Congressional Budget Office: Fiscal Policy is 'Unsustainable'

From The Hill: On The Money Blog

By Walter Alarkon

Fundamental changes to the federal budget will be needed to rein in unsustainable deficits, Congress’s budget watchdog said Thursday.

“U.S. fiscal policy is unsustainable, and unsustainable to an extent that it can't be solved through minor changes,” Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

Spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, plus defense programs and debt interest, will exceed the rest of the federal budget in 10 years if most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are extended, as President Barack Obama has proposed, Elmendorf said.

“It's a matter of arithmetic,” Elmendorf said of getting record deficits under control.

“Government would need to make changes in some set of the large programs, large parts of the tax code that we think of as the fundamental parts of the budget.”

Elmendorf's remarks come a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also called on policymakers to put in place a plan to reduce deficits.

“Unless we as a nation demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, in the longer run we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth,” Bernanke said in a speech Wednesday.

The CBO projects that Obama's policies would produce deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion for the next decade.

The deficit would bottom out in 2014 at a level equal to 4.1 percent of gross domestic product, which is higher than the 3 percent level considered to be sustainable by the White House and independent economists. Deficits would again rise after 2014. The debt-to-GDP ratio would go from 63 percent this year to 90 percent by 2020, the CBO said. A “select group of countries,” including Greece, which is facing a fiscal crisis, have debt levels that high, which is “worrisome,” Elmendorf said. Elmendorf cautioned against a fiscal retrenchment that is too quick and could hamper an economic recovery. The deficit levels are expected to drop from 10 percent this year to nearly 4 percent within four years, “the most rapid withdrawal of fiscal stimulus since the Second World War,” he said. The ideal timing for deficit reductions would be “at some point beyond the next few years,” he said.

Hustler from ACORN Oversees $98 Billion in Improper Payments in 2009

From CNN
By Tom Cohen

The federal government made $98 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2009, and President Obama will issue an executive order in coming days to combat the problem, his budget director announced Tuesday.

The 2009 total for improper payments -- from outright fraud to misdirected reimbursements due to factors such as an illegible doctor's signature -- was a 37.5 percent increase over the $72 billion in 2008, according to figures provided by Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

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Those TEA Parties You Hate, Obama, Are Only Just Beginning!

The American Family Association is preparing Independence Day tea parties in 659 cities, in all 50 states. If you missed the first round, as we unfortunately did, there is no better time than the Fourth of July to express your contempt for big, oppressive government, its irresponsible spending, and confiscatory taxes.

From AFA's TEA Party Day website:

On Saturday, July 4th, be part of the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party rally in your community. Help organize a local TEA Party.

Obama adds 78,000 new employees to government payroll

2009 budget grows to a deficit of $1.8 trillion, more than four times higher than last year’s all time high and 50% of total budget

With the national debt already out of control, President Obama has added 78,000 new government jobs to the federal payroll since he took office. Obama’s increase in the number of government employees will add hundreds of millions of dollars to our debt. If history is any measure, these jobs will never be eliminated. They will simply add to the mountains of debt we are leaving our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Obama and Congress continue to spend money the government doesn’t have. The deficit for the current year will be $1.8 trillion, 50% of the total budget. In order to pay interest on the debt, the government will have to cut spending, raise taxes, print more paper money or borrow from another country like China, which already holds billons of U.S. debt. With no end of spending in sight, some estimates project that our national debt could reach $8 trillion by the year 2014.

Obama and liberals in Congress are taking us down the road to socialism, seizing control of key banks, insurance companies, the automobile industry, etc. They are currently working on a government funded national health care program which is expected to cost roughly $2 trillion while rationing services.

Are you fed up with a Congress and a president who:

• vote for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it?
• are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying?
• consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?
• want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
• punish those who practice responsible financial behavior and reward those who do not?
• admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda?
• run up trillions of dollars of debt and then sell that debt to countries such as China?
• want government controlled health care?
• want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?
• refuse to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into our country?
• appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?
• want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will?
• want to impose a carbon tax on your electricity, gas and home heating fuels?
• want to reduce your tax deductibility for charitable gifts?
• take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget?

If so, help organize and/or participate in a Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party in your community on July 4. You choose the time and the location.

OBAMA’S FIRST 100 DAYS

The Biggest Spending Spree in American History

From the Republican Study Committee

As President Barack Obama approaches his 100^th day in office, we have just witnessed the most debt-riddled first 100 days of an administration in American history. Obama has vaulted far past the debt numbers accumulated by his two predecessors in their first 100 days (in fact past their entire first years). In just 100 days, Obama has left future generations 564 billion dollars in new debt. Unfortunately for taxpayers, this is only a preview of what is to come.

As American taxpayers continue to hand over their money to pay for President Obama’s reckless spending agenda, it is appropriate to compare his first 100 days to those of previous administrations. Below, find the debt accumulated in President Obama’s first 100 days compared to those of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Even given the size and scope of President Obama’s reckless spending agenda, the figures below are sure to surprise. (Source: Bureau of Public Debt)

Obama even blows away the competition when comparing his first 100 days to his predecessors’ first full YEAR.

Clinton’s 1st YEAR	Bush’s 1st YEAR	Obama’s 1st 100 DAYS
$312 Billion	$194 Billion	$564 Billion