Obama's $3.8 trillion budget heading to Congress

[TomCADem]

Source: Washington Post

The $3.8 trillion budget blueprint President Obama plans to submit to Congress on Monday calls for billions of dollars in new spending to combat persistently high unemployment and bolster a battered middle class. But it also would slash funding for hundreds of programs and raise taxes on banks and the wealthy to help rein in soaring budget deficits, according to congressional sources and others with knowledge of the document.

To put people back to work, Obama proposes to spend about $100 billion immediately on a jobs bill that would include tax cuts for small businesses, social safety net programs and aid to state and local governments. To reduce deficits, he would impose new fees on some of the nation's largest banks and permit a range of tax cuts to expire for families earning more than $250,000 a year, in addition to freezing non-security spending for three years.

Despite those efforts, the White House expects the annual gap between spending and revenue to approach a record $1.6 trillion this year as the government continues to dig out from the worst recession in more than a generation, according to congressional sources. The red ink would recede to $1.3 trillion in 2011, but remain persistently high for years to come under Obama's policies.

For a more comprehensive deficit-reduction plan, Obama will rely on a bipartisan task force of lawmakers and budget experts, who will be asked to draft a package of tax hikes and spending cuts sufficient to slash deficits and stabilize government borrowing by 2015.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/31/AR2010013101377.html?hpid=topnews

[underpants]

1. The US Federal Budget since 1996

* 2010 United States federal budget - $3.60 trillion (submitted 2009 by President Obama)
* 2009 United States federal budget - $3.10 trillion (submitted 2008 by President Bush)
* 2008 United States federal budget - $2.90 trillion (submitted 2007 by President Bush)
* 2007 United States federal budget - $2.77 trillion (submitted 2006 by President Bush)
* 2006 United States federal budget - $2.7 trillion (submitted 2005 by President Bush)
* 2005 United States federal budget - $2.4 trillion (submitted 2004 by President Bush)
* 2004 United States federal budget - $2.3 trillion (submitted 2003 by President Bush)
* 2003 United States federal budget - $2.2 trillion (submitted 2002 by President Bush)
* 2002 United States federal budget - $2.0 trillion (submitted 2001 by President Bush)
* 2001 United States federal budget - $1.9 trillion (submitted 2000 by President Clinton)
* 2000 United States federal budget - $1.8 trillion (submitted 1999 by President Clinton)
* 1999 United States federal budget - $1.7 trillion (submitted 1998 by President Clinton)
* 1998 United States federal budget - $1.7 trillion (submitted 1997 by President Clinton)
* 1997 United States federal budget - $1.6 trillion (submitted 1996 by President Clinton)
* 1996 United States federal budget - $1.6 trillion (submitted 1995 by President Clinton)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

[bc3000]

2. How much of this is war spending?

I'd like to see a breakdown. Is part of the reason this budget is so large because Obama is including war spending that wasn't included under Bush?

[JDPriestly]

3. I'd like to see the deficits of previous years with war costs included.

[valerief]

4. Some defense (sic) numbers here:

2011:
549 billion core defense spending
160 billion war spending
33 billion additional war-related funding

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32272.html

[laststeamtrain]

5. Afghan, Iraq wars shape Pentagon budget, US strategy

Source: AFP

Afghan, Iraq wars shape Pentagon budget, US strategy
by Dan De Luce Sun Jan 31, 5:06 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Obama administration plans to unveil a defense budget on Monday that pours billions into drones, helicopters and special forces, reflecting a focus on fighting Islamist extremists rather than conventional armies.

The Pentagon's spending priorities as well as its strategic vision -- which is also due to be unveiled this week -- are a product of the counter-insurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan that have severely stretched the military.

The proposed 2011 defense budget comes to more than 700 billion dollars, a modest two percent increase, and unlike last year avoids sweeping cuts to major weapons programs, according to Pentagon officials and draft documents.

