Not a serious proposal

President Obama released his FY2012 budget earlier this week. The Administration proclaimed that they were being fiscally responsible by projecting that their budget would reduce the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next ten years. This projection makes a number of assumptions. First, it expects that the US economy will grow faster than any reasonable economist has projected. The budget also includes reductions in spending based upon cuts that were already budgeted for with respect to spending in the war on terror. It assumes budget cuts based upon a higher current spending level then includes cuts that were already assumed to provide a majority of the $1.1 trillion cuts. What the budget also projects is a deficit for FY 2012 of $1.3 trillion.

The budget proposal submitted by the Obama Administration is not a serious proposal. Media organizations across the country have stated everything from the Administration “punting” on a serious budget to “not being serious.” The major causes of the federal deficit are entitlement programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The Obama Administration did not even attempt to look at any ideas to reduce the costs associated with any of these problems. House Republicans currently are debating the FY2011 budget that the Democrats refused to even start working on before last years election. The current proposal includes nearly $61 billion in budget cuts for the budget that ends at the end of September. While the Senate is unlikely to approve the House bill, and the President has stated that he would veto the bill, at least the House is trying to be realistic with respect to the budget. In households and in every business across the country, budgets are determined on projections of anticipated revenues and expenditures. If the expected revenues decline, reductions in spending must be implemented so that the budget remains balanced. The House seems to realize that expanding the federal deficit is a recipe for disaster and reductions in spending must be made today in order to survive tomorrow. As the House starts to prepare their FY2012 budget, they have stated that entitlements will be addressed. The Administration seems to be more interested in politics and blaming the Republicans for proposed “cuts” that will hurt Americans. Instead of having the “adult conversation” about the budget, the Administration and the Democrats are going back to the only thing they seem to know, make it a political argument and blame the Republicans for eliminating police and emergency responders, teachers and so forth and of course, hurting our seniors with the potential changes to our entitlement programs. Typical Democrats and not a good situation, neither short term or long term, for America. You know it is a strange situation when ever the liberal main stream media is calling out the Democrats and Administration for not being serious about the budget situation.