Cheney Slams ‘Out of Whack’ Obama Budget Plans
EmailABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports: Former vice president Dick Cheney continued his recent verbal assault on President Barack Obama’s policies, denouncing the new administration’s budget plans as “way out of whack.” “I think the budgets he submitted are way out of whack,” Cheney told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow in an interview. “I think what it does not only to the short-term deficit but long-term debt situation is very objectionable.” The administration’s deficit for the current budget year is expected to hit a record $1.8 trillion, mainly due to the government’s efforts to rescue the country from its current recession, such as the Wall Street bailout and the stimulus package. The administration has recently stepped up the efforts of the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, with a flurry of programs to get bad assets off of banks’ balance sheets, jumpstart lending to consumers and small businesses, and stop the housing crisis. Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management & Budget, wrote on his blog that the deficits “are driven in large part by the economic crisis inherited by this administration.” The Bush regime inherited a $127 billion budget surplus, but set five record-high budget deficits in seven years and left office with the national debt over $10 trillion. According to former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, Cheney once told him during a cabinet meeting, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” Despite the increases in the near-term future, President Obama has pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of his term. However, in recent weeks the ongoing crisis has prompted worries that the United States might lose its AAA credit rating. The concerns come after rating agency Standard & Poor’s warned Britain that its perfect rating could be in jeopardy due to the country’s rising debt. Cheney said there was reason to worry that the United States’ credit standing could be downgraded. “That’s got to be of concern,” he warned. Last week, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration was more focused on fixing the economy than worrying about credit ratings. “We’re not concerned about a change in our credit rating,” Gibbs said last Friday. “What the President is focused on and has been since coming into office was getting in place a recovery plan that will create jobs and get this economy moving again. Short term, the way to bring down the deficit is get this economy moving again. Medium to long term, we have to get our fiscal house back in order, and that’s why the President was pleased that Congress passed a budget that cuts the deficit in half in four years.” –Matt Jaffe
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provacitive
Posted by: catman | May 27, 2009, 4:44 pm 4:44 pm
Let me get this straight…Cheney was part of the administration that doubled the national debt and starting this recession and he’s calling out Obama for having to spend to get out of it? Every single major recession this country has ever seen and the great depression followed Republican administrations and were pulled out my Dems. Cheney needs to keep talking because he’s only alienating even more people now that he’s out of office than he did before. And that’s saying something. Please keep talking…help the Dems maintain a strangle hold on the White House and Congress for years to come. Even people in his own party are telling him he’s wrong…including Newt on Meet the Press last week.
Posted by: Devil_Mutt | May 27, 2009, 4:45 pm 4:45 pm
Cheney + Newt x Bush = CLOWNS
Posted by: North Minneapolis | May 27, 2009, 4:48 pm 4:48 pm
Who cares what he thinks. Isn’t 8 years of his tyranny enough? During his time in office, he and his counterpart ran this country into the ground, so obviously he knows NOTHING about how to run a government. Why should we listen to him now? Please stop giving him airspace on the news. WE JUST DONT CARE ABOUT HIS OPINIONS AND CERTAINLY DON’T WANT TO HEAR OR SEE HIM ANYMORE!
Posted by: casturn68 | May 27, 2009, 4:49 pm 4:49 pm
“Out of Whack” and “Cheney” in the same sentence. If thet shoe fits
Posted by: disgusted | May 27, 2009, 4:52 pm 4:52 pm
proactive i have news for you ..clinton left bush a 2 year recession and bush inheritied the wimp of not going afdter the person who implemnted to destroy 3000 american innocent lives…you have the faintest idea about government projections…why dont you reserch …howe clinton authorized and told sec rubin to have banks loans money to people unable to repay their loans….yes the minorities received loans above their income and means…research how clinton refuse to remove osama bin laden,,,,,all you liberals can do is bash bush or blame someone,,,,,you will see what your taxes will be in futurue from the tax and spend democrats,,,,obama will bankrupt this country..as the democrats are doing to california and new york state…wake up ….this guy obama doing a man size job that will fail…anyone can spend anyones money…a 13 trillion dollar deficit….wise up
Posted by: frquarter | May 27, 2009, 4:54 pm 4:54 pm
Does Cheney think the American people don’t have any memory? He declared several years ago that the Bush Admin. showed that “deficits don’t matter” – but now he says, “I think what it does not only to the short-term deficit but long-term debt situation is very objectionable.”
