Obama Budget

Obama Budget remember America is broke we have no money we have to borrow money from countries that do not like us. But we are going to spend more money instead of doing what you or I would do suck it up tighten your belt and save money but with the Obama Budget we are spending money like no time in history.
My View on how the new White House is Doing


President Obama’s new budget blueprint estimates a stunning deficit of $1.75 trillion for the current fiscal year, which began five months ago, then lays out a wrenching change of course as he seeks to finance his own priorities while stanching the flow of red ink.

By redirecting enormous streams of deficit spending toward programs like health care, education and energy, and paying for some of it through taxes on the rich, pollution surcharges, and cuts in such inviolable programs as farm subsidies, the $3.55 trillion spending plan Mr. Obama is undertaking signals a radical change of course that Congress has yet to endorse.

The deficit he inherited, a shortfall of more than $1 trillion as the current fiscal year began, has continued to swell in recent months with additional bank bailouts, the first wave of spending from a newly enacted stimulus plan and the continuing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The administration, as it had announced, will try to cut that amount sharply by 2013, when Mr. Obama’s first term ends, to $533 billion, even as it escalates spending on crucial priorities.

“There are times when you can afford to redecorate your house,” Mr. Obama said on Thursday morning as he released an outline of the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in October, “and there are times when you have to focus on rebuilding its foundation.”

His administration will attempt to close the large fiscal gap even while starting a major health-care initiative intended to substantially extend coverage; to do so, it foresees increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans and using revenue from a new program: selling carbon credits to manufacturers as part of a cap-and-trade plan meant to slow climate change.

Further savings would come from such items as a proposal to phase out government payments to crop producers making more than $500,000. Additional revenues are posited from a tightening of tax-code enforcement.

"Having inherited a trillion-dollar deficit that will take a long time for us to close, we need to focus on what we need to move the economy forward, not on what’s nice to have," Mr. Obama said. The budget plan projects the deficit falling to $1.17 trillion in 2010 and down to Mr. Obama’s goal of $533 billion in 2013, then increasing again to $712 billion by 2019. Mr. Obama takes credit for $2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, three quarters of which comes from lower expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan and most of the rest from tax increases on the wealthy and revenues from a market-based cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

The forecasts are also founded on optimistic assumptions that the recession will end by next year and quickly produce stronger growth than was seen in the last decade. After the economy shrinks this year, the Obama team assumes that the gross domestic product adjusted for inflation will increase by 3.2 percent next year and then 4 percent or more the following three years, a rate nearly twice the average of the Bush years.

The budget projects slightly lower spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to $130 billion in the 2010 fiscal year, then a much larger drop beginning in fiscal 2011, when Mr. Obama wants to have combat forces out of Iraq. The basic military budget in 2010 would be $534 billion in 2010.

Mr. Obama promised to include the full costs of the wars in all his budgets, saying that because of “dishonest accounting” past budgets have “not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent. Large sums have been left off the books, including the true cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The deficit, which at 12.3 percent of gross domestic product is expected to touch its highest level since 1945, could grow this year if the economy worsens significantly and a new infusion of capital into distressed banks is ordered; the administration has estimated that this might call for adding $250 billion to the cost of the bailout already approved by Congress.

"No part of my budget will be free from scrutiny or untouched by reform," Mr. Obama said, in a nod to critics who have suggested that the economic rescue package includes runaway waste.

"I don’t think that we can continue on our current course," he added.

Republicans quickly signaled deep skepticism about President Obama’s approach. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican whip, said Democrats should not “spend imaginary money” or increase taxes at a difficult moment.

“It is not just misguided but dangerous to raise taxes on small businesses and families that can’t afford to pay them,” Mr. Cantor said. “In fact, a majority of those penalized by the proposed tax increase in this budget are small businesses.”

The new proposal for the coming fiscal year and beyond includes many ambitious and costly programs that would have to be approved by Congress, including some that Republicans and fiscal hawks are likely to oppose.

The tax proposal to help pay for health care, coming after recent years in which wealth has become more concentrated at the top of the income scale, introduces a politically volatile edge to the Congressional debate over Mr. Obama’s domestic priorities.

