Remarks by the President on the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-Fiscal-Year-2010-Budget/

Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 10:43 am Remarks by the President on the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2010 BUDGET Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Room 350 February 26, 2009

THE PRESIDENT: Before I begin, I have some good news to report. Starting today, the recently unemployed will benefit from a COBRA subsidy that will make health care affordable. At a time when health care is too often too expensive for the unemployed, this critical step will help 7 million Americans who've lost their jobs keep their health care. That's 7 million Americans who will have one less thing to worry about when they go to sleep at night. Equally important, it prevents a further downward spiral in our economy by ensuring that these families don't fall further behind because of mounting health care bills. And it is a direct result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that I signed into law the other week -- a recovery plan that has only just begun to yield benefits for the American people.

But while we must add to our deficits in the short term to provide immediate relief to families and get our economy moving, it is only by restoring fiscal discipline over the long run that we can produce sustained growth and shared prosperity. And that is precisely the purpose of the budget I'm submitting to Congress today.

In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go. For too long, our budget has not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent. Large sums have been left off the books, including the true cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that kind of dishonest accounting is not how you run your family budgets at home; it's not how your government should run its budgets, either. We need to be honest with ourselves about what costs are being racked up -- because that's how we'll come to grips with the hard choices that lie ahead. And there are some hard choices that lie ahead.

Just as a family has to make hard choices about where to spend and where to save, so do we, as a government. 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. Today, we have to focus on foundations. 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. That's why, on Monday, I held a fiscal summit to come up with a plan to put us on a more sustainable path. And that is why, as we develop a full budget that will come out this spring, we're going to go through our books page by page, line by line, to eliminate waste and inefficiency. This is a process that will take some time, but 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.

For example, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack is saving nearly $20 million with reforms to modernize programs and streamline bureaucracy. Interior Secretary Salazar will save nearly $200 million by stopping wasteful payments to clean up abandoned coal mines that just happen to have already been cleaned up. Education Secretary Duncan is set to save tens of millions dollars more by cutting an ineffective mentoring program for students, a program whose mission is being carried out by 100 other programs in 13 other agencies.

We've targeted almost $50 billion in savings by cracking down on overpayments of benefits and tax loopholes -- that is money going to businesses and people to which they are simply not entitled.

This is just the beginning of the cuts we're going to make. No part of my budget will be free from scrutiny or untouched by reform. We will end no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq and end tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas. And we'll save billions of dollars by rolling back tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while giving a middle-class tax cut to 95 percent of hardworking families. But we'll also have to do something more -- 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. That's a sacrifice we're going to have to make.

Now, I know that this will not always sit well with the special interests and their lobbyists here in Washington, who think our budget and tax system is just fine as it is. No wonder -- it works for them. I don't think that we can continue on our current course. I work for the American people, and I'm determined to bring the change that the people voted for last November. And that means cutting what we don't need to pay for what we do.

Now, what I won't do -- as I mentioned at the Joint Session speech a couple of days ago -- what I won't do is sacrifice investments that will make America stronger, more competitive, and more prosperous in the 21st century; investments that have been neglected for too long. These investments must be America's priorities and that's what they will be when I sign this budget into law.

Because our future depends on our ability to break free from oil that's controlled by foreign dictators, we need to make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. That's why we'll be working with Congress on legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy.

And to support this effort, we'll invest $15 billion a year for 10 years to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, and to build more efficient cars and trucks right here in America. It's an investment that will put people back to work, make our nation more secure, and help us meet our obligation as good stewards of the Earth we all inhabit.

Because of crushing health care costs and the fact that they drag down our economy, bankrupt our families, and represent the fastest-growing part of our budget, we must make it a priority to give every single American quality, affordable health care. That's why this budget builds on what we have already done over the last month to expand coverage for millions more children, to computerize health records to cut waste and reduce medical errors, which save, by the way, not only tax dollars, but lives.

With this budget, we are making a historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform. It's a step that will not only make families healthier and companies more competitive, but over the long term it will also help us bring down our deficit.

And because countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow, we must make excellence the hallmark of an American education. That's why this budget supports the historic investment in education we made as part of the recovery plan by matching new resources with new reform. We want to create incentives for better teacher performance and pathways for advancement. We want to reward success in the classroom. And we'll invest in innovative initiatives that will help schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps, preparing students for the high-paying jobs of tomorrow -- but also helping them fulfill their God-given potential.

