POTUS: $17 Billion is ‘A Lot of Money’

I would rather the president not cut funding in the defense department while we are fighting two wars and still having border issues.
Can we please stop funding all the partisan community organizers and take away the “election year” bonus that the Congress just gave itself? It’s as if they just voted themselves extra money for campaigning… Is that even legal?

America no telling what this jerk in Washington will do next.

17 billion is alot on its own, but compared to 3.55 trillion, it is a drop in the bucket, get rid of corrupt acorn that will save a truck load of wasted money

I find it laughable that the Administration is touting $17 billion in cuts, one half of one percent of the proposed $3.55 trillion budget, as “significant savings” and “budgetary discipline.”
If we can’t trust the number crunchers today, what leads us to believe that at the end of President Obama’s first term he will have cut the deficit in half?

Mongo:”I would rather the president not cut funding in the defense department while we are fighting two wars and still having border issues.”
Defense spending is INCREASING under the President’s proposed budget until after the Iraq drawdown is complete. It seems to make sense that when we are no longer fighting two wars that the budget would be reduced a bit. (Note that unlike the Republican administration, Obama is budgeting the Iraq war costs rather than making them a string of ‘emergency’ bills.)

It appears that the savings are coming not from eliminating services, but from eliminating waste. In that context, yes, it’s a good chunk of change. We know we could cut the budget almost in half by eliminating social security, but that’s not even on the table, is it?
If you take out money already committed to Defense, Social Security, Medicare, and the Republican’s prescription drug benefit and look just at truly discretionary spending, that $17 billion is not so negligible.

“In only two months, since the last CBO budget review in January, Democrats have passed laws that increase spending by $134 billion in the last six months of this fiscal year alone, and $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. And that’s all before his 2010 budget proposals.”

Facts concerning defense spending:
“However, that 4% funding increase for the Pentagon trails the 6.7% overall rise in the 2010 budget — and defense received almost nothing extra in the recent stimulus bill. The Joint Chiefs requested $584 billion for 2010 and have suggested a spending floor of 4% of GDP. Both pleas fell on deaf ears. The White House budget puts baseline defense spending at 3.7% of GDP, not including Iraq and Afghanistan. The budget summary pleads ‘scarce resources’ for the defense shortfall, which is preposterous given the domestic spending blowout.
“More ominously, Mr. Obama’s budget has overall defense spending falling sharply starting in future years — to $614 billion in 2011, and staying more or less flat for a half decade. This means that relative both to the economy and especially to domestic priorities, defense spending is earmarked to decline.”

“”We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter and waste is not our problem,” Obama said.”
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How can he say this w/out breaking out in pure laughter. You cannot say this to the American people w/ a straight face. He says he cares about deficits, then promotes a budget that will create the largest in history by far. Does he really think the American people are THAT stupid? Apparently!!
Him bragging about these cuts is like my wife and I running up $40K in credit card debt this year, then bragging that we got a free Frosty w/ a coupon from Wendys! The nerve of this guy!!

“Sometimes the CBO can be a bit… off.”
No doubt about it. Historically, however, I would take its estimates of revenues, GDP and deficits over those of the administrations of both parties.
And I note that in January it forecast tht the recession would end in the second half of this year without a stimulus package.

…And I note that in January it forecast tht the recession would end in the second half of this year without a stimulus package.
Posted by: Fascist Hyena
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And now the recession will be around much longer

DJ:”3T is $11,133.33 we each all have to pay this year to the govt in taxes”
This is actually an excellent perspective. About $11k to live in the most powerful and prosperous free nation in the history of mankind. That’s less than half my mortgage payments.
Actually, this year my wife and I paid four times that and I still feel it’s a bargain. I’m willing to pay for the best.

Fascist Hyena:”"Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives will seek passage in coming weeks of $94.2 billion in emergency money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other programs, including $2 billion more to prepare for an influenza pandemic.”"
This issue has been beaten to death already – Obama did NOT write the 2009 FY budget. It’s still the Republican administration’s budget that does not include war spending.