The president also proposed, in the 10-year budget outline he released Thursday, to use revenues from the centerpiece of his environmental policy — a plan under which companies must buy permits to exceed pollution emission caps — to pay for an extension of a two-year tax credit that benefits low-wage and middle-income people.

The combined effect of the two revenue-raising proposals, on top of Mr. Obama’s existing plan to roll back the Bush-era income tax reductions on households with income exceeding $250,000 a year, would be a pronounced move to redistribute wealth by reimposing a larger share of the tax burden on corporations and the most affluent taxpayers.

Universal health care is worth that price, Mr. Obama said.

"We must make it a priority to give every single American quality, affordable health care," he said. "With this budget we are making a historic commit to comprehensive health-care reform."

The officials said the increase in revenues, estimated at $318 billion over 10 years, would account for about half of a $634 billion “reserve fund” that Mr. Obama will set aside in his budget to address changes in the health care system. The other half would come from proposed cost savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs.

In a document summarizing its proposals, the White House said it would finance coverage for the uninsured in part by “rebalancing the tax code so that the wealthiest pay more.”

To narrow the deficits, the president proposed $636.7 billion in tax increases on the wealthy over the next 10 years, largely by reversing tax cuts passed by President George W. Bush on taxpayers who make $200,000 or more, or $250,000 for married couples. The top income tax bracket would return to 39.6 percent from 36 percent and capital gains and dividends for those over the income limits would be taxed at 20 percent.

The White House also proposed tax provisions that would raise $353.5 billion over 10 years by repealing credits and reductions for oil and gas companies, toughening tax collections and other changes in tax law.

On the other side of the ledger, Mr. Obama would cut taxes for lower- and middle-class Americans by $770.1 billion over 10 years and for businesses by $149.4 billion.

Among the most challenging areas for reducing spending are in the Pentagon’s accounts, which have been running at record levels as the wars continue, the military expands, and the costs of building new weapons escalates.

While the budget outline requests a small increase in basic military spending, the Obama administration has made it clear that it intends to shift some of the money from huge cold war-style weapons systems to smaller programs focused on fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and new threats to the nation’s cybersecurity.

Internal debate over which programs to cut is still so intense that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has taken the unusual step of requiring even the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to sign agreements not to leak the details. But some clues have emerged, and military consultants say it seems clear that expensive missile defense systems and parts of the Army’s vast modernization effort will be cut back. Some also say that plans for a new Navy destroyer are likely to be scrapped.

In the short term, the White House said it would ask Congress in coming weeks for another $75.5 billion for the wars on top of the $65.9 billion already approved to get through the rest of the current fiscal year. It builds $130 billion in expenses for the wars into the 2010 fiscal plan but keeps it separate from the base Pentagon budget.

Beyond the assumption that cost of the wars fall over the next decade, the budget blueprint outlines few cuts in big-ticket spending. The most significant involve paring agricultural subsidies for wealthier farmers and eliminating intermediary costs for student loan programs. The blueprint also projects $316 billion in savings over 10 years from increasing efficiency and competitive bidding in Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Few individual departments, though, will see their budgets actually go down in 2010. Just 3 of the 15 cabinet departments will be cut from 2009 to 2010 — Energy, Health and Human Services and Justice. But energy and health are also getting huge infusions of money from the $787 billion economic recovery legislation just signed into law.

The State Department gets the biggest increase, rising from $36.7 billion this year to $51.7 billion next year, although Mr. Obama will not be able to keep his promise to double foreign aid.

The Obama budget promises a comprehensive effort to address global warming, slash oil imports and create a new “green” economy that produces millions of new jobs. The White House estimates that the effort, built around a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gas emissions, will produce $150 billion over 10 years beginning in 2012 to finance renewable energy projects and potentially hundreds of billions of dollars more that will be returned to families, communities and businesses that suffer hardship as the result of higher energy prices.

However, Congress is in the early stages of debating global warming legislation program, and any revenue from it is still largely speculative.