Despite alarm over the US government's ballooning deficit, Obama has spared the military from belt-tightening efforts and will ask for 33 billion dollars for the current fiscal year to pay for a surge of 30,000 reinforcements in Afghanistan, said officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100131/ts_alt_afp/usbudgetdefensestrategy

[Mari333]

6. TOTAL BULLSHIT

TOTAL FUCKING BULLSHIT

[saigon68]

8. Absolutely

Not getting any better

[SHRED]

7. On 60 Minutes tonight...

...a boy was shot accidentally through the chest by a Green Beret. Everyone should see it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6160161n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

What the FUCK are we doing there?

Training who?

---

[Andronex]

9. And since there were camera crews there...

And since there were camera crews there, I imagine they were on their best behaviour... I wonder if the kids they shot would have been evacuated otherwise, maybe they would have been declared taliban fighters, and this is supposed to be the best of the best, makes you think about the things we are not supposed to know...

[The Northerner]

10. White House to paint grim fiscal picture: source

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will predict a $1.6 trillion U.S. budget deficit in the 2010 fiscal year, a fresh record and the biggest since World War Two as a share of the economy, a congressional source told Reuters on Sunday.

The grim forecast adds to the challenges facing President Barack Obama, who is emphasizing a message of fiscal discipline but is also seeking stimulus measures to boost the struggling economy in the near term.

Obama's budget proposal, which will be released at 10 a.m. EST on Monday, will predict a narrowing of the deficits to $700 billion by fiscal 2013 before they gradually rise back to $1 trillion by the end of the decade, the Capitol Hill source said.

He will submit his spending blueprint for the 2011 fiscal year that begins October 1 and runs through September 30 next year.

Obama is trying to strike a balance between long-term deficit reduction and easing the pain of double-digit unemployment through proposals such as tax credits to encourage business hiring and tax breaks for middle class families.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60U1PZ20100201?type=politicsNews

[high density]

11. Thanks Bush

$1 trillion in tax cuts that didn't create one job.

[No Elephants]

39. Maybe, but I don't know how long the electorate will continue to blame Bush.

[Abq_Sarah]

60. Not much longer

It's already wearing thin and the sooner that train leaves the station, the better. Leadership isn't about blaming "that other guy", it's about accepting responsibility and moving forward.

[depakid]

12. The US could pick up a 200 billion a year with a financial transactions and Tobin tax

and at the same time, discourage market manipulation and destructive speculation.

Of course, that would require standing up to the banksters- something that the administration and the Dem leadership would seemingly rather lose a ton of seats in November to Republicans than consider doing.

Somehow, making those who caused the meltdown pay fiscal consequences for their behaviors is anathema.

[DJ13]

13. Prepping us for a shock doctrine?

A push for IMF style austerity programs and increased privatization of services will be next?

[stray cat]

16. If you are unemployed and broke and trying to get by - are you prepping others for a shock doctrine

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Tis wise of you to peer around the narrow corners.

I have been thinking much the same thing.
Actually, I have been *seeing* that the growing rift between have and have-nots is creating a
new system of serfs...here in America.


spelling

[DJ13]

23. Yes, Im seeing the same thing

Im trying to understand their end game.... the "why" of pushing our country into poverty.....but it still doesnt make sense from the stand point of destroying the capitalist base they need to sell their products in.

Its a mystery what they're really trying to accomplish.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. Actually, no mystery.

They want a return to the age of the Robber Barons.
Roll back all social contracts, all social programs,erase FDR, erase women's rights.
All white male control, all the time.
And using the Fundies as a tool to help get the country there.

Yeah, sounds far-fetched, but there have been written and spoken hints and statements for some time.

[Iowa]

42. Their end-game is almost upon us...

Relying upon a vigorous & educated middle-class to buy your products, and all the headaches that go with that, is a major annoyance for these people.

--If you own all the capital
--If there is a massive labor pool of poor and desperate people
--If you write the laws and control the police/military
--If you control the money supply
--If you have the clergy aligned with you

If you have these things, you don't need to sell products. They are simply cutting out the middle man (us).

That's their end-game.

[Mari333]

14. but he wont touch the pentagon.....

oh no, he wont touch the sacred fucking defense budget.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4251253

[earthside]

37. I'm With You.

Yup. Bush deserves a lot of blame for the fiscal mess we are in ...

But ...

