Fact Check: Obama's Budget Math
This chart is unrelated to the story but interesting.
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Obama's Imbalanced Ledger
WASHINGTON – The ledger did not appear to be adding up Tuesday night when President Barack Obama urged more spending on one hand and a spending freeze on the other. Obama spoke ambitiously of putting money into roads, research, education, efficient cars, high-speed rail and other initiatives in his State of the Union speech. He pointed to the transportation and construction projects of the last two years and proposed "we redouble these efforts." He coupled this with a call to "freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years." But he offered far more examples of where he would spend than where he would cut, and some of the areas he identified for savings are not certain to yield much if anything.
For example, he said he wants to eliminate "billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies." Yet he made a similar proposal last year that went nowhere. He sought $36.5 billion in tax increases on oil and gas companies over the next decade, but Congress largely ignored the request, even though Democrats were then in charge of both houses of Congress.
A look at some of Obama's statements Tuesday night and how they compare with the facts:
OBAMA: Tackling the deficit "means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit. Health insurance reform will slow these rising costs, which is part of why nonpartisan economists have said that repealing the health care law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit."
THE FACTS: The idea that Obama's health care law saves money for the government is based on some arguable assumptions.
To be sure, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the law will slightly reduce red ink over 10 years. But the office's analysis assumes that steep cuts in Medicare spending, as called for in the law, will actually take place. Others in the government have concluded it is unrealistic to expect such savings from Medicare.
In recent years, for example, Congress has repeatedly overridden a law that would save the treasury billions by cutting deeply into Medicare pay for doctors. Just last month, the government once again put off the scheduled cuts for another year, at a cost of $19 billion. That money is being taken out of the health care overhaul. Congress has shown itself sensitive to pressure from seniors and their doctors, and there's little reason to think that will change.
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OBAMA: Vowed to veto any bills sent to him that include "earmarks," pet spending provisions pushed by individual lawmakers. "Both parties in Congress should know this: If a bill comes to my desk with earmarks inside, I will veto it."
THE FACTS: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has promised that no bill with earmarks will be sent to Obama in the first place. Republicans have taken the lead in battling earmarks while Obama signed plenty of earmark-laden spending bills when Democrats controlled both houses. As recently as last month, Obama was prepared to sign a catchall spending measure stuffed with earmarks, before it collapsed in the Senate after an outcry from conservatives over the bill's $8 billion-plus in home-state pet projects.
It's a turnabout for the president; in early 2009, Obama sounded like an apologist for the practice: "Done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their districts, and that's why I've opposed their outright elimination," he said then.
Continue reading (there's much more)...
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More fact checking...
Video - Politifact
Much more detail from Politifact is here...
Fact-checking Obama's State of the Union speech
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/jan/25/fact-checking-obamas-state-union-speech/
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State of the Union 2011: Fact Checking President Obama's Speech
A Look at the Fact and Fiction in the President's Address
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/State_of_the_Union/state-union-2011-fact-check-president-obamas-address/story?id=12760731
Jan 27, 2011 at 2:57 AM
Reader Comments (9)
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/jan/25/fact-checking-obamas-state-union-speech/
A Look at the Fact and Fiction in the President's Address
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/State_of_the_Union/state-union-2011-fact-check-president-obamas-address/story?id=12760731
http://www.hedgefund.net/publicnews/default.aspx?story=11677
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/26/obama-spending-freeze_n_814192.html
Obama Spending Freeze Would Save $200 Billion: Report
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/26/soros-warns-euro-crisis-c_n_814397.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/26/cbo-unemployment-rate-above-9-2016_n_814275.html
Reality: Well – all Keynesians do. Apparently the President didn’t hear from any free market economists such as those at the Mises Institute or the Independent Institute or Cato. But as I said the President is willing to listen to all good ideas, as long as they increase the role of the state and don’t propose any that silly free market stuff.
The President may not be an outright bold faced liar. But he’s awfully good at selective versions of the truth. So far he’s has brought us one of the worst years in a lifetime. One down three to go.
http://serfcity.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/obamas-delusional-state-of-the-union/
As all politicians are.