He’s losing it – but I’m not going to say he shouldn’t continue speaking to the media. His comments and behavior over the last few weeks only reinforce why the majority of the American voters turned away from the Republican party.
Posted by: J | May 27, 2009, 4:56 pm 4:56 pm
Cheney Slams ‘Out of Whack’ Obama Budget Plans … Isn’t Cheney’s 15 minutes of fame over?????
Posted by: Ted | May 27, 2009, 5:00 pm 5:00 pm
GO CHENEY! You are the only one showing any leadership against the current socialist president.
Posted by: sexygop | May 27, 2009, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
It’s time for Cheney to find another bunker, go in, and never come back out.
Posted by: sparkyone68 | May 27, 2009, 5:10 pm 5:10 pm
Cheney is a criminal. I wonder if he will be so talkative when he’s Big Bubba’s Prom Date in the Big House. Mostly, I suspect, he will be squealing like the pig he is. Make him squeal, Big Bubba!
Posted by: Sammy | May 27, 2009, 5:13 pm 5:13 pm
It is abundantly clear that Rove, Rush, Cheney, and Newt have nothing to offer but negative insults to everything the Democrats do whether is be good, bad or indifferent. Their constant interminable slander and negativsim toward the Democrats is apparently all they know how to do. They themsleves are incapable of offering anything constructive at all to the American public. The only other entitiy that spends their entire life span in the negative zone is Satan himself. I guess they are Satan’s little helpers!
Posted by: eyeonyou | May 27, 2009, 5:13 pm 5:13 pm
Miserable old man Cheney. He should have been prosecuted for war crimes, then he would have had no time talking about someone else.
Posted by: what667 | May 27, 2009, 5:24 pm 5:24 pm
Sounds like Cheney wants to be President. Wonder why he didn’t run in the last election. During the last eight years we were always told if we didn’t agree with what the administration was doing we were unpatriotic.
Posted by: George | May 27, 2009, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
Cheney goes from “Deficits don’t matter” to “out of whack”. Hmmm I wonder what happened to make him change his mind in that interval…Oh right, the opposite party is in control. Obama hasn’t change anything about deficit spending compared to Republicans besides the fact that most of Obama’s growing deficit is spent within the US as compared to Bush’s deficit being spent on wars and nation building. At least Obama’s spending has the chance of getting value for our money in terms of standard of living.
Posted by: Ordermonger | May 27, 2009, 5:33 pm 5:33 pm
I saw a rather softball interview of Christina Romer this morning. She heads Obama’s council of economic advisers. Four times she referred to the current deficit as “inherited”. Well, at some point rhe spending package known as the “simulus” bill and Obamas frightening budget with it’s overzealous( impossible) growth projections have to be owned by this administration regardless of media advocacy. Soon the bankruptcy of Government Motors and crashing U.S. treasuries will usher in to next (Obama) phase of this crisis. Rising interest rates& phony administration projections will give way to reality that Obama is a clueless ideologue, and as the market falls to 5300, the blame Bush mantra will ring hollow!.
Posted by: pauldia | May 27, 2009, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm
Doesn’t Darth Cheney have a Death Star to build or something? No one cares what he thinks anymore.
Posted by: Dixiesland | May 27, 2009, 5:42 pm 5:42 pm
Some of you are a little deluded. When Bush took office there was NO DEFICIT thanks to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was not able to go after Osama Bin Laden because the Republican Congress would not approve it. 9/10 happened 9 months into Bush’s first term, really can’t blame that on Bill either. Face reality. Obama inherited this mess from W. Just like Clinton, it will take another Democrat to clean up another Republican mess.