Since Pres. Obama is increasing the Pentagon budget, is expanding the war and occupation in Afghanistan and is now saber rattling with Iran ...

Well, he owns a lot of the huge deficits and exploding federal debt, himself.

I'm getting quite worried over the increasing tension and belligerency towards Iran. Is Israel getting ready to attack?

If that happens, well, the budget deficits won't matter much because we'll be in World War III and "Katie bar the door" ... all hell will break loose on the planet.

[Skittles]

15. Obama did a good job in Balitmore explaining fiscal matters

HE NEEDS TO KEEP DOING THIS - let it be KNOWN how this GRIM fiscal picture came about and how the fixes are both LONG and PAINFUL

[MercutioATC]

20. His rhetoric is first-rate...

...especially because it contains kernels of what is popularly accepted as truth.

His SOTU statements about what he inherited from the last administration were true...but he neglected to account for both his additional spending and his failure to reduce existing spending...and his failure to push for the changes he advocated as a candidate.

The man can give a speech. We saw that when he was a candidate and we're seeing it now.


He has yet to live up to his rhetoric.

[emilyg]

25. Amen.

[Skittles]

51. I know damn well he has not lived up to his pretty speeches

but I keep hoping because the alternative is so fucking dismal

[Greyhound]

38. ...If you have a net worth of less than $100M. If you're on the right side of that line, the fixes

are instantaneous and quite pleasurable.

[No Elephants]

43. Talking is fine, especially if people buy it, but talk alone is not going to get it.

Neither is blaming Bush, no matter how justified that may be.

[Skittles]

50. I agree Obama needs to do more than talk

but there will never be enough blame heaped on that bastard bush

[Vinnie From Indy]

17. End the wars!

nt

[SlingBlade]

18. Heres a Grim Fucking Fiscal Picture for Ya ....

President O'Fucking Bama and your majority in O'Fucking Congress.



Now how bout we switch places this time....

Let the Freep-Tard fucking Re-Pukes balance the budget for once.
WE'RE THROUGH with O'Asses ignoring OUR BASE and the things THEY'VE FOUGHT FOR.
So let THEM eat the SHIT SANDWICHES for awhile. MmKay ?

I know, I know, Sounds like the Low Road doesn't it ?

OH, FUCKING WELL !
Just call me a stingy fucking self centered Progressive or use Rhams description of us
Cause frankly my fucking O' friend, I DON'T O'Fucking CARE ! :argh:

[MannyGoldstein]

21. 91% Top Tax Bracket Under Eisenhower

And Republicans controlled both houses of Congress then.

Today, the wealthiest Americans pay 17% to the feds and the average American pays far more.

The solution is obvious - if Obama weren't so enamored of the wealthiest Americans.

[daleo]

26. So very true

Elites can well afford to pay more. In the long run, their unwillingness to accept this undermines their own position.

[MercutioATC]

27. If you're advocating a 90%+ top tax rate, you're insane.

...or, at least, extremely naive.

The lower you set the bar, the worse it gets, but anything over a tax rate of 60% or so stifles development. WHY would anybody take a gamble on innovation if the chance that it hit big would sentence them to a 90%+ tax rate?

[MannyGoldstein]

30. So... How Bad Did Things Suck Under Eisenhower?

Actually, all told (adding in capital gains and whatnot), the wealthiest Americans paid 50% in federal taxes under Eisenhower vs. 17% today.

[scentopine]

31. as a long time engineer - I'd like to discuss innovation

With about 20 patents and more in the pipe - I know what it means to innovate and I know what it takes. And I also know that innovation in the USA is being strangled by MBAs who are selling every last bit our science and technology to Asia for pennies on the dollar. Then they are using tax loopholes to the point I pay more taxes than GE. And its CEO - chances are I pay a far greater percentage of my take-home pay than he does with his multi-million dollar salary. You won't find too many companies investing in innovation - most of best work payed for the lifesytes of rich and famous CEOs whose excess and ego destroyed 5 or 6 companies between them.

There isn't an MBA driven, Fortune 500 CEO staff that isn't training low wage, unregulated labor markets - often taking advantage of tax loopholes to do it - every waking hour Fortune 500 spends figuring out how siphon every last dollar of revenue from the company into their personal bank accounts. And they are doing it to the treasury as well - thanks to bernanke and geithner and summers and paulson - the horsemen of the middle class Apocalypse.