These must be the priorities reflected in our budget. For in the end, a budget is more than simply numbers on a page. It is a measure of how well we are living up to our obligations to ourselves and one another. It is a test for our commitment to making America what it was always meant to be -- a place where all things are possible for all people. That is a commitment we are making in this, my first budget, and it is a commitment I will work every day to uphold in the months and years ahead.

I want to thank all of you for being here, but I also want to give a special thanks to Peter Orszag, Rob Nabors. They have been working tirelessly in getting this budget prepared, getting it out in a timely fashion. They're going to be doing more work in the weeks to come. And I am absolutely confident that as messy as this process can sometimes be, that we are going to be able to produce a budget that delivers for the American people.

SNIPPET from link in post no. 1:

"Because of crushing health care costs and the fact that they drag down our economy, bankrupt our families, and represent the fastest-growing part of our budget, we must make it a priority to give every single American quality, affordable health care. That's why this budget builds on what we have already done over the last month to expand coverage for millions more children, to computerize health records to cut waste and reduce medical errors, which save, by the way, not only tax dollars, but lives."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/A_New_Era_of_Responsibility2.pdf

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=D7BFEFEA-A6B3-421B-863B-695FBBCFBF5C

“The Budget as Class Warfare”
By FrontPage Magazine
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, February 27, 2009

SNIPPET: “From the moment he launched his presidential campaign, it was clear that Barack Obama had big plans for the country he proposed to lead. Barely a month into his tenure, President Obama has put a price on that transformational vision: $3.5 trillion.

That is the projected cost of the 2010 budget that the Obama administration unveiled yesterday in a sprawling, 134-page blueprint. Echoing the soaring rhetoric that is the president’s trademark, the budget heralds “a new era of responsibility,” vows to restore “America’s promise,” and outlines a fulsome list of spending priorities that spans everything from education, health care, infrastructure, and defense to “alternative energy,” while making room for subsidies like, for instance, a “Nurse Home Visitation” program that will pay trained nurses to visit low-income and expecting mothers.

All of which compels the question: How to finance the president’s pricey wish list – particularly in the midst of an economic slowdown that shows no immediate sign of reversal? Here is where the administration’s lavish budget becomes something other than the much-needed medicine for the nation’s ills that it affects to be.

Although the words “tax increase” appear nowhere in the draft budget, that seems to be the administration’s preferred method of payment. To be exact, the president is proposing to raise taxes on families making over $250,000, who make up approximately 2 percent of the top income earners, in the process repealing two of the tax cuts passed under President Bush. Starting in 2011, the administration would raise the top two income-tax rates from 33 to 36 percent and from 35 to 39.6 percent. Overall, the president’s budget features $1 trillion in tax increases on higher earners over the next decade. According to President Obama, these increases “restore a basic sense of fairness to the tax code.”

But there is another, less generous way to describe them: class warfare.”

DooDahhhh wrote:

And the wizard Obama has not figured out that we can make sure we do not make 250K per year????

I agree with you. But, apparently it's hard. Here's a sob story about someone "Getting by . . . on $400,000 a year."

I'm sure the Obama tax bill will be great for them. Next year's followup will be "Getting by . . . on $300,000 a year" at best.

In reality, everyone can survive on less than $250,000 a year. The question is, will they? Or will they just go on paying for our United Socialist States of America?

“to computerize health records to cut waste and reduce medical errors, which save, by the way, not only tax dollars, but lives.”
“Part 5 of President-elect Obama’s economic stimulus plan talks about upgrading hospitals and doctor’s offices to electronic medical records to deliver better healthcare, save lives, and save money.”

IT is hugely, grossly expensive and is not secure. The IT introduction in the UK is failing. It doesn’t work. It has cost billions. [link] It is not secure [link].The VA patient record system has problem that are not widely discussed. [link] According to the GAO, the cost savings claims made for it cannot be substantiated. Linda Gorman, who runs the Health Care Policy Center at the excellent Independence Institute in Golden, Colorado, writes in with some important caveats over computerized medical records: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjcwZTFkZWU5MzVjN2Q5OTg3ZGZhZjQ2MGFkYmY0MWU=

In a misguided attempt to raise the additional $33 Billion to fund the SCHIP Expansion for the next 4-1/2 years, cigarette taxes are set to increase $0.61 per pack. Since this 156% increase is likely to drive even more smokers to seek lower cost alternatives, Congress has decided to ‘level the playing field’ by increasing the FET on Roll Your Own tobacco and small cigars over 2,000%.
Roll-Your-Own Cigararette Tobacco:
$1.0969 per pound (to $24.78 per pound
( a $2,244 % percent INCREASE ! ) *
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