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.....At the same time, the president’s foreign aid request includes an entirely new $770 million account in 2013, described as the Middle East and North Africa Incentive Fund with the purpose of advancing democratic and economic reforms in the region after the turmoil of the past year. The two initiatives come on top of the budget’s plan for an almost 50 percent, six-year increase in transportation spending, $231 billion of which would be financed not by gas taxes but war savings attributed to Obama pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Conservatives are sure to challenge this assumption and...

Announcing his budget plans for fiscal year 2013 in an address at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., President Barack Obama characterized the current income tax rates--signed into law by President Bush a decade ago--as a form of government spending. Essentially, the president said that the federal government "spends" when it does not raise taxes. “Right now, we’re scheduled to spend more than $1 trillion more on what was intended to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest two percent of Americans,” Obama said. “We’ve already spent about that much. Now we’re expected to spend another $1 trillion....

Obama: Not Raising Taxes is a Form of Government Spending By Fred Lucas February 13, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – Announcing his budget plans for fiscal year 2013 in an address at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., President Barack Obama characterized the current income tax rates--signed into law by President Bush a decade ago--as a form of government spending. Essentially, the president said that the federal government "spends" when it does not raise taxes. “Right now, we’re scheduled to spend more than $1 trillion more on what was intended to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest two percent...

TAPPER: The president, when he spoke to students earlier today acknowledged that the numbers and the budget were so big, they were difficult to talk about. And to break them down, it would be along the lines of a family that makes $29,000 a year spending $38,000 a year, so taking on new debt — $9,000 in new debt, with a $153,000 credit card bill that they were not able to pay down. That would be a way for — like the average American to afford – to understand it. Does that seem responsible? CARNEY: I appreciate the analogy... TAPPER:...

President Obama’s budget is bad for jobs, bad for seniors, and makes the economy worse. House Budget Committee And Senate Budget Committee Republican Summary Of President’s FY2013 Budget February 13, 2012 The President has not merely ducked from our fiscal and economic challenges, but—with his fourth straight budget flop—he has advanced policies that dangerously accelerate the crisis before us. His gimmick-filled budget fails to reduce the fast-rising debt, permanently entrenches unsustainable levels of government spending, and erects new barriers to upward mobility. His plan stifles economic growth, threatens the health and retirement security of millions of Americans, and commits the...

Taking a pass on reining in government growth, President Barack Obama unveiled a record $3.8 trillion election-year budget plan Monday, calling for stimulus-style spending on roads and schools and tax hikes on the wealthy to help pay the costs. The ideas landed with a thud on Capitol Hill. Though the Pentagon and a number of Cabinet agencies would get squeezed, Obama would leave the spiraling growth of health care programs for the elderly and the poor largely unchecked. The plan claims $4 trillion in deficit savings over the coming decade, but most of it would be through tax increases Republicans...

Earlier today, Obama formally proposed his 2013 budget (link) which sees a $1.33 trn budget deficit in the 2013 fiscal year - more than the $1.296 trillion 2011 budget deficit, which unfortunately indicates that even with rather rosy assumptions, the deficit hole continues to grow, which also means that the debt plug will be higher in the next year compared to the prior, which in turn lends even more credibility to the US debt clock analysis which assumes a nearly 140% debt/GDP ratio by the end of a potential second Obama term. While that will likely end up being an...

President Obama sent Congress a $3.8T budget proposal Monday that he says is a “reflection of shared responsibility” and aims to pour billions of dollars in increased spending into the down economy to inject some immediate life there. Appearing at Northern Virginia Community College, Obama — who continued to hammer home his policies aimed at helping the middle class — said that while the budget he put forward included “some difficult cuts,” it aims to help the economic recovery accelerate. “The economy is growing stronger, recovery is speeding up and the last thing we can afford to do right now...

NEW YORK -- President Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget request Monday that hikes taxes on the rich, spends new money on infrastructure and education, but does little to reform the entitlement programs that pose the biggest long-term threat to the federal budget. "We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules," Obama said in his budget message.

The president prided himself on honesty in his first budget proposal, including the real estimated costs of spending, but Obama later shifted his stance and approved the use of budget gimmickry, according to The New Yorker. When his aides suggested in late 2009 that he should abandon the honest approach on estimated spending on disaster aid, for example, the president signed off, The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reports. Obama also approved of fanciful budget numbers on his signature health care legislation, Lizza wrote: In the December 20th memo, [Obama aides] resorted to gimmickry...On disaster relief, for example, he had estimated...