We have become a culture of cost reducers - I live this hell every fucking day - 9 months ago after our CEO cut the US workforce and bought a failing company in India, he literally told us we now have to work twice as hard.

Gamble on innovation - jesus you really have no idea just how bad it really is - what is frightening is the neo-con/neo-lib bubble - in the bubble "brainiacs" sit around all day pondering how to fix the US education to make us more competitive and innovative while Fortune 500 outspends most local school budgets combined educating untrained labor in Banglore, India. As soon as they start demanding higher wages or worker rights - they are fired. And the braniacs are always careful never to discuss RAISING THE TAXES on the rich - they are soooo expert on the consequences of high tax rates on the rich that they can't possibly accept the fact that we are in this position BECAUSE THE RICH DO NOT PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE - fuck the all caps lecture. I'm pissed and everyone else should be as well.

Yep - you just voted for a school bond to pay for computers for nursery school kids, and a company like AT&T just outsourced 100 jobs to a contract agency in India training unskilled 20 somethings who are working with computers for the first time.

Every fucking rule in this country is stacked against the small entrepreneur - sure some make it big just like some win the lottery. The exception doesn't make the rule.

So what does it have to do with taxes? The most productive and innovative periods in technological development occurred when the rich paid their fair share. A CEO doesn't get to be a billionaire by his "hard work" he gets to be a billionaire by being a parasite on his host company. He sucks out just enough blood to fill his belly but not so much that it kills the host. Sometimes the addiction to blood causes an overdose and the host dies - they have only a small amount of time to find another host or they too will die. The modern CEO and his BOD is a collection of shiftless parasites - its all angles and slick wall street speeches - most of them are dumber than a stump - but boy do they give great charisma to wall street and they look great in business suits.

Tax the fuckers at 50%, 60% 90% or line em up and chop off their heads for treason - they are stealing literally everything we have and selling it to Asia for pennies on the dollar. They are selling trillions in jobs and US GDP to China and India and points east - in return they are getting a few shinny beads, a BMW, and a couple of blankets. In an amazing coincidence - Condi Rice is now teaching companies how to do business in foriegn countries - and coincidentally the countries with minimal labor regulations.

Think these are basseless generalizations? What is it about the first S&L disaster, Enron, second banking disaster, second Iraq war, second Afghanistan war, on and on - democrats AND republicans are out of control they are literally destroying tearing this country into tiny consumable pieces and selling it too Asia for pennies on the dollar.

There should be riots. FUCK THE RICH - MAKE THEM PAY! I am sick of BULLSHIT about the negative impact on higher taxes on the rich.

[MrMickeysMom]

36. Thank you.

Thank you very much, indeed.

I saved that one for future conversations...

[No Elephants]

45. Yet, all the Blues, Purples, Reds and Pinks in D.C. mention is their love of small businesses. I am

ready to riot, just on general principles.

Where do we begin? Any ideas?

[Iowa]

49. Damn! You nailed it...

You know, I have never met an engineer I didn't like. Engineers always cut through the bullshit and see straight through to the heart of the matter. Great post scentopine! You literally demolished the argument of the guy you were responding to. It's posts like this that keep the hope alive. Thank you, and please keep posting.

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[winyanstaz]

53. Good post...you nailed it......

[Lasher]

54. I'll give that rant a 10.0

First perfect score ever. You said it just like it is. That is exactly what's going on.

[MercutioATC]

56. Nice rant, but I AM suggesting that the rich pay their fair share.

I'm simply suggesting that 90%+ is too much.

[whosinpower]

58. The global economy

Was literally written so as to maximize cheap foreign labour, and cheap imports to the masses. Free trade agreements abound.

A government could tax the bastards, as you have indicated, or they could impose tariffs on imports.

Or - here is a totally radical idea - have labour parity regardless of location. Yeah - now that will get allot of panties in a twist. There are so many issues regarding free trade and the global economy that I take umbrage to. Exploiting cheap labour is offensive to me and a person losing a job well done to a competitor in India is just as abhorrent.

