It Must Grow on Trees
- The Stimulus Bill: In his first 100 days, President Obama signed a $787 billion “stimulus” bill that with interest totals $1.1 trillion in new spending. At no time during these 100 days did anyone on Capitol Hill read the entire bill, despite its rapid of growth of government in size and scope.
- Is Not Temporary: All projections on stimulus spending assume that none of the new government programs will continue ad infinitum, which goes against the Washington trend of making programs longer, bigger, but never over. As Milton Friedman said: “Nothing is more permanent as a temporary government program.”
- CBO on the Stimulus Bill: If even some programs become permanent, the CBO estimates that the true cost of the stimulus bill could be over $3.27 trillion. The CBO also projected that the stimulus bill would actually hurt the economy.
- Earmark Love: President Obama came into office pledging to “slash earmarks to no greater than 1994 levels” of 1,318 per budget. In his first 100 days, he signed an omnibus spending bill that contained 9,287 earmarks, the second most in U.S. history, including funding for tattoo removal and a Buffalo Bill museum.
- Spreading the Wealth: President Obama has been spending through the tax code in order to “spread the wealth around.” He passed the Making Work Pay Credit and increased the Hope Scholarship Credit, the EITC, and child tax credit; meanwhile, he has proposed hiking taxes by $300,000 (over 10 years) for 3.2 million higher-income tax filers to pay for more spending in his budget.
He Hopes It Grows on Trees
- Debt for Your Family: The President came into office promising a “net spending cut” then signed the stimulus bill, which will dump $9,400 in new debt on the average American household. Under CBO’s estimate, if some programs become permanent, this would skyrocket to $26,600 per American household.
- Failed Logic: In his first 100 days, President Obama will have quadrupled the budget deficit he inherited while pledging to cut it in half, which would still leave a deficit double the size it was in January 2009.
- And Even More Debt: In his first 100 days, President Obama proposed a budget that would dump a staggering $9.3 trillion in new debt—$68,000 per household—into the laps of American children. This is more debt than has been accumulated by all previous Presidents in American history combined.
It Does Not Grow on Trees
- Spending Cuts: In his first 100 days, President Obama recognized out-of-control government spending and demanded that his cabinet identify $100 million in administrative spending cuts, this after proposing a $3.69 trillion budget and signing a $787 billion stimulus bill and a $410 billion omnibus spending bill.
- What $100 Million Means to You: Cutting $100 million from the annual budget is equivalent to a family of four earning $40,000 a year cutting one dollar from its budget or paying off one dollar on $11,000 of credit card debt.
- There Was Another Choice: In his first 100 days, President Obama could have embraced tax relief policies that have proven successful and rejected unprecedented and shockingly large spending increases that have spawned tea party movements across the nation.
- There Is Still Time: President Obama should freeze stimulus spending planned for 2010 and beyond, when the recession is expected to be over and place a moratorium on earmarks until the system can be cleaned up.