President Obama Puts $4 Trillion Price Tag on New Budget

WASHINGTON—President Obama unveiled a staggeringly huge budget this morning, telling the country it will take almost $4 trillion to run the U.S. next year.

That will be a whopping $1.75 trillion more than the President expects the government to raise in revenue, creating the largest federal deficit in real dollars since the country was fighting World War II.

The giant numbers are due in part to Obama administration's decision to print all of the red ink, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and national emergencies, which the Bush administration left out.

"This budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go," Obama said in releasing the outline of his massive spending plan. "For too long our budget has not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent."

In spite of the gusher of spending, Obama insisted he's being tight-fisted. He said he's scouring the budget for waste and targeting popular but unnecessary programs for elimination.

"You know, there are times where you can afford to redecorate your house, and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation," Obama said. "Today we have to focus on foundations."

He said that previous administrations have left the country in the dire condition that it's in now. "Having inherited a trillion-dollar deficit that will take a long time for us to close, we need to focus on what we need to move the economy forward, not on what's nice to have."

Listing a series of wasteful programs that have already been found, Obama said his administration was already piling up savings in the future.

"In the last 30 days alone, we have already identified $2 trillion in deficit reductions that will help us cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term," Obama said. "No part of my budget will be free from scrutiny or untouched by reform."

"We will each and every one of us have to compromise on certain things we care about but which we simply cannot afford right now," Obama added. "That's a sacrifice we're going to have to make."

Republicans hailed Obama's calls for fiscal responsibility, but said their Democratic colleagues in Congress were on a spending binge.

"Over the last two weeks, Democrats in Congress have spent nearly $2 trillion of Americans' hard-earned money, putting us on the glide path to tax increases on small businesses and a devastating fiscal burden for our children," said House Republican Whip Eric Cantor. "We don't believe these are the kind of choices the President is talking about."

Among the spending Cantor was criticizing was the $410 billion budget bill for the rest of this year that the house passed yesterday. It contains about 8,500 pet projects totaling nearly $8 billion.

Obama said his huge budget for next year would be lean on fat, but heavy on muscle needed to grow the country and the economy.

Added to the list:

*President Obama unveiled a staggeringly huge budget this morning, telling the country it will take almost $4 trillion to run the U.S. next year.

*Obama will propose a massive business tax on greenhouse gases in his FY 2010 federal budget to be presented this week.
The massive tax increase and power grab was buried at the end on article on Obama's forthcoming budget proposal in The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/us/politics/22budget.html?_r=1&ref=business

*Obama Upholds Detainee Policy In Afghanistan:
The Obama administration told a federal judge military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush’s legal team
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/washington/22bagram.html?hp

*Obama appoints "The Vacuum Cleaner" to be the new US ambassador in London. Obama has been embroiled in a cronyism row after reports that he intends to make Louis Susman, one of his biggest fundraisers, the new US ambassador in London.
http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/

*Obama's administration attended four full days of negotiation at the "Durbin II" conference. During that time his people sat and passively watched the following: the failure to adopt a proposal to act against Holocaust denial, a new proposal to single out Israel, which will now be included in the draft without brackets, broad objections to anything having to do with sexual orientation, vigorous refusal by many states to back down on references to "Islamophobia" (the general allegation of a racist Western plot to discriminate against all Muslims), and numerous attacks on free speech.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/22/obama-israel-holocaust-durban-opinions-contributors_united_nations.html

*In response to the backlash against the bailout for failing home owners, triggered in part by Rick Santelli on CNN's rant on the floor of the Chicago stock exchange, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan responded publicly; "the Obama administration's efforts to help struggling homeowners will aid "responsible" borrowers, not deadbeats or speculators."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/22/obama.housing/index.html

*Obama gives his blessing to Sheik Sharif Ahmed's appointment as President in Somalia. The UIC was viewed as a terrorist organization by the Bush administration, but is viewed as moderate by the new US Obama administration.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/terror-group-leader-takes-control-of.html

*President Barack Obama now likes to talk at commissions" and summits” after making fun of Sen. John McCain for proposing a commission to look at the economic crisis facing the country. In the "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" at the White House, the President listens "to the best and the brightest on the subject of the budget as well as the larger issues related to the economy".
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_economy

*Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2009/02/members-of-the-presidential-task-force-on-the-auto-industry-prefer-to-drive-imports.html

*Obama’s Homeless Woman Is Actually Real Estate Investor
New information about Henrietta Hughes has come to light. It appears that the desperate homeless woman owns real estate she shifted into the name of her son to avoid taxes and acquire government aid. Henrietta Hughes also apparently sold real estate at a significant profit in 2005.
http://theliepolitic.com/2009/02/obamas-homeless-woman-is-actually-real-estate-investor/

*The United States (Obama) plans to pledge more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's offensive against Hamas and strengthen the Palestinian Authority, a U.S. official said on Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066381.html

*Vice President Joe Biden's Son and Brother Marketed Hedge Fund Through Stanford Company: The fund was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud. The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens' Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/24/report-bidens-son-brother-marketed-hedge-fund-stanford-company/

*Thomas Perez, current Labor Secretary for the State of Maryland, and former board director for Casa de Maryland, is Obama's choice to take over as the Head of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). CASA is affiliated with the National Council of La Raza. CASA has also received a two-year grant from George Soros's Open society Institute.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/annapolis/2009/02/perez_in_the_mix_for_immigrati.html

*Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano avoids mention of the terms "terrorism" or "Sept. 11" in remarks prepared for her first congressional testimony since taking office, signaling a sharp change in tone from her predecessors.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/24/napolitano-avoids-mentioning-terrorism-remarks-congress/

*Two of President Obama's Cabinet members authored a variety of earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill the House is poised to pass Wednesday to keep the government running through Oct. 1. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis were both House members when appropriators began to forge this legislation last year. However, a stalemate between President Bush and congressional Democrats forced the sides to punt the rest of the spending provisions until now.

*The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government. In an undated non-disclosure agreement obtained by Defense News, the administration tells defense officials that “strict confidentiality” must be practiced to ensure a “successful” and “proper” 2010 defense budget process.
http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3957786

* President Obama will forecast the biggest U.S. deficit since World War Two in a budget on Thursday (2/26/2009) that urges a costly overhaul of the healthcare system and would spend billions to arrest the economy's freefall. An eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit for the 2009 fiscal year is projected in Obama's first budget, according to U.S. officials who briefed reporters on the numbers. That is equal to 12.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product -- the largest share since 1945 when the country ran a shortfall of 21.5 percent of GDP
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2644850320090226?sp=true

*The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government.
The secrecy pact comes as dozens of Bush-era Pentagon appointees remain on the job, asked to stay on by the Obama administration until replacements are confirmed to ensure continuity during wartime
http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3957786

*Defense *Secretary Robert Gates has decided to allow photos of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base, Del., if the families of the fallen troops agree, the officials told The Associated Press. Gates planned to announce his decision later Thursday, they said. The current ban was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pentagon_war_dead

President Obama is proposing to begin a vast expansion of the U.S. health-care system by creating a $634 billion reserve fund over the next decade, launching an overhaul that most experts project will ultimately cost at least $1 trillion.

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