Budget Leaders Refuse to Include More Funding for Financial Sector Bailout.
Much of the difference comes from a decision by House leaders to jettison Obama's plan to seek more cash for the Treasury Department's financial-sector bailout, a decision that would reduce the projected deficit but not prevent the administration from requesting the money.
The result is a spending plan that would drive the annual deficit to $1.2 trillion next year, compared with $1.4 trillion under Obama's request. Over the next five years, the deficit would fall to just under $600 billion, requiring the nation to borrow $3.9 trillion, compared with $4.4 trillion under Obama's plan.
Like a competing proposal unveiled in the Senate, the House plan would permit lawmakers to pursue Obama's priorities on health care, education and energy only if those initiatives do not increase the deficit. Unlike the Senate, the House is proposing to use a procedural shortcut to push Obama's health-care and education proposals through the Senate without Republican votes.
White house budget director Peter Orszag praised the House blueprint, as well as its counterpart in the Senate. Although the plans "may not be identical twins" when compared with Obama's proposal, he said, "they're certainly brothers who look substantially alike."
Obama is expected to deliver a similar message today when he goes to Capitol Hill to sell his budget blueprint to Senate Democrats, a dozen of whom this week sent a letter to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, complaining that "the deficits projected by CBO are simply not acceptable." Conrad's adjustments to the president's proposal, presented to Senate Democrats at a luncheon yesterday, won early approval from some signatories. "It's improving," said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).
To bring down deficits, Conrad proposes slashing $160 billion from Obama's request for nondefense programs over the next five years, including a reduction of $15 billion in fiscal 2010 that targets international programs, among others. Conrad also would jettison the $250 billion Obama included in his budget for the Treasury Department's bailout of the financial system, a move that lowers the deficit projection but would not prevent Obama from requesting the funds.
Conrad also pressed some Bush-era budget maneuvers eliminated by Obama back into service: Instead of a 10-year budget that shows deficits steadily accumulating, for example, Conrad is proposing a five-year spending plan. And Conrad assumes that the alternative minimum tax will strike millions of middle-class families, generating billions of additional dollars in 2013 and 2014, though Congress has acted repeatedly to prevent that. (WP)
2 comments
Where is my link...????
Mampir Ngombe
Posted on March 27, 2009 at 4:47 PM
Link sudah dipasang "META TRADER"
Posted on March 29, 2009 at 1:42 PM