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10 More Things Every American Should Know About President Obama’s Job-Killing Budget
Washington,
February 3, 2010
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Staff
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Fiscal Responsibility
Courtesy of House Republican Leader John Boehner's blog:
Just days after telling Congress “let’s try common sense” when it comes to budgeting, President Obama submitted a fiscal blueprint that doesn’t even try. At a time when the American people are saying “stop spending money we don’t have,” President Obama’s budget spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much. It’s just the job-killing budget Washington Democrats need to pay for their job-killing agenda. Republicans continue to stand on principle and offer better solutions to make government live within its means, including real budget caps that would limit federal spending on an annual basis. Yesterday, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) released a list of 10 things every American should know about President Obama’s job-killing budget. Here are 10 more: JOB-KILLING TAXES: SMALL BUSINESS TAX HIKES, NEW MARRIAGE PENALTIES 1. President Obama’s job-killing budget will hammer small businesses, which create most of our economy’s new jobs. The President’s budget imposes “host of tax increases” as our economy continues to struggle. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, 44 percent of the $588 billion collected from increased marginal rates and limiting the value of exemptions and deductions will be on small business income. The last thing American families and small businesses need right now are new taxes that make it harder to save, invest, and hire. 2. President Obama’s job-killing budget creates a number of new marriage penalties. By setting the income threshold for higher taxes on married couples far less than twice that of single taxpayers, the President’s budget creates a number of new marriage penalties. Specifically, the income thresholds of $200,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for married couples mean higher taxes on married couples simply for being married. The President’s budget also proposes marriage penalties for higher marginal tax rates, reduced value of deductions and exemptions, and higher taxes on capital gains and dividends. 3. President Obama’s job-killing budget limits a key tax incentive for charitable giving. The President’s budget again proposes to limit the value of deductions and exemptions for taxpayers with incomes above $200,000. This change increases the cost of charitable giving and therefore reduces the amount donated. Last year, more than 400 United Way CEOs and key volunteers sent a letter to Congressional leaders protesting the proposed cap: “We are very concerned that limitations on charitable giving tax incentives could further reduce charitable contributions. Even the most conservative projects by supporters of a charitable deduction cap indicate a 1.5 percent reduction in overall charitable giving. Our internal projections individuate a decrease in giving to United Way of $104 million as a result of the proposed cap on charitable deductions.” With communities and families struggling to make ends meet, any proposal to limit charitable contributions is ill-timed. MORE HEALTH CARE FALLOUT: MEDICARE CUTS, UNFUNDED MEDICAID MANDATES 4. President Obama’s job-killing budget creates a new entitlement program by cutting Medicare. President Obama’s budget would fund a brand new entitlement program by making significant cuts to Medicare. As has been shown by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and actuaries at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, these cuts cannot be used to both fund a new entitlement program and make Medicare more solvent. 5. President Obama’s job-killing budget forces cash-strapped states to pick up the tab for more Medicaid spending. President Obama’s budget projects $3.6 trillion in Medicaid spending over the next ten years, but fails to account for the increased Medicaid spending that will accompany enactment of the Democrats’ government takeover of health care. Failing to budget for expanding Medicaid leaves states responsible for picking up the entire tab of extending Medicaid coverage to an additional 15 million people at a time when cash-strapped states are already struggling to maintain tight budgets. It’s no wonder, then, that a state-by-state revolt against a Washington takeover of health care is gaining steam: “[l]awmakers in 35 states have filed or proposed amendments to their state constitutions or statutes rejecting health insurance mandates,” according to the Associated Press. OUT-OF-TOUCH: KILLING SCHOOL CHOICE IN DC, REJECTING JOB-CREATING ENERGY EXPLORATION, IMPORTING DANGEROUS TERRORISTS 6. President Obama’s job-killing budget does away with school choice in the nation’s capital. Even with all the profligacy that the FY 2011 budget represents, the President still finds room to kill one of the most successful and important programs enacted by Congress: the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program. Based on current program participation rates and the amount of available program funding carried forward from prior fiscal years, the President assumes that this will be the final request for federal funding to support the Opportunity Scholarship Program. The President is calling for this program’s termination despite the fact that the Department of Education is getting another massive injection of taxpayer money. In other words, the Administration is boosting funding for underachieving public schools in DC, while at the same time terminating funding for the successful DC school choice program. 7. President Obama's budget rebuffs responsible, homegrown, job-creating offshore energy exploration. As part of an “all of the above” energy plan, Republicans successfully eliminated the ban on exploration and production of American energy in the deep water off our coasts in 2008. Despite the fact that a majority of Americans – 68 percent – favor more offshore energy production, the Obama Administration has sat on the sidelines and done nothing to finalize a new five-year plan to reap new American energy from these areas of the deep ocean. The budget confirms it: President Obama has no intention to increase domestic energy from these areas by anticipating no new leasing activity. 8. President Obama’s job-killing budget paves the way for dangerous terrorists to be imported to U.S. soil. Consistent with its handling of the Christmas Day terrorist attack, President Obama’s budget sustains a commitment to import dangerous terrorists to America for criminal trial and detention. The budget also strikes a common-sense requirement that Guantanamo Bay detainees be automatically placed on the “no fly list.” MORE OF THE SAME: NO GSE REFORM, FUNNELING TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO MOSCOW 9. President Obama’s job-killing budget fails to provide promised reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Despite costing American taxpayers more than $110 billion and putting taxpayers on the hook for over $2 trillion in potential losses, the budget does nothing to address the sustainability of GSEs or to mitigate the liability represented by GSEs to taxpayers. The Obama Administration promised recommendations on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the FY2011 budget but instead delivered only a rhetorical placeholder. 10. President Obama’s job-killing budget saddles taxpayers with an open-ended commitment to sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Russia for astronaut airfare. President Obama’s budget shelves NASA’s Constellation program, a program the U.S. has already invested $9.1 billion in and will have to spend another $2.5 billion just to terminate. The real story, however, lies not in the termination itself, but rather in the fact that it ensures American taxpayers will now be saddled with an open-ended commitment to sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Russia for airfare to get U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station. In fact, $735 million is already en route to Moscow for flights in 2010-2012. |