President Barack Obama forecast the biggest U.S. deficit since World War Two in a budget on Thursday that urges a costly overhaul of the healthcare system and would spend billions to arrest the economy’s freefall.
An eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit for the 2009 fiscal year is projected in Obama’s first budget. That is equal to 12.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product — the largest share since 1945 when the country ran a shortfall of 21.5 percent of GDP.
I’m NOT stupid enough to call THAT a ‘budget.’
A budget is a pledge to self-control, spending control, logic, planning and good common sense – none of which these politicians or financiers (stockbrokers, CEOs and bankers) seem to have a portion – even a modicum or molecule or a microparticle.
Oh to resurrect Ronald Reagan – and the last sane economic policy.
Without sound solid logical accountable government and business practices – there are NO jobs, there is no safety, no sanity, and no hope.
This seems like Alice in Wonderland. Is everyone on drugs?
Is this the “change” that people were looking for?
Don
Dem’s Gone Wild tm 🙂
From a center-left perspective (although I did vote McCain), I find the over-reach here breathtaking. As “extreme” as Reagan and Dubya were supposed to be, I can’t think of any President who has deviated from the center as greatly as this one has in the first month.
All is not lost. real [url=http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/8810]change[/url] may be on the way.
I cannot understand the surprise. Our new President is doing exactly what he said he was going to do in his campaign. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are doing exactly what they said they were going to do if the American people gave them the majority they asked for in Congress. The majority of the American voters have asked for what these elected officials are presenting and passing. Unfortunately, the minority of those voters are the ones who will be suffering the consequences. Our democratic republic experiment has ended, after only a little more than 2 centuries, as the people have discovered they can vote themselves money from the taxes of other people. As the economic times get worse, watch for greater and greater power grabs by our President, in the name of managing a crisis. And watch for restrictions on our speech and any criticism of his policies. “Fairness doctrine” was being debated today in the Senate. This blog will be monitored by the government in 4 years. You may think I am an alarmist. Wait and see.
I am truly amazed at everyone’s amazement – Obama never said he would do anything different from what he is doing now, people just chose not to believe him or to think it was just campaign talk.
Insanity. Pure, unadulterated insanity. And what we get for this madness is an economy that is even more dominated by government whim.
America is tired of liberty and now begs for its chains. Obama and the Democrats are more than willing to provide them.
“When the people find they can vote themselves money,
that will herald the end of the republic.” – Benjamin Franklin
I am beginning to believe that these peoplke really want to bankrupt America and make it a slave state to the Chinese and Arab oil producers. They are blocking us from developing our own energy resources (nice to think green but it will be decades before renewable energy is available in America). and spending money like drunken sailors. I just don’t understand this in times of economic distress. If I lost my job and needed to belt tighten I would not spend like I am going to die the next day!
Dave B – they want control and one way to do that is to make as many people as possible dependent on the government – either for immediate financial need (housing, food, etc) or for potential “freebies” (health care, etc.)
Part of the problem is that Obama is counting things that Bush didn’t put on the books. Like the war. The Alternative Minimum Tax. It is an honest budget, without varnish, unlike the last eight years, when the war was kept off the books.
but the long range plan is good.
13. John Wilkins wrote:
“It is an honest budget, without varnish, unlike the last eight years, when the war was kept off the books.”
Do you have a source?
Don
John Wilkins_ I will differ with you. We just spent 1 trilion on the “stimulus Package”, including tax breaks for people who don’t pay taxes, 9 billion for high speed railways from LA to Vagas, millions for sexually transmitted diseases, millions for teachers, money for groups like ACORN etc. Now we are spending over a trillion on the new budget. The numbers, for him to reduce the deficit, by raising taxes,according to some things I’ve read,don’t add up. So who is being honest? President Obama has changed accounting practices but has increased spending beyond the differance between his and Bush’s accounting practices. The House and Senate haven’t even started their dithering with the spending! Once Reid and Pelosi get done with this we will really be hosed.
This is mind boggling. I saw a program the other that demonstrated the size of a trillion. This may not be exact but it is close:
1 million seconds=about 11 days
1 trillion seconds=about [b]32,000[/b] years
Think about it……..
the snarksterâ„¢
John’s right about the war being off the books – sort of. It still goes into the deficit. Obviously, it wasn’t being funded by bake sales.
John likes to justify what Obama and the liberal Dems are doing by harkening back to something he considers wrong that Bush did or didn’t do. John, regardless of Bush’s years, read the 2% Illusion in today’s WSJ and read Karl Rove’s column about Obama’s strawmen (which are not strawmen, they are purposeful dishonesties, in reality) in today’s WSJ. The numbers don’t add up even if Obama taxes the top income earners at 100%. He and the Dems have not learned from the dismal Jimmy Carter years and we shall suffer through several years like we did in the late 70s and early 80s as a result. And church giving decreases, as reported in other portions of today’s T19 blog is only beginning. Good luck.
[blockquote]but the long range plan is good. [/blockquote]
Was there ever a Five-Year Plan that wasn’t?
Recall the congress.
On the other hand, John Wilkins, this is not an “honest budget.”
See here: http://www.slate.com/id/2212325/
Here:
http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/02/obamas_bigbath_accounting.php
And the first two posts of the day here:
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/
Elections have consequences. Keep that in mind in 2010 and 2012.