Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The problem with the Democrat's budget


     Recently, the Democrats passed a new budget that raises taxes by 1 trillion dollars over the next 10 years, but does little to cut domestic programs, and does almost nothing to cut entitlements. This is clearly not a balanced approach. Even if they did cut entitlements and domestic programs, which they are not, there is still a problem with this budget, a number problem. Earlier, the president asked for $1.5 trillion in tax revenue. The Democrats $600 billion. Now, the are asking for a additional $1 trillion dollars, raising the total to about $100 billion dollars more than he asked for. If we were to take Obama's compromise tax increase, a more reasonable 1.2 trillion dollars in tax increases, it would be $400 billion more than he asked for. This is a unreasonable, unbalanced plan, that seems to be a political budget rather than a practical one.


      However, the Republicans are not with out blame either. They are not willing to raise any more tax revenue. Boehner asked for $800 billion in tax revenue in his plan, and $600 billion ended up taking affect. By refusing to raise taxes, there will be $200 billion less in revenue increases than his own plan. They are also unwilling to cut any defense spending, although in their defense, $500 billion was cut in the sequester.

     What I'm trying to get across is that these days, the media (except for FOX news, which is biased) seems to blame much of the lack of compromise over deficit reduction on the Republicans. Although this is accurate to an extent, the Democrats are also responsible.

   









http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2011/09/19/obama-wants-1-5-trillion-in-tax-hikes-mostly-on-rich/

http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/23/senate-gives-pre-dawn-ok-to-democratic-budget/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/02/politics/fiscal-cliff

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100322887

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/02/boehner-gop-willing-to-raise-800-billion-in-tax-revenue/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/26/the-case-for-the-sequesters-defense-cuts/ 

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