The Obama Budget

Obama has released his FY 2010 Budget , and there's a lot to digest in there. NPR has a helpful overview by department. My personal, overall impression is that there is some great stuff in there, but it is too big.

I'm a bit disappointed that there are not more places where wasteful spending has been cut. I didn't want to see McCain's hatchet, but I was expecting a bit more from Obama's scalpel. Looks like he used a laser scalpel that was low on batteries. This is not exactly a final budget, though, so we'll see what happens.

Some specifics:

War costs will now be included in the deficit calculations. No more of the shifty accounting of the Bush Administration. That's a good thing, I'd say. But overall, a 4% increase in Defense spending? Bah. It's a relatively small increase, I suppose, but this is where I was hoping to see some cuts.

More unemployment benefits, more funding for OSHA - no complaints from me. Laying the groundwork for "automatic enrollment in workplace pension plans." Not exactly sure how that will work. I'm reserving judgment on that for now.

Big changes to the student loan system. Could be a good idea. There are also supposed to be cuts to education programs that don't work, but we won't know what those will be 'til April.

Pretty pleased with the Energy/Environment section. Much more funding for the EPA, reinstating the SuperFund cleanup tax. Clean energy investing. And the big one: a cap & trade system to curb greenhouse gas emissions. I still think I'd prefer a carbon tax, buy I'll take cap & trade.

Health Care Reform is in the budget, but of course without any real details. That's for Congress to hash out.

And of course, tax increases (but not until 2011) for those making more than $250,000. I don't have a problem with that, either.

There's a lot more. Read the whole thing if you dare. Or just spout your uninformed opinions, like I just did!

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Freedom to Farm, part II

I noticed that the buget aims to remove a lot of agricultural subsidies, sometimes just by limiting how much any particular farm/corporation can receive. I think that's promising, but am doubtful that it will stand up to the farm lobby any better than the "Freedom To Farm" bill did.

In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.

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Agreed

I forgot to mention that as one of the aspects of the budget that I liked. It is promising, and I think it is an issue that is gaining a bit of traction in the public mind, so maybe it can survive the lobbying. One can hope.

We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki

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Bush just signed a 5 year Ag subsidy bill last year.

Even if Obama wanted to open that up he won't be able to until his second term.

My position...there shouldn't be any ag subsidies for the crops.  I can compromise on the water & water delivery systems though.

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Too true, Adam

Ag subsidies are one of many subsidies that the government continues to make that would never pass a popular vote among the citizenry. Of course, I'm saying that that should be the measuring stick. I am simply pointing out that the vast people wouldn't stand for it if that was the only issue on their plate.

But that's how these things work. Scattered general public opinion is simply no match for well entrenched and organized special interests. In that sense, a few hundred well-connected and savvy advocates in DC for the farm lobby can overpower public opinion and keep their booty flowing.

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This should be fun

 Everyone's all fired up and ready to go!

  Them's fighting words.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/28/Keeping-Promises/

"I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy.  Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington.  I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families.  I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable.  I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries.   I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak.  My message to them is this:

"So am I."                                                      ~President Barack Obama

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Friedman Debunks Liberal Economic Philosophy

Underlying all arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. ~M. Friedman

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Friedman gave reasons that could be used to support...

 

Keynes during a Panic.

 

If people aren't spending money that they have and that is the cause of a recession, then changing hands of the money and spending it could make everyone better off.

Keeping money in the hands of people that don't spend it during a recession is like allowing the Christian Scientist the control of medicine during a pandemic.

In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,

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I don't view it that way...

He was addressing the very underpinnings of whether government or people better can provide for themselves and society.

Underlying all arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. ~M. Friedman

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Bush may have been Hitler, but Obama is clearly a Pedophile!

I mean how else would you describe someone who is screwing America's kids faster than anyone else ever dreamed possible?

Obama's trillions dwarf Bush's 'dangerous' spending

[...]

Now, under Obama, the national debt — and the interest payments — will increase at a far faster rate than during the Bush years.

“We thought the Bush deficits were big at the time,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, told me this week as he prepared to attend Obama’s Fiscal Responsibility Summit. “But this is going to make the previous administration look like rank amateurs. We could be adding multiple trillions to the national debt in the first year.

At some point last week, the sheer velocity of Obama’s spending proposals began to overwhelm even experienced Washington hands. In the span of four days, we saw the signing of the $787 billion stimulus bill, the rollout of a $275 billion housing proposal, discussion of Congress’s remaining appropriations bills (about $400 billion) and word of a vaguely-defined financial stabilization plan that could ultimately cost $2 trillion. When representatives of GM and Chrysler said they might need $21 billion more to survive, it seemed like small beer.

The numbers are so dizzying that McConnell and his fellow Republicans are trying to “connect the dots” — that is, to explain to the public how all of those discrete spending initiatives add up to a previously unthinkable total. Obama’s current spending proposals, Republicans point out, will cost more than the United States spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the general war on terror and Hurricane Katrina in the last seven years. And that’s before you throw in the $2 trillion fiscal stabilization plan.

[...]

I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4

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He is just replacing

the money that was stolen from America by investment bankers and friends.

 I guess Jindal is screwing the little children whose parents lost their jobs all a big favor by giving the finger to unemployment stimulus in his home state. Is he a pedophile too?

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No.

Because he is screwing the parents and not the kids in your example.  :)  Besides, I thought I hjeard that his state was one of the only states who have been adding jobs to the rolls.  That seems far preferrable to a handout.

I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4

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That is illogical

 You can't screw the parents without screwing the kids. It's not like the kids can divorce their parents when they are out of work.

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The parents are the responsible parties, not the kids.

It is their income that is affected, not the kids'.  In Obama's case it is the kids' income that will be affected.

I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4

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That's just ignorant

The best way to provide for the children's future is to stabilize our current economic situation, and our financial system which seems to be in free fall.

I assume you prescription for fixing health care is tax cuts for those with no jobs or perhaps a private health account invested in the tanking stock market?

How about another tax break for big insurance companies or drug companies so they can take better care of us by charging more for health insurance, because bigger profits for insurance companies benefit us all, right?

It is exactly this kind of ignorant hyperbole spewed forth by the right that has got us into the  mess we are in today. HIgher costs for health care, bigger profits for insurance companies, and hospitals forced to raise costs because people without health care end up at the emergency room.

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This would be a cool stuff!

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Just keep this in mind.

Great Spirits Have Always Encountered Violent Opposition From Mediocre Minds...~ A. Einstein

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