PDF: A New Era of Responsibilty
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s ambitious budget blueprint calls for sweeping reforms to health care and energy policy and already has Republicans and Democrats trading barbs over proposed spending growth.
The president’s comments on fiscal discipline during his joint address to Congress last week drew jeers from many Republicans, but Tennessee and Georgia lawmakers said they recognize that both sides of the aisle have a right to criticize.
“Look, the eight years we were in control of the White House, the deficit grew,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. “There’s enough blame to go around. The commitment has to be on both sides to fix the problem.”
Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., said good governments, like good businesses, must borrow money from time to time to create growth, and he defended the recently passed $789 billion economic stimulus package.
But he and other fiscal conservatives will push President Obama to fulfill his promise to go through the budget line by line and eliminate or reform wasteful programs, Rep. Davis said.
“We now owe it to the American people, and to the generations that will have to settle these debts, to tighten our belts and round out the jagged edges of our federal budget,” he said.
President Bush sent the nation’s first-ever $3 trillion budget proposal to Congress in 2008. The $3.1 trillion proposed budget projects sizable increases in national security but forced the rest of government to pinch pennies, according to The Associated Press.
But even with those restraints, the budget deficit projectionswere near-record levels of $410 billion for 2008 and $407 billion in 2009, driven higher in part by efforts to revive the sagging economy with a $145 billion stimulus package.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who recently attended a “fiscal responsibility summit” at the White House, said he prefers a budget plan that focuses on reforming Social Security and establishing a bipartisan commission to review all budget proposals.
The fiscal responsibility summit, however, did generate some good ideas that he hopes the president will embrace, he said.
“Only presidential leadership will help us bring (spending) under control,” Sen. Alexander said. “The problem is, the president’s ambitious spending and tax proposals make it hard to see how he’s going to control the growth in spending.”
Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., said the president lost credibility on fiscal matters by pushing the stimulus package, which Republicans roundly criticized as wasteful.
Mr. Obama’s $3.55 trillion budget blueprint, unveiled Thursday, projects a $1.17 trillion deficit in 2010, though he has promised to halve that to $570 billion by 2014.
“There are great inconsistencies between the things he talks about and the things he does,” Rep. Deal said.
Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said President Obama’s budget proposal would expand government and result in increased taxes in time.
“The president’s proposed budget outline follows on the heels of a massive stimulus spending bill, which puts us on a path to the biggest and most inefficient government that we have ever had,” he said.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the proposal contains a “major sleight of hand” by including a tax on greenhouse gas emissions.
“I guess his claim on Tuesday night that no one earning under $250,000 would pay more in taxes did not apply to this massive climate tax increase all Americans will pay,” Sen. Corker said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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It's funny that for 8-12 yrs the GOP with help of Wamp,Corker and other east Tn repubs has spent their time and money on the richer parts of our country. Now that Obama is trying to reach those left out, they are getting very high-hat.
I guess it may be that they see the illusion of what Obama is trying to do and they realize all his spending is going to cost us in much higher taxes in the next few years. The stimulus plan is a sham, but the libs didn't elect this smooth talker on qualifications, but out of a blind fasination for a word they didn't understand.
Every morning before I start my daily activities I kneel and face Washington DC and pray to Obama. All praise Obama, the maker of change. Every day when I count my change and order something off of McDonald's dollar menu I thank Obama silently before eating my McDouble.One thing that I thank Obama for is these lower gas prices. He finally made Bush and Chaney stop gouging us. Of course I'm too broke to have my van repaired so I don't buy much gas these days. All Praise Obama, the enlightened one. Maker of change. Hey buddy can you spare a little change????
Don't forget that Obama has already made it so that people in other countries can get abortions on our dime. You should be thankful for that. Aborted foreigners can't take your job. See, Obama is looking out for you. Change baby, change.
The numbers the administration is using (as of a month or so ago) -
Tax cut multiplier: .99 in GDP growth
Spending multiplier: 1.57 in GDP growth
Trickle down doesn't work (as the past eight years have shown us rather definitively) and government spending has the potential to. Yes, the top 2 - 5% of the population will revert to paying the same taxes they did in the mid 1990s, but the rest of the country won't.
As for me, I think his first month and half in office have been remarkable - I just can't understand why people with so much invested in this country seem to want him to fail. If he does (and, again, I don't think he will), we'll all be living in the same poorhouse.
reply to gmillener
I'm glad some smart people post here. When you're on the bottom there's no way to go but up. Yeah, the neocons hope that we (not just Obama) fail. They would rather eat slop with the hogs than to admit that Bush was a total failure. Now they listen to Rush and chant his poison. But I guarantee they will be bucking the line to grab what they can from the stimulus.
Libs, please get deprogrammed. The liberal congress and senate put us in this poor economy, not Bush. Boy, when y'all start whinning, ya get so loud you can't hear logic and common sense, but then I'm not sure it would even register with you. When taxes go thru the roof to cover this idiotic " stimulus" stupidity, you can pay my share.
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Just a reminder that Bush/dems were in control 6/8 yrs and Bush had total veto power last two. It was Bush/Paulson that shook congress for the $750 tr bailout, then gave it to the fatcats with no strings attached. Clinton left Bush a perfect economy--all he had to do was keep it going. But no, he had to upset everything. A dem had to bail out the first Bush and a dem will bail out the last Bush, even with the Rush-ites and Corker-ites trying to hose it down.
correction..Bush/republicans in control 6/8 yrs
Eatn, it was clinton who started the housing debacle when he told the banks to give everyone a home. Are you so jaded that the facts totally escape you? "A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own." "You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer." --Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)The current admon is putting this country into a mess Bush couldn't have possibly done. Please, take your blinders off because you will be screaming louder than most when the reality of this spending spree by the democrats hits hime.
Rather invest into engineering, job skills development, and industry. Obama chooses to just give money away. OUR money!
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