Posted by: Cynda P. | May 27, 2009, 5:42 pm 5:42 pm
With no disrespect to anyone… but, are there possible dementia/alzheimer’s issues with Mr. Cheney at this stage of his life?
Posted by: FS | May 27, 2009, 5:45 pm 5:45 pm
Cheney says all this bickering is empowering the terrorists….Cheney is the one bickering, Cheney is an enemy of the state…….
Posted by: Ken | May 27, 2009, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
I had to read Cynda P’s comments a couple of times – it must be wonderful to live in CandyLand like she does! Slick Willy “was not able” to go after bin Laden courtesy of a Republican congress that wouldn’t approve it? 9/11 happened well into Bush’s 1st administration, so Slick Willy gets off on that one, too? You think these clowns only STARTED planning their sick campaign when Billy left office?
Posted by: MoreNmore | May 27, 2009, 5:58 pm 5:58 pm
Bush inherited a surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year, so much for being fiscally responsible. America is reaping the benefits of the Bush/Cheney politics right now!
Posted by: rickyt1234 | May 27, 2009, 6:18 pm 6:18 pm
This is the arsonist who set the house on fire criticizing the firefighters on their method of putting out the blaze. What planet does this idiot live on?
Posted by: James Zyon | May 27, 2009, 6:30 pm 6:30 pm
Cheney is a paranoid sociopath. The ONLY reason he is attacking the Obama administration is to keep them from investigating him. If they did now, it would look like retribution. He needs to disappear. NOW!
Posted by: DaveM | May 27, 2009, 6:35 pm 6:35 pm
Under Bush, so much of the taxpayer’s money just “disappeared” into a dark account black hole. The the nightmare of the TARP pay-out where hundreds of billions are simply unaccounted for. Bush and Cheney presided over the most corrupt administration this nation has known. And this idiot Cheney talks about budgets!
Posted by: DaveM | May 27, 2009, 6:39 pm 6:39 pm
We have heard more from Cheney in the last few months than we did over the 8 years he was VP. I kind of miss the silence of the last 8 years.
“It is better to let people think you are a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it.”
Posted by: Mack | May 27, 2009, 6:42 pm 6:42 pm
Cheney should be arrested, waterboarded, punched, slapped, spit on, and then hanged as the draft-dodging cowardly war criminal that he is.
Posted by: I.M. Pistov | May 27, 2009, 6:51 pm 6:51 pm
Cheney? I am trying to place the relevance of that individual.
Posted by: Thinking | May 27, 2009, 7:01 pm 7:01 pm
Right on I.M.Pistov! Truer words have never been spoken.
Posted by: Mary | May 27, 2009, 7:02 pm 7:02 pm
Cheney you just keep talking, show the American people who was truly running the whitehouse and it’s policies, during your tenure as vice president,it wasn’t Bush!
Posted by: gman | May 27, 2009, 7:02 pm 7:02 pm
gman; Cheney was and still is the dark figure in the whitehouse, the policies he is refering too was his policies, the torture policies was his policies, this is why he is defending them, his policies.
Posted by: we'r1 | May 27, 2009, 7:11 pm 7:11 pm
It’s nice to finger point and look backward and say this is Bush’ fault or this is Clinton’s fault. But that doesn’t make any difference now. It’s Obama’s problem, and what is he going to do about it?
Posted by: warrottjr | May 27, 2009, 7:12 pm 7:12 pm
A recent study on the GOP and the Bush administration found that Cheney and Rush both are very experienced at blowing dong. It also hinted toward each mans strong support and fondness of performing the b j to various high ranking officials of corporate America. These findings were no surprise to anyone, but the had previously remained unpublished, none the less.