Foghorn Leghorn: “It’s one of my favorites.”
Why? It’s not relevant in any way to anything in this thread. Do you have any relevant comment?

Obama the fiscal conservative – LOL!
.5% of the budget “saved” big whoop you morons. We are borrowing 2 trillion this year. Sooner or later China and others will refuse to buy our “junk” treasuries. Then they will have to run the printing press 24/7/365 to keep up.
That means inflation to all of you believers. It’s effectively a reduction in wages, in investments, and entitlements (gasp!).
Sooner or later, liberals have to realize that all of this money comes from somewhere. The rich and the middle class cannot pay for a spending spree this big. Our kids will.

I think President Obama could have limited the amount of spending which was rolled into the stimulus package vs. cutting government programs. This foolishness will be creating the loss of MORE jobs!!

“First off, the 9/11 attacks did NOT have that massive an impact on the budget.”
But they had an enormous effect on the economy and thus on tax receipts. But one cannot utter a word in denunciation of the deficits accrued during Bush’s tenure (during the final two years of which the Democrats controlled the congress) without denouncing those of Obama far more.

The spending that has occurred over the past four months has clearly been President Obama vs. Bush (Remember Bush isn’t here to blame now). Take responsibility those of you who voted for President Obama, it is YOUR MONEY he is spending. The worst deficit ever!

You will never get reasonable cuts when you have staffers like John Blazey protecting Rep. Mollahan’s piggy bank projects with Obama’s OK. It is time to have up/down packages of cuts so that enough of Congress can band together to get them passed.

Earmarks has been a way in Washington for DECADES….earmarks are for American States for roads, bridges, museums, arts, parks, zoos etc. They were there before president Obama took office, and will be there as long as each State is presented in the Congress and Senate…..also there Are many programs that does not work, and only a few that knows how to manipulate the system is benefitting and calling it a “need”. Look at Florida….the “well connected” is taught how to bilk Medicare and Medicaid, I know I have a father- in-law that is constantly being taken by the doctors in that state for billing without services. Of course the Republicans will scream because these are people that are supporting their campaigns…..such as the “no-bid” contracts that was made famous by the Bush Administration….Blackwater owes millions right now to the U.S. Treasury….Where are the self-righteous, god-fearing right wing now. I don’t Hear Them RED and screaming!!!!!

“We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter and waste is not our problem”
Sounds absolutely Reaganesque… except I think President Obama actually MEANS it!
(…unlike Reagan, who swore all the right shibboleths but nearly tripled the national debt from $907 billion to $2.6 trillion during his term!)

Ok Repubs here you go:
“THE DEMS ARE SPENDING LOTS AND LOTS OF OUR MONEY.”
Things that need to be fixed cost money.
I don’t think there is enough free duct tape in TWO worlds to fix everything Bush broke.
And YES we still blame him because no matter who the next president would have been, his/her job is to fix what’s wrong with the country.
Why is that so hard for Repubs to understand?
Break everything in your house, then flood it with water, then start a war with the guy down the street and see how much money the next guy to own your house will have to spend.

TO: President Hu Jintao
TO: Premier Wen Jiabao
RE: U.S. PUBLIC DEBT
Sirs,
While we have enjoyed your significant fiancial support over the past decade in the form of purchases of our public debt, I would like to ask for a pause in the purchase of future U.S. bond offerings. While I am sensitive that this pause will impact the PRC’s strategy to gain ever-increasing influence over U.S. policy (witnessed by Sec. of State Clinton’s communication to you that the U.S. will no longer apply pressure to the PRC regarding human rights violations), we are led by a President who is intent on re-making the U.S. towards a Marxist state. Not so long ago, this radical move would have been viewed as a validation of the PRC’s Central Planning system, but today’s PRC is a believer in capitalism. Given the intertwining of our economies it is not in the best interests of either economy for the PRC to continue to lend us money. We are irresponsible and we are not a worthy investment. You have already provided warning – I now would respectively ask that you discontinue all purchases of U.S. Treasuries until we demonstrate that we can be trusted.
Best regards,
American Taxpayer