The Department of Energywill have much more to spend, thanks in part to money from the stimulus package for research, weatherization programs and modernization of the electric grid this year and beyond. Also included in the current year are several billion dollars in aid for American automakers to design and build high-mileage cars. The Department of Interior budget grows slowly, with new money for park maintenance, endangered species protection and renewable energy projects.

At the Environmental Protection Agency, the budget projects a 34 percent spending increase for 2010, with much of the money devoted to clean water projects, a Great Lakes restoration program and across-the-board increases for regulation, research and enforcement.

Because utilities and other businesses would presumably pass on the costs of carbon payments to customers, Mr. Obama will propose to use most of the revenue from the greenhouse gas emission permits to finance an extension of the new “Making Work Pay” tax credit beyond the two years covered in the economic recovery plan.

That tax relief, the administration will argue, will offset households’ higher costs for utilities and other products and services from businesses’ passing on their permit expenses.

That tax credit will annually provide $400 to low-wage and middle-income workers or $800 to couples; Mr. Obama would like to increase those figures to $500 and $1,000. The credit phases out for those with incomes above $75,000 a year and for couples with incomes of more than $150,000; no benefit would go to individuals with more than $100,000 income and couples with $200,000.

The tax credit will begin showing up in the form of lower withholding for eligible workers beginning April 1.

The remainder of the projected revenue from the permits will finance Mr. Obama’s campaign promise to provide $15 billion a year over 10 years to subsidize research and development of alternative energy sources, officials said. The stimulus package included a multibillion-dollar down payment to develop a national electricity grid to harness and distribute energy from such sources, including wind farms.

Behind the numbers in Mr. Obama’s first budget is one of the most far-reaching domestic agendas in years, and at a time when the president and Congress are already grappling with an economic crisis worse than any in decades. The environmental permits would not take effect until 2012, at which point the administration expects the economy to have recovered. Similarly, some of the tax increases would not take effect until 2011.
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Source:NYT

Obama Speech To Congress Stocks Retreat

Stocks Retreat After Obama Speech To Congress
Evelyn Rusli, 02.25.09, 11:30 AM EST
This is a transcript of the Market Update: Midday video report.

Stocks retreated on Wednesday, with the Street looking for direction from Washington. President Obama's Tuesday night Obama Speech To Congress failed to move the needle on Wall Street; meanwhile, investors are watching Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's meeting with the House Financial Services Committee.

Regulators are expected to begin stress tests of the nation's major banks to determine how much capital, if any, they need.

The housing sector digested yet another disappointing report. Existing-home sales fell 5.3% to 4.49 million, coming in below economists' expectations.

American International Group (nyse: AIG - news - people ) may have lost a suitor for its $20 billion Asian life-insurance unit. According to reports, U.K. firm Prudential is unlikely to make a bid by Friday's deadline, leaving Manulife and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings in the running.

Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ) is also said to be mulling a sale of a key Asian asset, its Japanese bank, Nikko Citigroup. The firm has already put the Nikko Cordial brokerage unit up for sale, but now reports suggest it may bundle both units to raise even more cash. Obama Speech To Congress

On the earnings docket, it appears the cash-strapped consumer may be avoiding pricier meals for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Jam-maker J.M. Smucker (nyse: SJM - news - people ) said profits were up 84% in its third quarter. Even so, the Ohio-based company lowered its 2009 guidance because of higher costs and lower demand for peanut butter following a product recall.

Bond insurer Ambac Financial Group (nyse: ABK - news - people ) recorded a $2.3 billion fourth-quarter loss Wednesday, after setting aside more than $1 billion for mortgage losses.
Source:Forbes

Rick Santelli and the "Rant of the Year"

Rick Santelli of CNBC tells it like it is about the Stimulus Package rewarding bad behavior.

If you pay your bills on time and act responsible toward your income and do everything right you do not get any money. But if you overreach and spend more then you make then you will get some money. That is how we got into this mess in the first place.

Obama Foreclosure

Obama Foreclosure

Obama's foreclosure fix on the way
The president is set Wednesday to unveil plans to stem foreclosures and stabilize housing. Loan modifications and help for those near default are expected.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Obama administration officials are hammering out the details of a $50 billion foreclosure prevention program that the president is set to unveil Wednesday in Arizona, sources said.