Posted by: Mikey | May 27, 2009, 7:14 pm 7:14 pm
Old “Shotgun” Cheney!
Posted by: bsry | May 27, 2009, 7:27 pm 7:27 pm
Cheney is a traitor. I just had to say that because I got called that if I ever fussed about Bush.
Posted by: FedUp | May 27, 2009, 7:49 pm 7:49 pm
Can Americans get a cease and desist order on Cheney? We’d like to move on and forget the Bush/Cheney disastrous administration. We do not want to continue hearing the lies.
Posted by: involvedAmerican | May 27, 2009, 7:53 pm 7:53 pm
Get ‘em VP Chaney. You know they don’t have any sense so let them have it. you are the one to do it.
Posted by: Jane | May 27, 2009, 7:55 pm 7:55 pm
Hey Cheney, your projections of WMD in Iraq “were out of whack”
Posted by: richeyrich | May 27, 2009, 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
- Since 1968 a Republican controlled Congress is the only congress to run a budget surplus. That was from 1998 – 2001.
- Since 1968 a Democratic controlled Congress has always run a budget deficit.
- Since 1995 to fiscal 2007 the Republican Congress total deficit is $1.8 trillion
- Total deficit under Bush and the Republicans (2001 – 2007) is $1.6 trillion.
- Democratic Congress 2008 budget deficit $455 billion
- Obama and Democratic Congress fiscal 2009 budget deficit $2 trillion ($800 billion stimulus, $400 billion budget appropration, $800 billion regular budget deficit)
- Obama and Democratic Congress automatic budget deficit 2010 $1.2 trillion ($3.6 trillion budget – $2.4 trillion revenues)
Posted by: FrankG | May 28, 2009, 5:55 pm 5:55 pm
“CLINTON: Good evening.
Earlier today, I ordered America’s armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission is to attack Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.
The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of his people, the peace of his region, the security of the world.
The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government — a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people.”
President Clinton
Oval Office Address to the American People
December 16, 1998
Posted by: FrankG | May 28, 2009, 5:58 pm 5:58 pm
“The Bush regime inherited a $127 billion budget surplus, but set five record-high budget deficits in seven years and left office with the national debt over $10 trillion.”
.
What kind of peckerhead reporter describes President Bush as the “Bush regime”? There’s obviously not bias in this article, is there…
Posted by: gk | May 28, 2009, 6:55 pm 6:55 pm
The “surplus” that Bush/Cheney inherited was as ephemeral as the surplus that the State of California had in 2001, too. It was the result of the dotcom bubble money churn. It was no more real than the real estate bubble a few years later.
This country went into debt primarily because of social services overspending, and the pace is picking up as we speak. There is one rational solution to carefully getting the debt under control: stop spending money on people who don’t earn it, and don’t cycle the rest of it through DC. Bush was a caretaker of the system who should have bucked it harder.
Posted by: clocker7 | May 28, 2009, 8:06 pm 8:06 pm
Matt, quit deleting facts.
- Since 1968 a Republican controlled Congress is the only congress to run a budget surplus. That was from 1998 – 2001.
- Since 1968 a Democratic controlled Congress has always run a budget deficit.
- Since 1995 to fiscal 2007 the Republican Congress total deficit is $1.8 trillion
- Total deficit under Bush and the Republicans (2001 – 2007) is $1.6 trillion.
- The Democratic Congress with Obama will have a $2 trillion dollar deficit fiscal 2009 and in 2010 the budget is $3.6 trillion and revenues are $2.4 trillion so there is an inherent deficit of $1.2 trillion even before the start of 2010.
Posted by: FrankG | May 29, 2009, 3:02 am 3:02 am
After eight years of hiding in a bunker, Chaney is finally opening up and allowing the American people to see what a cowardly, unpatriotic spoiler he is. He wants America to be attacked and he wants the economy to fail. Unbelievable from a man who had the nerve to question President Obama’s love of country.
Posted by: V. Brame | June 14, 2009, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm