Congress Passes $3.4T Obama Budget Outline
Democrats in Congress capped President Barack Obama's 100th day in office by advancing a $3.4 trillion federal budget for next year - a third of it borrowed - that prevents Republicans from blocking his proposed trillion-dollar expansion of government-provided health care over the next decade.
Wednesday's House and Senate votes to adopt the nonbinding budget blueprint were only a first step toward Obama's goal of providing health care coverage for all Americans. The budget plan for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 sets the parameters for subsequent tax and spending bills expected to boost clean energy programs and student aid and extend many of former President George W. Bush's tax cuts.
"It's a budget that reduces taxes, lowers the deficit and creates jobs," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. "It honors the three pillars of the Obama initiatives: energy, health care and education."
Obama cheered passage of the plan, saying in a statement that it "builds on the steps we've taken over the last 100 days to move this economy from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity."
The budget outline also makes it plain that Democrats won't let a mountain of deficits and debt interfere with advancing Obama's ambitious but costly agenda.
It gives Democrats the option of moving Obama's health care plan through Congress without the threat of a Republican filibuster, though Democrats promise to try to find bipartisan agreement.
The Senate adopted the plan by a 53-43 vote just hours after a 233-193 House tally.
Newly-turned Democrat Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania voted against the measure as he did earlier this month when it initially passed the Senate. Three other Democrats also voted no: Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Evan Bayh of Indiana.
Seventeen House Democrats, mostly from GOP-leaning districts, voted against the budget.
Not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted for the measure.
Obama inherited an economy in deep recession and a financial bailout costing hundreds of billions of dollars, and even some Republicans didn't fault him for deficits rocketing to $1.7 trillion for the ongoing budget year and a still-stunning $1.2 trillion in 2010.
"We inherited a colossal mess," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said.
As a result, Democrats opted against extending Obama's signature $400 tax cut for most workers beyond next year and cut $10 billion from his budget for non-defense programs. Also gone are revenues from Obama's "cap-and-trade" plan for curbing global warming by auctioning permits to emit greenhouse gases.
Republicans assaulted the plan as just the latest example of a spending spree by Democrats that started with Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill. It was followed by an omnibus appropriations bill that showered generous increases on domestic programs and included 8,000 pet projects for lawmakers' districts and states.
"It spends money we don't have, piles unprecedented debt on our children and grandchildren, and raises taxes on families and small businesses, while taking away the middle-class tax cut the president promised during the campaign," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.
Under the plan, the deficit would drop to $523 billion in 2014, but even that figure depends on several unrealistic assumptions, notably that Congress will devote only $50 billion a year for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2011 and beyond, and unrealistic projections of costs for core Pentagon operations.
There's considerable accounting legerdemain in the plan as well, reflecting a struggle by Democrats to cut the budget deficit to 3 percent of the size of the economy within five years - a figure economists say is sustainable without adding crippling debt to the nation's books.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said a report Wednesday that the economy had shrunk by 6.1 percent in the first quarter highlighted the likelihood that the deficit numbers were even worse than predicted in the budget.
"Put reality into the budget and the deficits and debt go much higher," Ryan said.
House Democrats promise that completion of the budget will be followed by a pay-as-you-go law that would require - after some major exceptions for Bush-era tax cuts - that new tax cuts and increases in federal benefit programs like food stamps, unemployment insurance and Medicare are "paid for" with tax increases or offsetting spending cuts.
If the new pay-as-you-go law is violated, automatic spending cuts would be imposed to bring the deficit back into line.
Also permitted to advance under filibuster-free rules is Obama's plan to eliminate student loan subsidies for banks and other lenders, with the savings being used to increase Pell Grants for needy students.
The budget plan skirts difficult decisions on how to pay for Obama's health care plan, which is expected to cost more than $1 trillion over the next decade. It allows the new president's signature $400 tax credit for most workers to expire in 20 months but devotes $512 billion over five years to extend tax cuts passed during Bush's first term for middle-class workers, investors and families with children.
