Obama's budget plan shows a boldness deficit
The president ignored his own commission's spending-cut recommendations. Now, it's up to the House GOP to show leadership
When Barack Obama ran for the presidency in 2007 and 2008, he insisted that the country needed bold change and leadership, not experience and an executive track record. Obama said that his vision and representation of "hope and change" would solve America’s problems, especially the economic woes that he blamed on George W. Bush and the Republicans. Obama sailed into office on the claim that only he had the courage to change the way Washington conducts its business.
Instead, with the release of his proposed Fiscal Year 2012 budget today, Obama has shown himself to be a business-as-usual insider at heart — and his political opponents as the true agents of real change and courage.
Recall that Obama formed a presidential commission tasked with developing a plan to tackle national debt and ongoing budget deficits, projected to reach $12 trillion in the next ten years, according to The Hill's report last night. His National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform was authorized to examine all federal spending, including the entitlements that are driving most of the deficit problem. The bipartisan panel, headed by former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, presented a tough and unpopular plan (it failed even to win support from all panel members) that would have cut roughly $4 trillion in deficit spending during the next ten years. Even those cuts would have reduced deficit spending by only 33 percent during the decade.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The first hint that Obama would ignore the results of his own blue-ribbon panel came during the State of the Union speech last month. Obama barely mentioned the panel itself, stating that the notion of cutting non-security discretionary spending alone was insufficient. He didn't bother to mention any of the panel's recommendations, and only mentioned the word "cuts" six times in the speech. Two of those referenced tax cuts — one bragging about his own and the other complaining about the Bush-era tax cuts.
Today, the other shoe dropped. Obama's new budget proposal will cut $1.1 trillion from budget deficits during the next ten years, less than 10 percent of the total projected debt during that period. The debt commission recommended a 33 percent reduction; instead, Obama has offered much less — nearly 75 percent less. The recommendations of Obama's panel still would have set federal spending on course to increase the national debt by $8 trillion over the next ten years, from the current $14 trillion debt level. That would represent about 157 percent of current GDP — well past the point where Greece went into crisis. Obama's new proposal will add almost $11 trillion to the debt, an increase of 79 percent, representing 179 percent of current GDP.
Contrast this with the actions of the freshman class of the House Republican Congress. The GOP's Midterm-campaign Pledge to America included a promise to cut $100 billion in spending during the 2011 budget cycle, which rested on the presumption that a heavily Democratic Congress and a Democratic President could actually pass a budget. When infighting held up the 2011 budget, House GOP leaders tried to pro-rate the spending cuts into the continuing resolution that would fund the rest of 2011, and came up with a figure of $32 billion, which amounted to less than 1 percent of the projected full year's budget.
Newly elected Republicans in the House revolted at the shrunken target. Speaker John Boehner lost two floor votes within days of each other, indicating a massive rebellion among the freshman class. The caucus went into emergency meetings and emerged with a much larger figure in hand: $100 billion in seven months of spending, equal to $170 billion in a year. That falls short of the $4 trillion reduction over ten years proposed by the debt commission, but it far outstrips the President’s meager average of $110 billion per year.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Obama's new budget proposal demonstrates a lack of leadership and initiative. A President looking to lead his nation to firmer fiscal footing would have used the debt commission report as a launching pad for a complete overhaul of the federal government and how it spends money, especially since the creation of the debt commission was intended to provide both the White House and Congress political cover to do just that. Instead, Obama watered down the proposal so much that it barely dents the debt trajectory at all.
It also exposes a boldness deficit. House Republicans managed to find those cuts within five weeks of taking control of Congress, without a debt commission to provide them political cover. Obama got outbid despite taking office over two years ago promising an end to business as usual. The incoming freshman class of the House Republican majority have taken the initiative, seizing the mantle that Obama has abdicated.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Edward Morrissey has been writing about politics since 2003 in his blog, Captain's Quarters, and now writes for HotAir.com. His columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Post, The New York Sun, the Washington Times, and other newspapers. Morrissey has a daily Internet talk show on politics and culture at Hot Air. Since 2004, Morrissey has had a weekend talk radio show in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and often fills in as a guest on Salem Radio Network's nationally-syndicated shows. He lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and his two granddaughters. Morrissey's new book, GOING RED, will be published by Crown Forum on April 5, 2016.
-
Baltimore bridge disaster: Who is going to pay and how?
Today's Big Question Politicians, legal experts, and the insurance industry are all grappling with the financial fallout of America's worst infrastructure tragedy in years
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The Week contest: Stick guitar
Puzzles and Quizzes
By The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Xi-Biden meeting: what's in it for both leaders?
Today's Big Question Two superpowers seek to stabilise relations amid global turmoil but core issues of security, trade and Taiwan remain
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published