Breaking Down Obama's Budget

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I always like these statements (see Matt Cuper) simply because I wonder how much kool-aid one has to drink to think like this:
"It's interesting to point out that every dollar the government spends rather than provides in a tax cut creates a >3X impact on the GDP."
It's as if a dollar in the government's hand to spend is far more valuable (>3x) than if it is in my hand to spend. That's the way these people think. If that's all there is to it then we're sitting pretty -- Obama is about to spend $3.7 trillion dollars this year which is equivelent to at least $11 trillion which should be more than enough to make us once again the most financially secure country in the world.
And if you believe that -- well you've already drinken from the trough. And if you don't believe such nonsense -- good for you. It takes a lot to stand alone when the crowd is moving on looking for more entitlements and more federal deficit spending and borrowing.

Cadron Boy of AR 4:13PM February 21, 2011

money,greed,technology, has led us into this mess.
we messed up when we came over here and took the land from the indians.
we are going to get what we deserve.
we should be ashamed of ourselves.
like we are the most intelegent being on the face of the earth with our collage diploma and spoiled ways.
we waste more resorces on stupid things like cell phones and fancy cars and
big houses with all the bells and whisles.hey lets fly to the moon while we are at it. its a dead planet! du!
an ant has more brains than any human i know.
we have caused everything that happens on this earth and play point the finger game.
im tired of hearing im a republican or solcialist or democrat bla bla bla bla. we are stupid humans that is what it comes down to.
we dont even have the right to be here in the first place.
we lost control a long time ago but its taken 100 years or more to figure it out
and now its too late to fix it. nice going humans.
we should have stayed in the countrys we came from and left the indians
alone.
we are such hipocrits saying outher people from outher countrys are coming to our country and destroying it. what do you think the indians said when we did it to them ?????????????????? hellllooooooo any body home?
our diplomatic ways have lead us down this broken road.
and we cant even fix our own mess. thats smart.
we need to go back to making our own candles and growing our own food and hyperinflation will see to it that we get to that point once again.
i call it a self inflicted wound. suck it up people its our mess, we made it.
yup, one nation, under god "invincable"? maybe not!
signed. wake up!

wake up of ME 11:56PM December 26, 2010

I think it is ironic and very interesting that the man who promised "change" during his campaign, did more spending than the previous man who bailed out AIG on his way out.
He said "change" ... he said "transparency" and he has been the most secretive and have spent spent spent trillions of dollars, and NOW, when some sensible people finally win the seats to stop his spending spree, he does a 180 and says "We need to curb our spending!"
WHO'S SPENDING???
You took a bad situation and made it much worse, Mr Obama.
I noticed his "budget" includes $6 billion for NASA to start taking people into space commercially. WHAT??? Are you kidding me?
This budget is a sham.

EM of IA 10:00PM December 02, 2010

I've come to the conclusion any teabagger who mouths off about fascism and socialism without providing reasonable alternatives to Obama's plans should have their last tooth bashed in with a baseball bat.
I've just about had it with these toothless maggots and their nonsensical rants.

your worst nightmare of TX 6:16AM April 28, 2010

We all know that the federal government can't run anything the right way. It's obvious when you look at social security; it just went broke here no to long ago.
This is one of those entitlement programs that Obama used during his bragging about his health care bill; before he got it passed. Since then it has gone broke, what a shining example of how socialism works.
Next thing you know old Jed's a millionaire; Obama is only doing these things to further his legacy as the president of this country.
He is going to kill our economy. If you think it's bad now' just give Obama a bit more time; this will look like the best economy in the past fifty years.
He is a socialist/Marxist that needs to be impeached; although he's just holding to his campaign promises.
All of those people who voted for Obama; because he was going to hand out a bunch of cash; well you should feel dumb now.

Dave of UT 11:56AM April 05, 2010

I have posted an editor for the President's FY2011 budget online at http://www.mightyware.com/federalbudget.bhs. In it, you can see not only the cost of each line item in dollars, but in the amount of hours each citizen has to work to pay for it, on average. Want to "raise taxes", then choose to work the more than 120 hours more needed to cover the shortfall. Or, you can choose to cut line by line, or by entire department at the time.

Todd Bandrowsky of DE 9:41PM February 28, 2010

Matt, that $400 billion number was the grossly, intentionally misrepresented number produced by the Bush White House at the time. Independent estimates have been around $1T over 10 years. And it was passed (literally in the dark of night, with a vote held open for 3 hours...not to mention Tom Delay's probably-illegal promise to endorse a representative's son in exchange for his vote) without any thought about paying for it whatsoever. No taxes, no offsetting spending cuts. Just an extra trillion in debt. Mitch McConnell's explanation this past December? "It was standard practice back then not to pay for things." I guess that's refreshing in its honesty...Bush and his GOP congress rather infamously left the wars off the books completely. And yet their budgets still weren't balanced.
Anyway, point is, now that we have an administration that puts the wars in the budget and offsets its spending with tax increases on the rich and cuts to wasteful programs, would it be too much to ask for the biggest spenders in history to quit whining about the suddenly-all-important deficits?

withabrain of MO 4:13PM February 09, 2010

At our request (voting) the government has spent $40k more for every American today than it has received in taxes. If we balanced the budget, had zero inflation and proportioned this debt equally a family of four would need to pay $16k more in taxes every year for the next ten years to pay off the debt! The baby boomers are starting to retire putting enormous financial pressure on the system. We knew this was coming and rather than save for this day our "leadership" spent like crazy...all just to buy votes. Every dollar we spend on the War just makes the Taliban smile. They know the cost of the war, will and is, destroying our economy. Like it or not we have no choice but to cut spending first and foremost. Lastly don't believe all the nonsense about small companies. Talking about small companies is popular and buys more votes but big companies is where it is at. Sure they are unpopular but look at any city that lost it's big companies and see what happened (auto, steel,chemical etc) Why didn't the small companies save the day? The BIG issue is spending, not forever arguing about who should be taxed more. Cut some benefits and tax me more just don't tax my company to India, China, etc and with it my job.

JSMSKS of NJ 3:59PM February 08, 2010

We are in an economic hellhole and we need the govt to prop up spending and investment until we have a recovery. This needs to be paid for in some degree by those who have benefited the most from financial deregulation and bank malfeasance.
Obama ran on increasing taxes for those making over $250k. For instance, why shouldn't hedge fund managers pay regular income tax rates? They are making a fortune off of other people's money not their own and shouldn't get to use the capital gains tax rates.
The middle class and small business have taken a real hit during this recession and a tax cut will be a real help but won't bring a recovery. As to current deficits, we are paying today about 3.5% of GDP on govt debt service about the level of 1990. The deficits are necessary in the near term.

W. Wilson of AZ 10:34AM February 06, 2010

I've never participated in this type of forum. So, let me get this staight: One is allowed to write anything without knowing the facts. One can state ... bandy about might be a better description ... the cost of Medicare Part D to be $15 Trillion (with a T) when in reality the cost through 2013 is projected to be less than $400 Billion (with a B). Matt, you're off by a factor of 37.5 times! By the way, Medicare Part D is the title of the Prescription Drug Plan passed during the Bush administration.
The cost of Obamacare is truly estimated to be in the Trillions ... some say more than $6 Trillion (with a T). How can one be concerned about our ability to pay for Part D yet support a truly fiscally irresponcible program that will cost at least 15 times the prescription drug program?

J. Leduc of IL 4:33PM February 04, 2010