AP Wednesday's House and Senate votes to adopt the nonbinding budget blueprint were only a first step toward Obama's goal of providing health care coverage for all Americans. The budget plan for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 sets the parameters for subsequent tax and spending bills expected to boost clean energy programs and student aid and extend many of former President George W. Bush's tax cuts.
"It's a budget that reduces taxes, lowers the deficit and creates jobs," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. "It honors the three pillars of the Obama initiatives: energy, health care and education."
Obama cheered passage of the plan, saying in a statement that it "builds on the steps we've taken over the last 100 days to move this economy from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity."
The budget outline also makes it plain that Democrats won't let a mountain of deficits and debt interfere with advancing Obama's ambitious but costly agenda.
It gives Democrats the option of moving Obama's health care plan through Congress without the threat of a Republican filibuster, though Democrats promise to try to find bipartisan agreement.
The Senate adopted the plan by a 53-43 vote just hours after a 233-193 House tally.
Newly-turned Democrat Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania voted against the measure as he did earlier this month when it initially passed the Senate. Three other Democrats also voted no: Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Evan Bayh of Indiana.
Seventeen House Democrats, mostly from GOP-leaning districts, voted against the budget.
Not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted for the measure.
Obama inherited an economy in deep recession and a financial bailout costing hundreds of billions of dollars, and even some Republicans didn't fault him for deficits rocketing to $1.7 trillion for the ongoing budget year and a still-stunning $1.2 trillion in 2010.
"We inherited a colossal mess," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said.
As a result, Democrats opted against extending Obama's signature $400 tax cut for most workers beyond next year and cut $10 billion from his budget for non-defense programs. Also gone are revenues from Obama's "cap-and-trade" plan for curbing global warming by auctioning permits to emit greenhouse gases.
Republicans assaulted the plan as just the latest example of a spending spree by Democrats that started with Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill. It was followed by an omnibus appropriations bill that showered generous increases on domestic programs and included 8,000 pet projects for lawmakers' districts and states.
"It spends money we don't have, piles unprecedented debt on our children and grandchildren, and raises taxes on families and small businesses, while taking away the middle-class tax cut the president promised during the campaign," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.
Under the plan, the deficit would drop to $523 billion in 2014, but even that figure depends on several unrealistic assumptions, notably that Congress will devote only $50 billion a year for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2011 and beyond, and unrealistic projections of costs for core Pentagon operations.
There's considerable accounting legerdemain in the plan as well, reflecting a struggle by Democrats to cut the budget deficit to 3 percent of the size of the economy within five years - a figure economists say is sustainable without adding crippling debt to the nation's books.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said a report Wednesday that the economy had shrunk by 6.1 percent in the first quarter highlighted the likelihood that the deficit numbers were even worse than predicted in the budget.
"Put reality into the budget and the deficits and debt go much higher," Ryan said.
House Democrats promise that completion of the budget will be followed by a pay-as-you-go law that would require - after some major exceptions for Bush-era tax cuts - that new tax cuts and increases in federal benefit programs like food stamps, unemployment insurance and Medicare are "paid for" with tax increases or offsetting spending cuts.
If the new pay-as-you-go law is violated, automatic spending cuts would be imposed to bring the deficit back into line.
Also permitted to advance under filibuster-free rules is Obama's plan to eliminate student loan subsidies for banks and other lenders, with the savings being used to increase Pell Grants for needy students.
The budget plan skirts difficult decisions on how to pay for Obama's health care plan, which is expected to cost more than $1 trillion over the next decade. It allows the new president's signature $400 tax credit for most workers to expire in 20 months but devotes $512 billion over five years to extend tax cuts passed during Bush's first term for middle-class workers, investors and families with children.
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Posted by CBSisSocialistPropaganda at 2:22 PM : Apr 29, 2009
You're advocating rebellion against the US government? You are aware that's a crime, right?
