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Obama Unveils Budget That Includes Billions To Rebuild Nation’s Infrastructure, Create Jobs
By Travis Waldron on Feb 13, 2012 at 11:50 am
Economists estimated in 2011 that the United States needed $2 trillion in immediate investments just to bring its infrastructure up to date, and with borrowing costs low and the nation’s unemployment rate still high, such investments would allow the country to fix its crumbling roads and bridges while also putting unemployed Americans back to work. President Obama is attempting to take advantage of that opportunity by releasing a budget that takes billions of dollars in war savings and pours them into infrastructure investments and job creation programs.
Obama laid out his budget proposal, which includes the Buffett Rule to raise taxes on millionaires and aims to cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade, today in Virginia. The budget includes billions in spending on infrastructure programs, worker training, and higher education investment, all in attempts to create jobs and bolster the nation’s economic recovery:
The president will propose using half of the money from ending Americas’ two foreign wars to subsidize investment in infrastructure as part of his request for over $800 billion in multi-year spending on job creation and transportation.
The Obama budget also includes funds for worker training to prepare American workers for open jobs through community colleges and other avenues and invests in higher education to make Americans “the most skilled workers in the world” in the future, Obama said.
Republicans have already opposed multiple attempts to invest in infrastructure spending and create jobs, as they fought efforts to include further infrastructure measures in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, fought a 2010 attempt to pass a large-scale infrastructure bill, and blocked the American Jobs Act last fall, even as the infrastructure in their districts continues to crumble. Multiple Republicans have already announced their opposition to this budget.
Obama’s budget may not be perfect — it cuts spending from areas that need investment and it includes less revenue than bipartisan plans like Simpson-Bowles — but considering the tough budgetary environment, it is a step forward on the road to economic recovery. The GOP, meanwhile, continues to tout budgets that force radical spending cuts, jeopardizing the nation’s economic recovery and putting America on a path that economists say increases the likelihood of yet another painful recession.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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The FIVE Most Important Tax Proposals in Obama’s Budget
Feb 13, 2012 | By ThinkProgress War Room
Our Tax Code is Broken and President Obama Wants to Fix It
Our current tax code — largely inherited from the Bush administration, except for the places where Obama cut taxes for the middle class and small businesses — is broken, rigged for the rich and has exploded our debt while dragging our economy down. Today, President Obama released his budget for 2013 and it includes some hugely important changes that will make the tax code simpler, fairer, and better for our economy.
Here’s the FIVE most important tax proposals the President put forward today: •The Buffett Rule: While Republicans show no signs of stopping their all-out push to protect the wealthiest Americans at all costs, the president is doubling down on his commitment to make sure that no millionaire pays a lower tax rate than middle class workers. President Obama’s budget underscores his State of the Union call for a minimum 30 percent tax rate for millionaires. •Gets Rid of the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich, Once and For All: The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year anyway, but the president’s budget makes clear that we must get rid of the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The Bush tax cuts ushered in record income inequality and the worst job growth in decades and, as the President’s Budget says, they “were unfair and unaffordable at the time they were enacted and remain so today.” Getting rid of them and returning the estate tax to its still hugely generous 2009 level would save a whopping $968 BILLION over the next ten years. •Gets Rid of Unfair Tax Loopholes for Hedge Fund and Private Equity Managers: One of the many reasons that Mitt Romney pays such an outrageously low tax rate is because of the so-called “carried interest” loophole — a special and unfair tax break available only to hedge fund and private equity managers. Getting rid of this wasteful and economically unjustifiable giveaway to the wealthy will save $13 BILLION over 10 years. •Gets Rid of Unfair Tax Rates on Dividends for the Wealthiest 2 Percent of Americans: The very wealthiest Americans take in an overwhelming share of the capitals gains, dividends, and interest income earned in this country. Taxing just the dividends earned by only the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans at the same rate as ordinary income would bring in $206 BILLION in new revenue over the next ten years. •Ends Tax Giveaways to Big Oil: The budget repeats the president’s longstanding commitment to ending wasteful, taxpayer-funded giveaways to the most profitable industry in history. With gas prices soaring to near-record levels, it’s time to end the $41 BILLION in handouts that Big Oil would receive over the next ten years.
IN ONE SENTENCE: The first step toward building an economy that works for everyone is making everyone, especially the very wealthiest Americans, start paying their fair share — and that’s what the president’s budget sets out to do.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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Ouch, just read this. This is going to hurt:
Pentagon May Oust Troops Involuntarily to Meet Reductions in Budget Plan
‘Kicking People Out’
“You are kicking people out of the military at a time when unemployment is not only a major challenge, it is also a primary factor in the upcoming presidential election,”
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Perhaps they have no choice. The cut that is to be made since congress couldn't compromise last year on budget reductions is steep. However, if they were to decide to cut a few contractors and try to work with hired staff instead I'd bet they could find a way to find the savings needed.
-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
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What Congress Can Learn From Europe: Economists Say Massive Budget Cuts Will Lead To Another Recession
By Travis Waldron on Nov 15, 2011 at 10:35 am
The European economy grew just 0.2 percent in the third quarter as it remained plagued by the continent’s spreading fiscal crisis, according to official data released by the European Union today. The crisis has only deepened as countries have enacted massive austerity plans, forcing through widespread budget cuts that have stunted economic growth. In Spain, austerity has driven the unemployment rate to 21.5 percent.
As Europe continues its slide, the effects are sure to be felt in the United States, where the threat of a recession in 2012 is now greater than 50 percent. “It is not something that we would be insulated from,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week. “I don’t think we would be able to escape the consequences of a blow-up in Europe.”
But even with evidence that austerity is wreaking havoc on European economies, American policymakers remain intent on following that lead. But chasing Europe down the austerity hole is only ensuring that the U.S. will experience another “great recession,” according to economists surveyed by Politico:
“To engage in austerity right now would be a great mistake,” insisted Desmond Lachman, an economist with the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “It would push the economy into a great recession.” [...]
“We need to learn from the European recessions,” said David Walker, former comptroller general of the United States, “and structure our own program” accordingly. He, too, said he considers large, near-term budget cuts potentially disastrous. Walker and other experts said significant budget cuts are certainly necessary — eventually. But not now. [...]
“Austerity brings a cyclical contraction,” said Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, a German who is senior director for strategy at the German Marshall Fund in Washington. “You can’t just slash. You also have to invest and reform.” In his view, U.S. politicians don’t seem to appreciate this because they hold “a dangerous philosophy of American exceptionalism, as if they were exempt from the rules of finance.”
Despite these warnings, congressional leaders — particularly on the right — continue to push for massive spending cuts to a variety of programs, while opposing economic stimulus that could spark growth and recovery. The House will vote this week on a radical Balanced Budget Amendment that would force bigger spending cuts than even the fiscal super committee could ever dream of, drive up the unemployment rate, and ensure that future recessions will be even more painful.
The GOP, along with some moderate Democrats, has opposed the American Jobs Act, which would inject money into the economy in the form of infrastructure investment, aid to states to hire teachers and public safety officials, and other measures designed for job creation. Instead, they have focused on anti-regulatory, anti-spending policies that have little (if any) effect on job creation.
As these economists noted, clear evidence exists across the pond that widespread austerity measures will only stunt economic growth and push the U.S. closer to the brink of another recession. Unfortunately, Congressional leadership continues to ignore them.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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