Obama delays budget for 2013 By Erik Wasson - 01/23/12 02:08 PM ET President Obama will release his 2013 budget one week late, an administration official said Monday, the third time the administration has missed the legal deadline. Under the law, the budget is to be released on the first Monday in February, but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be releasing the 2013 budget on Feb. 13. The Obama administration also delayed the release of the budget last year, waiting until Feb. 14. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the delay is symptomatic of a...

When was the last time the Senate cast a unanimous vote on an issue of any substance? The only unamimous votes in the Senate’s 112th session have been to confirm judges or on honorary resolutions, and on a few amendments, and one bill to make it illegal to publish or copy images taken by the TSA from backscatter scanners. There has not been a single unanimous negative vote in the Senate this session — until now. Yesterday, the Senate rejected by a 0-97 vote the budget proposed by Barack Obama: The Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to reject a $3.7...

Obama budget receives zero votes in Senate By Jordan Fabian - 05/25/11 06:14 PM ET No senators voted for President Obama's 2012 budget when it came up for a vote in the Senate Wednesday. A procedural vote to move forward on the president's plan failed 0-97. Just minutes earlier, the Senate failed to advance Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget plan by a vote of 40-57, a vote on which five Republicans voted against their party. Democrats sought to put Republicans on the defensive over the Ryan budget, which they have described as extreme. But Republicans, who demanded a vote on...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Congress has reached a deal to avert a government shutdown this week, but lawmakers bought themselves just two weeks to hammer out a new agreement, keeping the threat of a shutdown alive. A government shutdown, last seen in the mid-1990s, would actually be a partial — not total — halt to federal operations. Services deemed essential would continue, but other services, operations and payments could come to a stop. “‘Shutdown’ is, in our view, an overused term since much of the government does not actually shut down — the military continues to operate, Social Security checks go...

In a recent IBD op-ed, Stephen Haber and F. Scott Kieff gave a good explanation for why businesses are not yet willing to invest their substantial cash reserves in the economy: The president is right to compare big markets with big games. But the game to envision is not football but poker. Successful firms are sophisticated players. They don’t show up to the table without a large stake. The mountains of cash companies are hoarding provide plenty of bank for that purpose.

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday proposed an ambitious long-term transport spending plan in his 2012 budget as a way to boost U.S. economic competitiveness and spur job growth. While cutting other spending, Obama aggressively accelerated efforts to upgrade aging roads, bridges and introduce high-speed rail with a six-year, $556 billion package."It's really about a big vision, a bold vision, an innovative vision," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters.The total is 60 percent richer than the last transportation blueprint enacted by Congress, which expired in 2009.Congress is working on its own transportation spending priorities with proposals expected soon. LaHood...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's budget proposal resurrects a series of tax increases on certain corporations and the wealthy that were largely ignored by Congress when Democrats controlled both chambers. Republicans, who now control the House, are signaling they will be even less receptive. The plan unveiled Monday includes tax increases for oil, gas and coal producers, investment managers and U.S.-based multinational corporations. The plan would allow Bush-era tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012 for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000. Wealthy taxpayers would have their itemized deductions limited starting in...

President Obama released his budget this morning. Rather than focusing on Washington’s over-spending problem, the budget calls for higher taxes on families and small businesses to pay for even more government spending. Under the Obama budget, tax revenues will grow from 14.4% of GDP in 2011 to 20% of GDP in 2021. By comparison, the historical average is only 18% of GDP. Tax hike lowlights include: Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%. This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike Raising the capital gains and...

More expansion of Government – that always seems to be the answer for this President. Here is video of President Obama saying, “I think we should have longer school years.” He made the statement in answer to a question about whether it was being considered to move to a year-round school year. Obama said he thinks it would benefit students to go to school longer, although he did say it would cost more. But, he said, it “would be money well spent.” Of course, you know where that money will come from.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says the government is now borrowing 41 cents of every dollar it spends. New estimates predict the unemployment rate will average 9 percent next year and the budget deficit will be $1.42 trillion - even bigger than previously expected.