Obama's Budget: Platform For His Re-election Campaign - Reality: 4th Straight Year Of $1 Trillion-Plus Deficits

Obama WH Chart - Zero Confidence in Accuracy
It's Obviously DEBT On Arrival

Today in Washington, D.C. - Feb. 13, 2012:
Late this afternoon the U.S. Senate will quickly move on consideration of the nomination of Adalberto Jose Jordan to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit. They will vote after allowing a one hour discussion.

On Thursday, the Senate voted 85-11 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the highway bill (allowing the Senate to begin work on the bill) and 90-6 to confirm Cathy Bencivengo to be US District Judge for California. The Senate is expected to return to work on S. 1813, the highway bill, for the remainder of the week.

The House convened for 1 hour; no votes; adjourned until Wednesday. The House 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.

The Washington Post reports today, “President Obama on Monday unveiled a $3.8 trillion spending plan that seeks to pump billions of dollars into the economy while raising taxes on the rich to tame a soaring national debt now projected to grow significantly faster than previously forecast. The president’s outlook for debt reduction has deteriorated markedly since September, when Obama told Congress that his proposals would hold annual deficits well under $600 billion after next year and permit the debt held by outside investors to rise to $17.7 trillion by 2021, or 73 percent of the overall economy. The new 10-year blueprint shows annual deficits exceeding $600 billion every year except 2018.”

Politico adds, “Obama would also go outside the box by creating new mandatory spending initiatives costing tens of billions of dollars and for the first time, openly tap war savings to fund his domestic agenda.”

But, Politico writes, “The bottom line is a fourth straight year of $1 trillion-plus deficits and only marginal improvement in 2013 when the shortfall will narrow to $901 billion—still a far cry from what the president had promised when he took office in 2009. Indeed, even if Obama were to win a second term and prevail on his entire tax agenda, the budget tables show that the deficit won’t fall back below 3 percent of GDP until 2018—after he will have left the White House.”

And even The New York Times writes, “[T]he latest budget document can be seen as more a platform for the president’s re-election campaign than a legislative proposal for budget debates that will begin next week.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said of the Obama budget plan today, “By the end of his first term President Obama will have overseen four straight deficits in excess of a trillion dollars and the accumulation of $6.4 trillion in new gross debt. Yet 1.2 million fewer Americans are working today than when he took office. The vision the president has laid out today leads to a bigger government, a smaller middle class, and a painful debt crisis.”

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said, “This proposal isn’t really a budget at all. It’s a campaign document. This was a real opportunity for the President to get serious about the fiscal situation we face in the Obama economy, but once again, the President is shirking his responsibility to lead and using this budget to divide. The plan is obvious: Rather than reach out to members of Congress on a consensus budget, the President will take this budget on the road, as he is today, and talk about the parts he thinks audiences will like. What he won’t say is that it’s bad for job creation, bad for seniors, and that it will make the economy worse.”

Will Senate Democrats support this plan? Though they control the Senate, they haven’t presented a budget in over 1000 days. Last year, it was the Republican leadership which brought the president’s irresponsible budget to the floor for a vote, and not a single senator voted for it. To Repeat: NO Senate Democrats voted to pass the budget which only takes 50 votes (not 60) which they have. Both the White House and Senate Democrat leadership have
Mislead Voters On The Budget Law.

Sen. McConnell told CBS’ Bob Schieffer yesterday, “I offered President Obama's budget since the Democrats didn't seem to want to develop their own budget and didn't want to vote for his. His budget was defeated 97 to nothing. . . . I intend to offer the President's budget for him so he'll have a chance to get a vote on it.”

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