Details remain scarce, but officials are looking to help homeowners who are in danger of defaulting on their mortgages, as well as those already behind, according to sources close to the discussions. Until now, most government and industry efforts have centered only on the delinquent.

The administration is under intense pressure to find a solution to the housing crisis, which many experts say is crucial to reviving the overall economy. More than a million homes are already in foreclosure, and more than 2 million more are expected to succumb this year. Obama has long promised that his fix will go beyond the steps taken by his predecessor.

The multipart plan will for the first time commit government money to spur loan modifications. One likely component will be interest-rate subsidies for at-risk borrowers, with the government matching the servicer's rate reduction. Borrowers would have to take an affordability test to see whether they could handle the monthly payment on the reworked loan.

"Our focus will be on using the full resources of the government to help bring down mortgage payments and to reduce mortgage interest rates," Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said last week as he announced the administration's financial stability plan.

The administration is also expected to ramp up loan modifications of borrowers in default. These modifications would lower monthly payments to more affordable terms - often 31% to 38% of gross monthly income - through reducing interest rates or lengthening the loan's term.

Several mortgage servicers, as well as mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, already have implemented loan modification programs with mixed success. The administration would likely require all banks receiving bailout money to implement such plans.

While the administration has not said much so far, industry executives and housing advocates are hoping Wednesday's announcement will contain a detailed and comprehensive fix for the foreclosure crisis. Geithner came under heavy fire last week for unveiling few specifics in the long-awaited financial stability plan, the successor to the Bush administration's $700 billion financial industry bailout.
Source:CNN

Temporary Credit For Home Buyers

Temporary Credit For Home Buyers

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Now it's time to make a deal on economic stimulus: Key members of the Senate and House are in talks to craft a final bill. They hope to reach an agreement ASAP.

Whatever they come up with, there's a good chance it will closely resemble the version passed Tuesday by the Senate.

The Senate provisions carry more weight because the Senate, unlike the House, cannot pass a final package without the support of a few Republicans. Only three Republicans voted for the Senate bill. Should the final package's cost or contents be substantially different, those Republican votes could be lost.

So using the Senate as a guide, we took a look at what the financial rescue package might mean for you.

Here's a rundown of many of the measures that would benefit individuals directly. It's likely that many, if not all, of these measures will make it into the final package. CNNMoney.com will update this list as negotiators hammer out a final deal.

Make Work Pay Credit: The bill provides a $500 credit per worker and a $1,000 credit per dual-earner couple. The full credit would be paid to people making $70,000 or less ($140,000 per dual-earner couple). It would also be refundable, which means that even very low-income families who don't make enough to owe income tax would be able to claim it. Estimated cost: $139.4 billion.

One-time payments to those who don't work: For seniors who don't work, as well as disabled veterans and retired railroad workers, the bill provides a one-time $300 payment. Estimated cost: $17 billion.

Break for higher income families: The bill includes a one-year provision to protect middle- and upper-middle-income families from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT was intended primarily for high-income taxpayers but has in recent years threatened to engulf those lower down the income scale. Estimated cost: $70 billion.

Temporary credit for car buyers: The bill would let those who buy a car in 2009 deduct the interest they pay on their car loan as well as the sales tax charged in the purchase. The full deduction would be available to those earning less than $125,000 ($250,000 for joint filers). Estimated cost: $11 billion.

Temporary credit for home buyers: The bill doubles the size of an existing temporary home buyer credit to $15,000. It also would allow all home buyers to claim it. And it removes the requirement under current law that the credit be paid back. Estimated cost: $39 billion.

New college credit: The bill introduces the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a $2,500 credit for higher education expenses. The full credit would be available to those making less than $80,000 ($160,000 for joint filers). Estimated cost: $10.3 billion.

Pell Grants: The bill increases the maximum Pell Grant by $281 in the 2009-10 academic year and by $400 in the 2010-11 academic year. Estimated cost: $14 billion.

