He Doesn't Get It

The President gave a speech on the budget he thinks they will need for 2010 .... according to the Prez we will need $3.83T Budget!!!

He of course blamed it all on the previous Republican presidents, bringing up the "surplus" but I heard this weekend that that was a projected surplus but it never came to fruition ... there really wasn't a surplus at all ... but he isn't mentioning that ....

nor does he mention that the reason we had such a projected surplus was because people were getting taxed to death! It was cheaper to stay at home that work to pay taxes for us - trust me, I remember this well. We were taxed high with promises of free college, free health insurance, free sunshine ... hey, that sounds familiar only they want to charge you for the sunshine these days.

He blamed the high deficit we are in now on the Drug Program that helped senior citizens pay for their medication ... on tax cuts - which he said were only for the wealthy, but many of the middle class were helped as well .... and claimed they funded two wars without paying for it -- well that's not true either. and Health care costs -- can someone tell me how rising health care costs effect the spending of congress? Medicare/-aid tells the dr/hospital what they are paying for the treatment and they have to accept it - that's it, so there is no huge cost the government needs to take on for it.

he mentioned the job loses - and very deftly lumped it into a 2-yr timeline so he wouldn't have to mention exactly how many of those were since he was elected (since it really started to tank after election night and not after inauguration) ... about 7 million jobs (also no saying how many of them were temporary jobs anyways)

he did mention the spending to help shore up the banks & such to keep the economy going (you remember during the campaign when he didn't want to take time off to help figure out what to do?) ... but he didn't mention that the "spending bill" (stimulus package) was more money and has shown less return for the dollar.

He is placing the blame for the trouble financial crisis on the rich ... but he doesn't mention people who simply bought more than they could ever pay back. While yes there was some preditory lenders ... most followed the guidelines and it was the borrowers who let things get so bad ...

then there was Obama himself who told people, or I should say people got the impression (because he may not have meant for them to) that if he got in then the Government was going to save these people from loosing their house .... but that's not what is happening, nor should it in most cases. But yes there was some money that went to people to stay in their homes - and then there was the program to give refund checks to First Time Home Buyers ....

there's already a program to help first timers get extra low interest rates, and the qualifications & penelities are very specific ... about how long you need to live there, who you can & can not sell the house to while under this bubble, if they can assume the mortgage or not, etc etc.

What does Obama want to do?

Tax cuts to people who invest in small businesses ... but he doesn't specify if this means owners like my father, workers with stock in the company like my husband, or lenders who help them meet their bills, ie banks.

Tax Credits for small businesses who hire new workers ... so lets see, they will get a 5,000 tax credit lets say ... but they hire a worker (I'm assuming the prez meant FT work) at $19,000/yr to start (about $9/hr) ... after workman's comp, Soc Sec. contributions from the company side, insurance, and other hidden costs that people generally don't know about ... that one employee will cost about $35,000/yr to the small business. How will a "tax credit" help them?

Investments that will repair roads & bridges .... okay - this is union work, and only union work. While you can get a day job thru your city/county/state to clean trash on the side of the road ... construction work is unioned. How does this help the AVERAGE worker??

Tax Breaks for retrofitting homes to save energy ... (a)not all homes can be retrofitted for new windows/furnaces/water heaters/etc. ours cant - not without costing $100,000 ... (b) "tighter" houses have been linked to a rise in radon gas poisonings and possibly carbon monoxide poisonings as well. You want a totally "green" house? made a sod hut ... they are made completely of renewable resources.

6% increase in education k-12 .... how about the federal government just give the schools the money you owe them now instead of saying you are going to give them more. Time and again we here districts say that if the federal government would just give them the money promised to pay for the goverment-mandated programs then they would be doing just fine.
It also has to be said that the new money is tied to achievement .... in other words - its "No Child Left Behind" in a new package ... and it means MORE tests for your children.

He also wants to reinstate the student loan programs by the sounds of it --- I wish they DID have something like the GSL (Guarentteed Student Loans) program for kids these days. it sure would help my kids ... we can't afford to send them, but we make too much for them to get funding.

He is cutting:
a program that helps people get their Earn Income Tax Credit in advanced ... 80% of the people who went thru the program didn't really qualify for the EITC to begin with. okay - that would be a good thing.

he is cutting money to the Defense department so they can't get more C-17 transport planes, becuase they already have what they originally requested .... can someone please explain to him that you need extras in case something happens to the first ones, and that you also need to buy parts to fix the planes??? and that planes need a LOT of replacement parts as opposed to the average car??

He directed people to budget.gov to read the budget more deeply.

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Okay - one of the experts who commented on the speech/remarks made an interesting observation ...

the American government's budget is based on a single idea:
reward those who won't work
penalize those who will/do work

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another expert points out that what he proposes is actually robbing Peter to pay Paul ... he says he is cutting $20 billion from this program, but then he is spending that same $20billion plus some on another program.

she also pointed out that when it comes down to it -- its Congress which will pass the budget and he really has no say ... and they like the pork barrel spending.

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MY feelings:
Obama is already running for the next election. he has done a really good job at keeping people looking at and hearing what he wants them to. He carefully parses his words to put himself in the best light .... so he isn't going to tell you the complete truth ... nor is his website ...

but really ...

go look at the budget YOURSELF...