Posted by USA_is_back at 2:45 PM : Apr 29, 2009 ....................................
....................And what the American government is doing to the people is not a crime?,,,,,,,Everyone in Washington has failed to live up to the oaths they took to be in office,,,,,they have committed TREASON,,,,,Not a SINGLE one of them represent the people,,,they are loyal to the lobby dollar ONLY. Both parties received almost 2 billion dollars in lobby money last year,,,then they turned around and gave those same companies 200 billion....that is a conspiracy to defraud the people of this country,,,,what makes the matter even worse that money was supposed to go to help out the home foreclosure problem...here it is six months later ...and still no help for that problem...........I cannot believe that many more Americans do not feel the same way,,,,that could very easily change,,,,,the numbers grow by the day with each, job lost, home lost, retirement lost, with each hunger pain people have,,,,and now we have swine flu ...how many people will die from it because they have already lost everything and cannot afford to go to the doctor? How many because they lost their health insurance?,,,,,,the government is betraying the people because they are in bed with the lobby dollar,,,,,YES that is a crime against the people and that could be grounds to revolt.
Posted by CBSisSocialistPropaganda at 2:22 PM : Apr 29, 2009
You're advocating rebellion against the US government? You are aware that's a crime, right?
Posted by USA_is_back at 2:45 PM : Apr 29, 2009
It's amazing how many people just heave the name calling like "Marxist" and "Socialist" around, without even knowing what the words mean.
"I heard Hannity say it, so it must be true!!! I better repeat it like my mentor told me to!!"
Do you see the massive tax increases in your future?
Do you see the hyper-inflation that makes everything more expensive for you?
Do you see Big Government controlling and directing everything you try to do?
You will.
Thanks to Obama the Marxist dictator.
Posted by CBSisSocialistPropaganda
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do we CARE what neoclowns like you think?
Since you have been so right about everything that has happened in the past eight years YOU MUST BE RIGHT ABOUT THIS STUFF. right?
We have the votes. Watch and weep. You and rest of the of the right wing wackos will just have to watch us get the country out of the mess you left us. Please keep posting your drivel- you make OUR points for us with every tortured sentence.
BTW, define "socialist", MENSA.
ribbie149
Posted by littlebuddyd
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You're right- I'm sure the vote would a lot different a month from now. You people seem to forget the fact that the American People voted your sorry a*sses out of office so something could get done in this country. Since REPUBLICAN'TS have no constructive alternatives to offer but more tax cuts for the rich, I suggest whining is probably not the way to go. You are REALLY going to get your butts kicked in 2010 if you allow Rush Limbaugh to continue to run your party. You have such dynamic leaders...Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Arlen....oh wait, he's a DEMOCRAT now. My bad.
We need to elect people who care, not those who just vote along party lines whether democrat or republican.
Posted by roghil at 1:33 PM : Apr 29, 2009
History repeats itself. hold on to your arses, it is going to be a rough ride thanks to nobama!
#1. Get the Chinese Communists to loan us money to pay for all of these goodies.
#2. If #1 does not happen, print money and endure Hyper Inflation.
And people think this is good and are happy with this morons presidency so far. I do not believe it for one minute.
Posted by Socialistnation at 1:14 PM : Apr 29, 2009
*******************************************************
Do you realize that money has been borrowed from the Chinese before Obama got elected? We are in debt up to our eyeballs with them. At least Obama is trying to use the interest-bearing money that the last administration was just going to hold onto as the economy kept faultering. Hopefully we are not too late to turn our nation around. We are showing signs of progress....
Posted by blog_fever2 at 1:30 PM : Apr 29, 2009
I see and borrowing 10 times more is the answer right? I wish you could speak to me controller and convince him.
Unfortunately this time it's going to be 100's.
Here in about four years you can look forward to near 20% inflation and home loans over 10% again just like back then.