Child care credit: The bill increases eligibility for the child care tax credit by lowering the income threshold that must be met to $8,100. That will allow lower income families to claim more of the credit. Estimated cost: $7.2 billion.

Earned income tax credit: The credit will be temporarily increased from 40% to 45% of qualifying earnings for low-income families with three or more children. It also includes a marriage penalty relief provision for couples who qualify for at least a portion of the credit. Estimated cost: $4.6 billion.
Direct lifeline benefits

Health insurance help for the jobless: The bill includes provisions to help eligible jobless workers pay for health insurance under Cobra. Cobra coverage allows newly laid off workers to keep health insurance provided by their former employers for a period of time.

One of the provisions offers a government subsidy -- 50% of premiums for 12 months -- to help out-of-work Americans pay for healthcare. Estimated cost: $20 billion.

Another provides states funding to help pay for expanded Medicaid rolls for workers who've lost their jobs and can't afford health care on their own or can't get Cobra coverage because their former employer doesn't offer a health care plan. Estimated cost: $87 billion.

Unemployment benefits: The bill provides jobless workers with an additional 20 weeks in unemployment benefits, and 13 weeks on top of that if they live in what's deemed a high unemployment state, of which there are about 30 currently. Estimated cost: $27 billion.

In addition, the weekly unemployment benefit will temporarily increase by $25 on top of the roughly $300 jobless workers currently receive. Estimated cost: $8.8 billion

Plus, the first $2,400 of benefits in 2009 would be exempt from federal income taxes. Estimated cost: $4.7 billion.

Also included in the bill is an incentive for states to provide unemployment insurance coverage for part-time workers and for workers who quit their jobs for compelling family reasons. Estimated cost: up to $2.6 billion.

Food stamp payments: The bill includes a provision would increase food stamp payments by 12%, so a family of four would see an additional $71 on top of the $588 per month they receive currently. Estimated cost: $16.5 billion.

Help for needy families: The bill provides $2.3 billion to states to create a contingency fund through 2010 for the welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides cash assistance to the needy. Estimated cost: $2.3 billion.

Temporary Credit For Home Buyers Source:CNN

Americans for Prosperity Railing Against President Obama with No Stimulus Plan

This is not change this is an outrage, this is politics as usual and obama says the republicans are playing games "politics as usal". Why are the republicans playing they are not they are trying to stop a bill that will tax generations to come.

According to obama if you do not pass this bill then you are playing the usal politics and I will go on TV and tell the US that you are keeping them out of work and use scare tactics to pass a bill.

Americans For Prosperity is a Washington D.C. based political advocacy group that runs with the slogan that they are
Organization 'Americans for Prosperity' Railing Against President Obama with 'No Stimulus' Plan
Prosperity) is currently waging a battle of words against President Obama's new economic stimulus package, finding fault with a lot of the wording an allocation of funds. The AFP has started up a "No stimulus" petition, all with the idea of shedding more light on the stimulus bill itself.

There are some key issues that have the AFP railing against this new stimulus package, and at the forefront is their belief that this is just throwing too much money after a bad idea. While they do feel that the U.S. Government needs to step up and do something, a stimulus package spending anywhere from $750 to $900 billion in this fashion is not the way to go in their opinion. The plan seems wasteful in their eyes. The AFP also doesn't agree with a lot of the additions to the stimulus bill that have taken the focus away from what is going on in the economy and has begun to look like another bail-out for mismanaged funds.

Another reason why the Americans for Prosperity are against this stimulus package is that more of the money needs to actually be going into the pockets of Americans. Rather than supporting different entities within the stimulus bill that can support agencies of departments that are already funded by the Government, the AFP would rather see Americans directly getting the cash. By putting more of the stimulus money directly in the hands of tax-payers, it could really step up the value of such a bill.

In order to get their message across, the Americans for Prosperity has even built a web-site called NoStimulus.com where people can sign a petition to show that they oppose the big Government spending that could take place in the new economic stimulus package. One of the big things that the AFP is pressing, is that it isn't too late to put down this stimulus package, and that it can still be fixed to actually help people. In its current form though, the AFP is strongly against the economic stimulus bill.

Soource"AC"