[MrMickeysMom]

34. "WHY would anybody take a gamble...?"

... because their "gamble" would have a consumer market.

When everybody does better, EVERYBODY does better.

[No Elephants]

41. Yet, people took risks when the top rate was 90+. However, I'll settle for 60. Making

making the wealthy pay more than everyone else would be a good start. As a groups, they sure use a lot more infrastructure, natural resources, etc. Higher use, lower taxes, bailouts, corporate welfare--How many different ways must the American taxpayer subsidize them?

[MrMickeysMom]

33. That's it...

... Right out of one of Thom Hartmann's books.

Combine with getting the hell out of Iraq, followed by Afghanistan ... Do this very fucking soon.

[No Elephants]

40. K Street was not controlling D.C. when America liked Ike. C Street, either.

[Iowa]

44. +1

[sandnsea]

22. Well that's weird

My understanding is that it'll be 3.9% of GDP by 2015, and they'll continue to aim for that target for the rest of the decade. I can't imagine who this writer talked to. All sounds very peculiar.

[UpInArms]

24. voodoo economics was authored by RayGun and Cheney

and they should burn at the stake for their lies.

[winyanstaz]

57. oh please...you can't call it voodoo....

After all voodoo works :P

[Rapier09]

28. The Center cannot hold

That is 12% of the GDP easy and I assume they understand that the situation with California will need to be resolved at some point.

We can't logically keep this up more then 5 to 10 years.Otherwise the debt payments alone will destroy anything left of America.

[No Elephants]

46. No problem. They probably have mansions in other countries, too.

[onehandle]

32. Deport everyone who voted for Bush and seize their assets.

Too far?

[No Elephants]

47. LOL. Jonathan Swift, is that you?

[madrchsod]

35. long term debt is solved by people working

first thing that needs to be done is reform our trade policies. if we do`t protect our labor and markets we will never recover.
the tax credits for business is just a bandage on an open wound

[No Elephants]

48. Protect labor.

:rofl:

Good one!

Oh, wait. Were you being serious?

[whosinpower]

59. Once upon a time

This made sense when we tied the value of currency to labour. The value of the dollar is only recognized by labour used to create it. Nowadays, that has been thrown out the window, and labour abandoned. The way I see it, Wall street gambling has eroded this - everyone wants money for nothing. They think that in order to get ahead, their money needs to work for them - well money doesn't work. I'll repeat that. Money does not work. We do. Or someone does. And when everyone stops working and starts expecting their measly savings to work for them - then Wall street gambling goes through the roof and the bubbles burst. And then, in order to back this scheme up, multinationals go offshore to get their labour cheaper - and the cycle goes on and on. Fractional banking, free trade, insurance schemes, and the global economy have made labour a non issue....hence the "jobless" recovery.

[winyanstaz]

52. We could wipe out this debt and balance our budgets by doing a few simple things...

1....stop all the wars now..bring our troops home and put them to work rebuilding America's infrastructure.

2....stop paying billions to other nations..and especially any nation engaged in war.

3....CUT and freeze the wages of ALL government personal until the budget is balanced.(that should get their attention right quick)

4....demand our money back from wallstreet and the banks.

5...Make the rich and the corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

6...Demand that ANY corporation outsourcing any labor...lose all tax breaks and their American citizenship..as they are not an American company any longer if all they have here is an office and a store to sell us stuff in. Any foreign nation can do that. If they want to be an American company..they need to employ AMERICANS.

7...regulate the banks and close the fed.

8....Fine the crap out of ANY one employing or housing an illegal alien.

9...Make the pentagon find those missing trillions and don't give them another penny until they do.

10...Appoint about 7 progressive liberals to the Supreme court. Then the traitors in black robes that Reagan and Bush appointed cannot pass unconstitutional bullshit.

and last but not least...

11....Invest in creating American jobs.

wow..see how easy that is>?

[EmeraldCityGrl]

61. Reforming Healthcare should be on this list...

Geitner brought this up during the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing today. He said it was the single
most important thing that could be done to lower the deficit.

[Mari333]

55. k