Obama’s 2011 Fiscal Budget: More of the Same
Today, the White House released Obama’s remarks regarding his budget for the fiscal year 2011:
We simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences; as if waste doesn’t matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money; as if we can ignore this challenge for another generation. We can’t.
No, it’s not April Fools day. That declaration did, in fact, come from big-spender President Obama. From a fiscal conservative viewpoint, it is impossible to find fault in that statement. During Obama’s State of the Union address last week, he claimed that Congress needed to restrain its spending in order to control the debt:
Understand if we don’t take meaningful steps to rein in our debt, it could damage our markets, increase the cost of borrowing, and jeopardize our recovery.
Perhaps Scott Brown’s victory woke Obama up? Maybe the powerful Tea Party movement has finally attracted Obama’s attention? Senator John Thune (R-SD) on CBS’ “Face the Nation” correctly declared that:
If you’re listening to the people in Virginia and New Jersey and Massachusetts, the angst is real. People are concerned with the taxing and the spending and the borrowing, and that’s been reflected in the ‘tea party’ movement.
Despite Obama’s words, his 2011 proposed budget is not fiscally responsible. In fact, his budget is a massive $3.8 trillion. Oh, and the budget’s PDF is 1420 pages. The Wall Street Journal explains the fundamental differences in Obama’s new budget:
The plan includes big increases in personal and business taxes, modest spending cuts and increased outlays for education, defense and jobs initiatives
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) asserted that Obama’s proposed budget:
spends more than any other in history, creates the largest deficits in history, and imposes the largest tax increases in history – at a time when our country can least afford it.
According to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) Obama’s budget calls for more reckless spending at the cost of tax-payers:
Regrettably, the budget the administration today submitted to Congress is nothing more than a plan for more of the same — a very aggressive agenda of more government spending, more taxes, more deficits, and more debt — with just a few cosmetic budget maneuvers to give the illusion of restraint.
Obama’s debt-increasing 2011 fiscal budget is more of the same. In order to rein in America’s debt and turn the economy around, it is imperative that the budget includes big tax cuts for all Americans to spur economic growth and even bigger real reductions in excessive government spending across the board.
