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Posted by Basil Karlo on April 29, 2009, 10:38 pm
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FACT CHECK: Obama disowns deficit he helped shape
Apr 29, 5:55 PM (ET)
By CALVIN WOODWARD
WASHINGTON (AP) - "That wasn't me," President Barack Obama said on his 100th
day in office, disclaiming responsibility for the huge budget deficit
waiting for him on Day One.
It actually was him - and the other Democrats controlling Congress the
previous two years - who shaped a budget so out of balance.
And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight
Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over
and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still.
Obama met citizens at an Arnold, Mo., high school Wednesday in advance of
his prime-time news conference. Both forums were a platform to review his
progress at the 100-day mark and look ahead.
At various times, he brought an air of certainty to ambitions that are far
from cast in stone.
His assertion that his proposed budget "will cut the deficit in half by the
end of my first term" is an eyeball-roller among many economists, given the
uncharted terrain of trillion-dollar deficits and economic calamity that the
government is negotiating.
He promised vast savings from increased spending on preventive health care
in the face of doubts that such an effort, however laudable it might be for
public welfare, can pay for itself, let alone yield huge savings.
A look at some of his claims Wednesday:
OBAMA: "Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit.... That wasn't me.
Number two, there is almost uniform consensus among economists that in the
middle of the biggest crisis, financial crisis, since the Great Depression,
we had to take extraordinary steps. So you've got a lot of Republican
economists who agree that we had to do a stimulus package and we had to do
something about the banks. Those are one-time charges, and they're big, and
they'll make our deficits go up over the next two years." - in Missouri.
THE FACTS:
Congress controls the purse strings, not the president, and it was under
Democratic control for Obama's last two years as Illinois senator. Obama
supported the emergency bailout package in President George W. Bush's final
months - a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger.
To be sure, Obama opposed the Iraq war, a drain on federal coffers for six
years before he became president. But with one major exception, he voted in
support of Iraq war spending.
The economy has worsened under Obama, though from forces surely in play
before he became president, and he can credibly claim to have inherited a
grim situation.
Still, his response to the crisis goes well beyond "one-time charges."
He's persuaded Congress to expand children's health insurance, education
spending, health information technology and more. He's moving ahead on a
variety of big-ticket items on health care, the environment, energy and
transportation that, if achieved, will be more enduring than bank bailouts
and aid for homeowners.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated his
policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four
years, even accounting for his spending reduction goals. Now, the deficit is
nearly quadrupling to $1.75 trillion.
---
OBAMA: "I think one basic principle that we know is that the more we do on
the (disease) prevention side, the more we can obtain serious savings down
the road. ... If we're making those investments, we will save huge amounts
of money in the long term." - in Missouri.
THE FACTS: It sounds believable that preventing illness should be cheaper
than treating it, and indeed that's the case with steps like preventing
smoking and improving diets and exercise. But during the 2008 campaign, when
Obama and other presidential candidates were touting a focus on preventive
care, the New England Journal of Medicine cautioned that "sweeping
statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention, however, are
overreaching." It said that "although some preventive measures do save
money, the vast majority reviewed in the health economics literature do
not."
And a study released in December by the Congressional Budget Office found
that increasing preventive care "could improve people's health but would
probably generate either modest reductions in the overall costs of health
care or increases in such spending within a 10-year budgetary time frame."
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OBAMA: "You could cut (Social Security) benefits. You could raise the tax on
everybody so everybody's payroll tax goes up a little bit. Or you can do
what I think is probably the best solution, which is you can raise the cap
on the payroll tax." - in Missouri.
THE FACTS: Obama's proposal would reduce the Social Security trust fund's
deficit by less than half, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
That means he would still have to cut benefits, raise the payroll tax rate,
raise the retirement age or some combination to deal with the program's
long-term imbalance.
Workers currently pay 6.2 percent and their employers pay an equal rate -
for a total of 12.4 percent - on annual wages of up to $106,800, after which
no more payroll tax is collected.
Obama wants workers making more than $250,000 to pay payroll tax on their
income over that amount. That would still protect workers making under
$250,000 from an additional burden. But it would raise much less money than
removing the cap completely.
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Posted by on April 29, 2009, 11:44 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:38:31 -0500, "Basil Karlo"
>FACT CHECK: Obama disowns deficit he helped shape
This is Bush's deficit. Obama inherited. Anyone with half a brain
can tell you a severe economic downturn is NOT the time to start
cutting government spending.
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Posted by Gerry on April 30, 2009, 9:50 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Apr 29, 10:44=A0pm, hal wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:38:31 -0500, "Basil Karlo"
>
> >FACT CHECK: Obama disowns deficit he helped shape
>
> This is Bush's deficit. =A0Obama inherited. =A0Anyone with half a brain
> can tell you a severe economic downturn is NOT the time to start
> cutting government spending.
Yep, that's what I keep hearing-from people with only half a brain.
The government should raise taxes and spend more is their anthem
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Posted by Martin H. Eastburn on April 30, 2009, 11:10 pm
Please log in for more thread options Obama signed the bill and paid the money out. He didn't have to. He talked it
up and pushed for it. He also pushed for the second freeby bill
when members of congress put on all that they could think.
Martin
hal wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:38:31 -0500, "Basil Karlo"
>
>> FACT CHECK: Obama disowns deficit he helped shape
>
> This is Bush's deficit. Obama inherited. Anyone with half a brain
> can tell you a severe economic downturn is NOT the time to start
> cutting government spending.
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Posted by on May 1, 2009, 10:02 pm
Please log in for more thread options wrote:
> Obama signed the bill and paid the money out. =A0He didn't have to. =A0He=
talked it
> up and pushed for it. =A0He also pushed for the second freeby bill
> when members of congress put on all that they could think.
>
> Martin
Then there was the ordinary spending bill that looked like a third
"stimulus" package.
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