jhw, well, if we are measuring, my spouse and I also paid several multiples of 11,133.33 in federal taxes last year. Do I mind paying taxes? Nope. It is indeed a privilege to prosper in the best nation on earth and thus to have the resources to qualify to pay those taxes. However, as Hyena, my hero, pointed out, much of America does not pay even a fraction of 11 thousand. The burden is unevenly spread– and that is as it should be, to a degree. Yes, those of us who have higher incomes can and should afford to pay a higher percentage of that income in taxes.
However, every dollar any of us pays is precious and should be spent wisely, whoever is in office. The fact that I can afford to pay the level of taxes I pay does not mean that I do not miss it when the money leaves my account or that I do not care deeply about how the government spends that money. And it does not mean that raising my taxes higher will not have a negative impact on my spending patterns and my business decisions, and so can be done lightly, because high earners like myself “can afford it.”
Scott, I hear over and over that the spending is necessary to “fix” what is “broken.” But, first of all, we do not seem to agree on what is in need of repair and whether the proposed fix will be effective. In addition, we have to prioritize and to recognize that we cannot afford, as a nation, to do every good thing we might like to do because we, as a nation, can not afford it at this time. It is just like a family budget, as the president said today (although in the context of his remarks, the analogy made me want to throw something heavy at the television screen– more some other time when my paper grading gets closer to done). Sometimes there are things that would be a good investment but you lack the resources to make that investment. Families actually make those sorts of “hard choices” that the president claims the government is and will be making. I want to see that happen, but so far, that is not what is happening.

Remember during the campaign when McCain wanted to stop all pork spending which was supposedly around $6 billion, and Obama said that wasn’t really that much money so what’s the big deal?
Ah, those were the days, eh?

Sort of a Beverly Hillbillies way of comparing monetary valuations.. prior to striking oil (which was legal – back in the day) they were rich only in the Gilbreathean sense..

Obama thinks we are pure idiots.
And why shouldn’t he think that–afterall he got elected.
He had them at “Yes We Can”.

“”THE DEMS ARE SPENDING LOTS AND LOTS OF OUR MONEY.”
“Things that need to be fixed cost money.
I don’t think there is enough free duct tape in TWO worlds to fix everything Bush broke”
DUMBEST COMMENT EVER. So you think Bush ‘broke’ things by not spending enough? Even though he doubled Dept of Education spending, added a medicare entitlement and increased spending overall? Now the Democrats are doubling down on that, with a failed approach to massively increase spending by double digits per year, increasing deficits and taxes. Now over $1 trillion this year alone. Obama is spending $3,500 billion this year. He has proposed literally trillions in new spending initatives. We will have taxpayer funded abortions in DC, a huge new healthcare entitlement, more spending on domestic issues, on top of one trillion in Government pork spending mis-labelled as ‘stimulus’.
THE ONLY THING THIS WILL “FIX” IS ANY “EXCESS” IN PROSPERITY. WE ARE ENSURING THE NEXT GENERATION WILL BE POORER AND IN DEBT TO FOREIGN BONDHOLDERS.OBAMA LIED, JOBS DIED.

Wonder what the interest is on 3.55 T? Seventeen Billion in cuts also lends to thousands of loss jobs which in turn lead to lost tax revenue…so 17 B in cuts really amounts to nothing..won’t even cover the interest on 3.55 T..Yes, Bravo Mr. President…NOT

To clean up the Messes of the last 8 years, that cost money. This is why the Republicans did what they did. Leaving this mess for the president…But I know that 17 billion dollars is a lot of money….and nickles add to dimes and dimes add up to quarters, quarters add to halves, and then a whole. Start “whacking”, Mr. President, to finally put our country on solid ground. Thanks.