R. 7 to authorize funds for Federal-aid highway, public transportation, and highway and motor carrier safety programs, and for other purposes. In addition the House and Senate conferees are attempting to negotiate another payroll tax break for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Yesterday, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said, “We’ve all had a little more time now to look at the President’s budget, and I have to say, the more one looks at it the harder it is to believe that this is the President’s considered response to the crisis we face. 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.”

In addition to the many editorials identified yesterday, more editorial are screaming out that if the United States continues on the path Obama has set, our future could look much like the present in Europe. The Detroit News wrote, “President Barack Obama's 2013 budget proposal should be dismissed as a blueprint for his re-election campaign. But it's worse than that. If passed as presented — and there's little likelihood of that — the spending plan would lock America on an auto-pilot course for Greece.”

The Los Angeles Times noted, “The day after the Greek Parliament approved another round of deep spending cuts in the face of violent protests, President Obama released a budget proposal for the coming fiscal year that offers no real solution to the United States' long-term fiscal problems.”

And, President Obama’s hometown newspaper was particularly harsh. In an editorial titled, “Athens on the Potomac,” the Chicago Tribune decried, “Conveniently, one of this nation's plausible futures plays out vividly on a TV screen near you: Fire-heaving mobs enraged by the harsh consequences of rampant public borrowing have torched one of Europe's grossly indebted capitals, Athens. Fretful officials in other capitals — Rome, Lisbon, Madrid and more — must wonder whether the flames will rage in their countries next. . . . Monday's document, in truth, is a campaign playbook — the vision of government that Obama hopes voters will reward with a second presidential term.”

The Tribune points out, “[T]he proposal [President Obama] floated Monday actually would aggravate the somewhat rosier debt projections he provided to Congress as recently as September. What we have then is a debt debacle that, even with the president's plan, would continue to grow our debt by leaps and bounds.”

As Leader McConnell declared, “The failure of leadership here is breathtaking. The President knows how grave our nation’s fiscal condition is. . . . This President is failing the American people. The only question is how long it will take for that failure to catch up with us.”

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