Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Hopefully His Last Budget

We now see President Obama's latest budget proposal.  In typical fashion, it increases taxes along with including only one significant cut.....to the Defense Department.  In addition, President Obama is touting this budget as containing $4 trillion in cuts, included what are "expected savings" from no longer being involved as much in foreign wars.  He also includes in that $4 trillion those cuts were previously made as part of a continuing resolution. His proposal also makes rosy assumptions that are not likely to turn into reality.   I was involved in proposing school budgets in my days as principal.  If I  were to use the techniques used by this President while presenting my budget, my school boards would have taken me to the woodshed.  They would have then made monumental changes to my proposal to bring it back to reality.  I knew better.  I always proposed budgets which were similar to my own household budget.  Incomes were based on real numbers.  Proposed expenses were adjusted based on expected income.  My budgets also attempted to put some money away for rainy days.  To be fair, our government has not done this regardless of which political party has been in charge for a long time.  President Obama, however, has gone beyond the pale.  Never have we had a President that proposes government spending in excess of 22% of the GDP four years in a row.  I hope this is the last budget we see from this man.

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