President Obama sent Congress a budget yesterday that totaled almost $4 trillion for 2012, but promises $1.1 trillion in deficit reduction measures over the next decade by virtue of freezing a variety of domestic spending programs for a period of five years, cutting spending on the military and placing new tax limitations on those defined as "wealthy." Jacob Lew, President Obama’s budget director, noted over the weekend that the spending plan for 2012 would put an end to any thought that "we can do this painlessly – we are going to have to make tough choices."
Of course, these are only words, and words that have been spoken time and again but never actually put into practice, so we’ll see how well the U.S. government does this time around, and if they can finally get things right and take a chainsaw to the hyper-bloated U.S. budget. As was easy to predict, Congressional Republicans were displeased with the bill, with House Speak John Boehner noting, "He’s going to present a budget tomorrow (Monday) that will continue to destroy jobs by spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much."
Without taking a shot at the president, it does indeed seem that the U.S. government does quite a bit of all three of those things. Among the other programs that will see cuts in the new budget will be Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as defense spending. Taken together, those items account for the gross majority of deficits that have been run by the U.S. government over the past several decades, so when the ax falls on them this time through, the American people – if they know what’s good for them – will hope that it falls swiftly and with authority.
Of course, these are only words, and words that have been spoken time and again but never actually put into practice, so we’ll see how well the U.S. government does this time around, and if they can finally get things right and take a chainsaw to the hyper-bloated U.S. budget. As was easy to predict, Congressional Republicans were displeased with the bill, with House Speak John Boehner noting, "He’s going to present a budget tomorrow (Monday) that will continue to destroy jobs by spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much."
Without taking a shot at the president, it does indeed seem that the U.S. government does quite a bit of all three of those things. Among the other programs that will see cuts in the new budget will be Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as defense spending. Taken together, those items account for the gross majority of deficits that have been run by the U.S. government over the past several decades, so when the ax falls on them this time through, the American people – if they know what’s good for them – will hope that it falls swiftly and with authority.
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