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OMB Director Lew on the New Budget
Cato@Liberty ^ | February 9, 2011 | Tad DeHaven

Posted on 02/09/2011 7:36:51 AM PST by DManA

President Obama will release his budget blueprint for fiscal 2012 next week. If an op-ed penned by his budget director, Jacob Lew, in Sunday’s New York Times is any indication, the administration intends to continue fiddling while the government’s finances burn.

The title of the piece, “The Easy Cuts Are Behind Us,” is a real head-scratcher. Lew’s “easy cuts” are an apparent reference to the $20 billion in savings the president proposed in his previous budgets. Considering that the president proposed total spending of $3.8 trillion last year, $20 billion in gross cuts was an insignificant gesture to say the least. In reality, the Bush administration passed the spending baton to the Obama administration two years ago and it promptly sprinted off like Usain Bolt.

(Excerpt) Read more at cato-at-liberty.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS:
$20 billion is an insignificant gesture. What does that make the house Republican's $38 billion?

Answer: A huge kick in the rear end to the people who gave them control of the house.

http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/

1 posted on 02/09/2011 7:36:55 AM PST by DManA
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To: DManA

An absolute Joke. And the joke is on us. Maybe a new political party will help but I doubt it. I think a Con-Con is the only hope left. Washington will never repair itself.


2 posted on 02/09/2011 7:39:07 AM PST by screaminsunshine (34 States)
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To: screaminsunshine

A con-con with the same clowns in charge? That’s even scarier.


3 posted on 02/09/2011 8:04:44 AM PST by moonhawk ( To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.)
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To: DManA

We’re like the guy spending $38,000 a year, $15,000 of which is borrowed. We sit down with a financial counselor to start working on how to cut our budget. After months of work, we identify $200 in savings, pat ourselves on the back and say “We can do better than this.”

Inflating the total savings to $380 obviously is an improvement (a 90% increase in savings!), but in the grand scheme of things still is pretty pathetic. We will know we are serious about getting the budget under control when the targeted savings are measured in hundreds of billions rather than tens of billions.


4 posted on 02/09/2011 8:05:45 AM PST by DrC
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To: DrC

We’re like the guy:

“I vow to get my fiscal house in order.....oh look, a train.”


5 posted on 02/09/2011 8:19:07 AM PST by DManA
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To: DManA

Do any Freepers have access to an advanced copy/summary of El Presidente’s budget?


6 posted on 02/09/2011 8:19:55 AM PST by whitedog57
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To: DManA

Lew was born in New York City. His father was a lawyer and rare-book dealer who emigrated from Poland. Lew’s first political experience was volunteering for Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 anti-war presidential Democratic primary campaign, at the age of 12. [2]

He graduated from Harvard College in 1978 and the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983.

[edit]Early career

Lew began his career in Washington, D.C. in 1973 as a legislative aide. From 1979 to 1987 he was a principal domestic policy advisor to House Speaker Tip O’Neill, where he served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director. There he was responsible for domestic and economic issues including Social Security, Medicare, budget, tax, trade, appropriations, and energy issues.

Lew practiced as an attorney for five years as a partner at Van Ness, Feldman and Curtis. His practice dealt primarily with electric power generation. He has also worked as Executive Director of the Center for Middle East Research, Issues Director for the Democratic National Committee’s Campaign 88, and Deputy Director of the Office of Program Analysis in the city of Boston’s Office of Management and Budget.


7 posted on 02/09/2011 8:25:25 AM PST by DontTreadOnMe2009 (So stop treading on me already!)
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To: moonhawk

States are in charge of a Con-Con. Not the Feds. 34 states can wipe them out. That is where we need to focus.


8 posted on 02/09/2011 8:26:18 AM PST by screaminsunshine (34 States)
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To: DManA

“oh look, a train.”

“Oh, look, a high-speed train. Let’s buy it with little Johnny’s college fund.”


9 posted on 02/09/2011 9:10:07 AM PST by DrC
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To: screaminsunshine
The joke has always been on us - the tax payers.

Remember the federal Government is currently operating without a budget. That's right folks there is no unified spending plan for any part of the Federal Government just a series of continuation resolutions.

The Federal Budget was supposed to have been enacted no later than 1 October 2010 for the period 1 Oct 2010 to 30 September 2011. Instead Congress spent all of their time on various boondoggles including ObamaCare.

By the way: Do you remember when the fiscal year ran from July to June? back in the late 1970’s, under Carter, Congress changed the fiscal year boundaries to October to September so we could always start the fiscal year with a signed budget. They did fairly good it took them 30 odd years to break that particular law.

10 posted on 02/09/2011 9:51:46 AM PST by Nip (TANSTAAFL)
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