Obama's big budget, and deficit

last updated 8 January 2015

What happened

President Obama unveiled his first budget on Thursday, proposing a radical change of course that would begin paying for new spending on health and education by raising taxes on the rich and slashing farm subsidies. The spending plan would hike the deficit Obama inherited for the current fiscal year from $1 trillion to $1.7 trillion. (The New York Times)

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

"Republicans will call it big-spending," said Andrew Leonard in Salon. "They will be correct." As the Journal notes, a $1.75 trillion deficit represents a "whopping" 12.3 percent of GDP, which hasn't happened since World War II. But now it's clear that any progressive who still thinks Obama "is aiming too low or hewing too close to the middle needs to seriously consider some aggressive psychotherapy."

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox