The Easy Cuts Are Behind Us
By JACOB LEW
NYT
Washington
IN a little over a week, President Obama will send Congress his budget for the 2012 fiscal year. The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations. As the president said in his State of the Union address, now that the country is back from the brink of a potential economic collapse, our goal is to win the future by out-educating, out-building and out-innovating our rivals so that we can return to robust economic and job growth. But to make room for the investments we need to foster growth, we have to cut what we cannot afford. We have to reduce the burden placed on our economy by years of deficits and debt.
When I left the Office of Management and Budget in January 2001, the country had a projected surplus of $5.6 trillion over the next decade. When I returned last November, decisions to make two large tax cuts without offsetting them and to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit without paying for it, combined with the effects of the recession, meant that the nation faced projected deficits of $10.4 trillion over the next decade.
We cannot win the future, expand the economy and spur job creation if we are saddled with increasingly growing deficits. That is why the president’s budget is a comprehensive and responsible plan that will put us on a path toward fiscal sustainability in the next few years — a down payment toward tackling our challenges in the long term.
This starts with doing what families and businesses have been doing during this downturn: tightening our belts. In the budget, the president will call for a five-year freeze on discretionary spending other than for national security. This will reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade and bring this category of spending to the lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
(More here.)
NYT
Washington
IN a little over a week, President Obama will send Congress his budget for the 2012 fiscal year. The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations. As the president said in his State of the Union address, now that the country is back from the brink of a potential economic collapse, our goal is to win the future by out-educating, out-building and out-innovating our rivals so that we can return to robust economic and job growth. But to make room for the investments we need to foster growth, we have to cut what we cannot afford. We have to reduce the burden placed on our economy by years of deficits and debt.
When I left the Office of Management and Budget in January 2001, the country had a projected surplus of $5.6 trillion over the next decade. When I returned last November, decisions to make two large tax cuts without offsetting them and to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit without paying for it, combined with the effects of the recession, meant that the nation faced projected deficits of $10.4 trillion over the next decade.
We cannot win the future, expand the economy and spur job creation if we are saddled with increasingly growing deficits. That is why the president’s budget is a comprehensive and responsible plan that will put us on a path toward fiscal sustainability in the next few years — a down payment toward tackling our challenges in the long term.
This starts with doing what families and businesses have been doing during this downturn: tightening our belts. In the budget, the president will call for a five-year freeze on discretionary spending other than for national security. This will reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade and bring this category of spending to the lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
When I returned last November, decisions to make two large tax cuts without offsetting them and to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit without paying for it, combined with the effects of the recession, meant that the nation faced projected deficits of $10.4 trillion over the next decade.
Whoa …. How can someone complain about a large tax cut without paying for it without acknowledging that after Mr. Lew returned the President signed a renewal of that tax cut ?
Otherwise, Mr. Lew is making a case that corporate interests will still be served … tax code changes and investments in infrastructure and education. Plus cuts to community service block grants ($350 million), Great Lakes Restoration Initiative ($125 million) and community development block grants ($300 million) just show that Obama is willing to put his type of programs on the line, but they really don’t add up to that much.
Expect to get laughed at by the Republicans yet they have only come up with $36 Billion (FY 2010 is the last budget passed into law and that was $1,091 billion … and Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposal is $1,055 billion … so Mr. Lew is right … the easy cuts have been made … heck, the Republicans wanted to cut spending by $100 billion … and really wanted to get back to FY2008 spending … guess what … The new spending levels suggested by the Republicans are still $122 billion above FY 2008.
I would rather have seen Obama look at the Republican Study Committee list of cuts and came out strong saying which ones they immediately agree with … and if you read Jim Jordan’s list, there were a number of programs that Jordan says that Obama wants cut … so why not just get the easy ones done.
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