http://tinyurl.com/cf5moe
- - - President Barack Obama is sending Congress a budget Thursday that projects the government's deficit for this year will soar to $1.75 trillion, reflecting efforts to pull the nation out of a deep recession and a severe financial crisis. Obama's budget overview will call for nearly $4 trillion in spending in fiscal year 2010 and creates space for up to $750 billion in additional bank bailout funds this year - money that hasn't been requested and the administration hopes will not be necessary to stabilize the still-reeling financial system. Senior administration officials would not disclose a precise figure for the entire budget, but said it would likely fall between $3.8 trillion and $4 billion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The White House will formally release its budget overview at 11 a.m. Thursday. The president's budget will also set aside a $634 billion "reserve fund" as a down payment to cover roughly two-thirds of the anticipated 10-year cost of universal health care coverage -- projected at $1 trillion. The administration will work with Congress to locate the remaining funds to finance the plan. "This is a very significant down payment," a senior administration official told FOX News. "We consider putting this reserve fund on the table a more auspicious approach to getting this done this year." The White House contends by directly telling Congress how much universal health coverage is projected to cost, it can devote more time to debating the methods of achieving coverage instead of getting bogged down in conflicting cost estimates. The president will finance about half of its "reserve fund" allocation by limiting itemized deductions to couples who earn $250,000 or more to 28 percent of the total itemized deductions they claim. This change is projected to generate $317.8 billion over 10 years, or roughly half the cost of universal coverage. The president also will seek $177 billion in savings over 10 years by reducing government subsidies to Medicare Advantage, the private-sector insurance component of Medicare. Under Medicare Advantage, private insurers provide government-approved health insurance coverage and are reimbursed for costs on an annually adjusted basis. The administration will tell Congress it is setting aside upwards of $750 this year in case major U.S. banks need more capital to survive. This figure exceeds by $50 billion the $700 billion allotted in the first Wall Street bailout, known officially as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). A senior administration official who briefed on the budget outline insisted these funds haven't been requested and that the administration sees no current need to request them. However, the president told Congress Tuesday that taxpayers may need to devote more money to rescue ailing banks. The official said Obama wanted to insert a realistic figure in the budget to reflect that possibility. "We hope this is not necessary," the official said. The $750 billion in potential bailout funds would be used to acquire stock holdings in banks in dire need of capital infusions. The funds would likely purchase common stock in a process that would reduce debt loads on bank balance sheets and provide the means to re-enter the loan market. As with the TARP funds, the actual cost to taxpayers will be less than the $750 billion subsidy figure the White House will place in its budget. The White House and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) both count funds used for capital subsidies at one-third their actual cost. In other words, to generate $750 billion in bailout subsidies, taxpayers will have to provide $250 billion in direct funds. Under this accounting, $250 billion in tax dollars supports $750 billion in bailout subsidies. For example, the original TARP allocation of $700 billion is scored by the White House and the CBO as a direct taxpayer allocation of $234 billion OTHER BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS: The Bush tax cuts expire on schedule at the end of 2010. The higher tax rates will take affect in 2011 and, with the exception to changes in withholding, will be most apparent when taxpayers file their 2011 tax returns in the spring of 2012. The administration has identified some preliminary savings it will ask Congress to approve. - - - When the tax cuts expire, his lie that people under $250K/year will pay "not one dime" more in taxes will be manifest. But just think about this. Massively exploding spending, in a way that makes even Bush look frugal, coupled with relatively small, targeted tax increases, offset by 95% of people getting tax cuts. Some message of shared sacrifice. (OK, the 95% getting tax cuts is also a lie: it's really just outright robbery---giving "rebates" to people who pay little or no taxes.) So, if you take him at his rhetoric: Tax Cuts + High Deficit Spending. Sounds like Bush to me. Only Obama *eclipses* Bush's spending record. He's going to spend about the same *in one year* on every Democrat wish-list program than Bush increased the debt in eight years---nearly $4 trillion. Even if he halves his annual projected budget deficits, they will tower over Bush's annual deficits. His smallest pet program is already bigger and more costly than both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it's just the tip of some kind of monster iceberg. I don't understand how any of you Obama supporters can justify this. He is clearly using the crisis as an excuse to break the bank, ensure extremely high confiscatory taxation under a regime of hyperinflation, down the road. Not great gift of prevision is required to understand this inevitable outcome. And I love this line: << The White House contends by directly telling Congress how much universal health coverage is projected to cost, it can devote more time to debating the methods of achieving coverage instead of getting bogged down in conflicting cost estimates.>> Any constitutional scholars want to pick that one apart? I can't believe the hubris of it. Obama is not who he says he is. He is not doing what he said he was going to do---most of what he appears to be doing is the sleight of hand of a snake oil salesman and circus magician. - Bob _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
